Chile’s ‘Eagles of Jesus’ Movement Gains Political Influence
With a presence in 51 university campuses, legal personality as a religious ministry and links to political figures, Águilas de Jesús (Eagles of Jesus) has become one of the most influential evangelical movements in Chile. Closely linked to the Social Christian Party – now part of the coalition of the elected President José Antonio Kast – the movement has been active in public life for over two decades and already holds significant positions of power, including a minister.
Pastor Judith Marín (PSC) is slated to be the future Minister of Women and Gender Equity. She forged her political and religious leadership over a decade ago, while a student at the University of Santiago (Usach) and was part of the first generation of Águilas de Jesús there, after the movement originated in 2001 within the University of Concepción (UdeC). Héctor Muñoz, the current mayor of Concepción, also a pastor, became president of the Student Federation (FEC) in 2005.
The organization’s website, aguilasdejesus.cl, prominently features images of the UdeC campus.
Faith, Community, and Organization
A church in Puente Alto, described as blue and peeling, appears unassuming from the outside. There are no striking symbols or political posters, only an open door and the amplified sound of a choir repeating, “You are good, God is good.” It is 8 PM, and a new meeting of the “eagles” is beginning in one of the two churches regularly attended by Judith Marín, who is not present but is mentioned frequently. “Pastor Judith,” they call her.
Inside, the space is warmly lit with wooden walls. A blue curtain and a screen displaying song lyrics are at the back. Chairs are arranged for around 70 people, though only about 30 have arrived. Three young girls dressed in white dance in the center. Most attendees appear to know each other.
Pastor Dorita Olivera observes the scene, awaiting her turn to speak. “We are very close with the pastor. We work with a group of pastors, we are colleagues. She is a woman of God,” she said before the meeting, referring to Judith Marín. “We have shared with other public ministers. We believe she will truly represent us.”
The meeting progresses into a sermon lasting nearly two hours. A recurring analogy is spiritual malnutrition. “How many are inconsistent with spiritual service?” the speaker asks the audience. “We don’t need a messy house. We need a house where the presence of the Holy Spirit reigns.”
To understand this world, according to National Journalism Award winner María Olivia Mönckeberg, author of In the Name of Christ, Evangelical Power in Chile, it is necessary to abandon the idea of the evangelical church as limited to Sunday worship. “You have to understand that evangelicals, especially from Pentecostal movements, have a very intense community life. It’s not just going to church on Sunday. Children go to Sunday school, there are activities during the week, constant training. It’s a way of life,” she explains.
This growth has been steady since the mid-20th century. According to the 2024 Census, 16% of the Chilean population identifies as evangelical, with a higher concentration in the regions of La Araucanía, Biobío, Los Ríos, and the Metropolitan Region. It is in these territories that Águilas de Jesús has built its social base.
Concepción: Ground Zero
Águilas de Jesús was founded in 2001 at the University of Concepción by a group of evangelical students who would later gain political relevance: Francesca Muñoz, who would become the first evangelical deputy in the country; her husband Héctor Muñoz, now mayor of Concepción; Cynthia Leighton, a future regional secretary of Labor during the second government of Sebastián Piñera; and Antaris Varela, part of the movement’s first generation, figures who would later become linked to the PSC.
The first explicit connection to politics came in 2005, when Héctor Muñoz was elected president of the FEC, becoming the first evangelical to lead that organization and the first right-wing president of the FEC since the 1990s.
“I was very impressed to see on that campus, where even the MIR was born, signs like ‘Come with Jesus’ or ‘Get closer to Jesus’,” Mönckeberg recalls.
Águilas de Jesús began to expand to universities throughout the country, from the University of Tarapacá in Arica to Inacap in Punta Arenas.
Gabriel Fuentealba Beltrán, a former regional council candidate for the PSC and now national president of the College of Teachers and Professionals of Chile, was part of the first generation of Águilas de Jesús. “I come from Lota, a commune with a strong social and union identity, where the evangelical church has historically played a relevant role. In Concepción, I found an orderly, demanding, and connected to social reality Christian university ministry. It wasn’t an improvised group,” he says.
Practices included prayer, biblical training, personal accompaniment, and teamwork. The demands were high, especially for students who combined studies and work. “Emphasis was placed on character, discipline, and coherence between faith, study, and public life,” says Fuentealba.
The transition to politics was present from the beginning. “Participating in student federations required understanding public policies and institutional processes. It wasn’t about abandoning religion, but about assuming a citizen role,” says Fuentealba.
Flight to Santiago
The arrival of Águilas de Jesús in Santiago was not abrupt or massive. According to those involved, it was a gradual expansion, attempting to replicate the Concepción experience.
One milestone was the “346” campaign, aimed at generating communal presence nationwide through volunteering. 50,000 large posters with the message “Return to Christ” were installed in the country’s 346 communes.
In Santiago, the first traditional university where the movement arrived was the University of Santiago. Judith Marín was one of its founders, according to a statement she made to El Desconcierto: “We started five years ago with the work here at Usach and God spoke to us to move forward to other universities. Over the years we opened (Catholic University) with Germán, who is now an academic at a university in Arequipa.”
After that, she said, “then God told us to aim for the biggest fish in the country: the University of Chile. It was difficult because of the context and because no one was studying, but we managed to do it.”
Today, the movement has a presence in Santiago at the universities of Chile, Santo Tomás, Católica, Technological Metropolitan, Finis Terrae, and Santiago.
In the latter, in 2024, the “Unite for Change” list, entirely composed of students linked to the movement, obtained 17.45% of the votes in the student federation election.
According to Edgardo Mejía, a History student at the UC and leader of the University Bible Group, the difference between Águilas de Jesús and other evangelical university movements is not only doctrinal but structural. He explains that they function with a centralized logic and a trajectory that, in several cases, leads to the Social Christian Party.
“People start their political participation when they enter Águilas de Jesús during their university period and then integrate professionally into public policy through the Social Christian Party. That’s the pattern that repeats itself,” says Mejía.
Located in Renca, a commune near Santiago, is another key location: a church located next to a power line. It is the main headquarters of an apostolic network, which brings together various churches in the same circuit.
Public figures have participated in various activities here, including future First Lady María Pía Adriasola, who attended with Judith Marín and other councilors at a religious gathering. Former Minister Karla Rubilar has also been seen here on occasion.
Tuesdays are days of “intercession”: days dedicated exclusively to prayer. Attendance is usually low. Participants take turns at the microphone to offer petitions. When the pastor speaks, the message returns to recurring themes: family, marriage, moral order. “Why are there so many separations today? Because we didn’t ask the Lord,” he says.
Águilas de Jesús has not remained in one place. In addition to universities, they now have links with churches and evangelical networks abroad. They have founded two churches in Istanbul (Turkey) and another in Santa Fe (Spain). They also have a mission in France and sent a couple to Ukraine, where they say they “expect to start an evangelistic work in universities and establish a work to disciple and train new followers of Christ, thus extending God’s love in times of affliction.”
At the university level, they say they are in higher education institutions in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, and Spain, and in Chile their main headquarters is the “Reconcile with God” church, located on Maipú Street, in downtown Concepción.
