A small religious cult calling themselves “Carbon Nation” have now been thrown out of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and on December 5th, out of Panama, for endangering and threatening the national security of those three countries. They were most recently operating in San Carlos province, in western Panama, 75 kilometers from Panama City. Their Carbon Nation leader Eligio Lee Bishop was arrested – he calls himself God – and allegedly requires cult members to surrender all their money, credit cards, bank accounts, and pin numbers, in order to worship with the group.

Panamanian National and Immigration Police apprehended three leaders of the group, along with 15 other members, including several children. When they were operating in Costa Rica, they were calling themselves “Melanation,” but Bishop was still known to his followers as “God”. The cult believes in nudism, polygamy, and refraining from bathing. They promote eating only a vegan diet, and defecating only at the base of trees. Bishop is a 37-year old American citizen, and was traveling with his female companion Velvet Gabriella Marquez and newborn infant Eliana Bishop Marquez.

At the time of his capture, Bishop was wanted internationally for crimes of sexual abuse and pedophilia. He has worked previously as a male model, gay stripper, exotic dancer, and sex worker. He was known while in Costa Rica as “Nature Boy”. He supports himself currently by making online music videos and life coaching tapes, supported by donations. His tagline is “Don’t Hate, Donate”.

Members of his cult who were apprehended on December 5, affirmed that they were “people of faith, who had voluntarily renounced their biological families to join the family of “God” Eligio Bishop. Some of them were with him when he tried to leave Costa Rica, and Spirit airlines would not let them board due to overwhelmingly bad body odor. Bishop turned the incident into a self -promotional videotape, promoting among other things, the supremacy of all black men. They were later flown out by American Airlines, after stating they had been living clean lives in the jungle sunlight, and had not eaten anything smelly for days.
There were no reports from Panamanian officials on how smelly the group was when they were deported this time, although several had overstayed their visas and were wanted for criminal activity back in the United States. They were also driving cars without proper licenses and permits.

Eligio Lee Bishop is not the first person to attempt a cult following in Costa Rica, but he certainly is one of the most interesting

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