_{Photo: Victor Hernadez, accused}

by Charles Gladden

PUNTA GORDA, Toledo District, Wed. Sept. 18, 2024

A pastor from the Toledo District has been charged with rape and sexual assault following accusations by two women, and was arraigned today, Wednesday, September 18, in the magistrate’s court in Punta Gorda Town, in the Toledo District.

The pastor, 65-year-old Victor Wagner Hernandez, who leads the Toledo Faith Outreach Christian Center in Jacintoville in the Toledo District, has served as president of the National Evangelical Association of Belize (NEAB) since 2020.

When Hernandez was arraigned in court, he was charged with two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, and was granted bail due to his age.

As mentioned, accusations have been made against Hernandez by two women. One of them, a 38-year-old woman, has alleged that she was raped twice by Hernandez—in August 2015 and March 2016, and that one of those assaults took place in a store owned by the accused. The other accusation against him is that in 2021 he inappropriately touched a woman’s breast.

It has been reported that the 38-year-old victim did not report the matter to police in the immediate aftermath of the incidents due to fear, shame, trauma, and a desire to avoid making her family aware of what took place.

“I know that maybe about a year or two [ago] we came up and then two persons went in the south [and] investigated it, but then found out that the other party was not cooperating and didn’t want to do anything further, and the other person seemingly was not saying, ‘Yes, I did so and so’. There was no, definitely, ‘I did so and so’. It was just like an allegation that could not be confirmed,” said Lance Lewis, First Vice President of the NEAB.

He further mentioned that Hernandez has been removed from the NEAB’s governing body, and an interim president, who has not yet been named, will be appointed.

“We are in a fight these days. It’s a serious battle, and the battle was [with] leaders, and the battle is also among ourselves as individuals, where, if we are not carefully involved in so many things, we don’t have enough time to strengthen our spiritual lives, and that leaves the door open. Plus, we have to be very careful when we are getting ourselves involved. It can be seen; it’s exciting because it’s like, these days, they are very careful. It’s just one of the things that we see come in more; the immoral situation has increased dramatically, and that indeed means that the warfare is being waged at a high level,” Lewis remarked.

Hernandez must post bail of $10,000, with one surety of the same amount.