Santa Muerte
Posted on 01/09/2010 7:37:22 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
January 10, 2010
Mexican drug gangs worship Saint Death
As bloody feuds grip the traffickers, many are turning to a grim icon. Tony Allen-Mills reports from Ciudad Juarez
Tony Allen-Mills in Ciudad Juarez
/snip
First, her head had been crudely hacked off — a trademark cartel warning to rivals. Second, her torso bore a distinctive tattoo of a cackling skeleton dressed in suggestive female clothing.
Police recognised it at once as Santa Muerte — best translated as Saint Death, a macabre feminine icon who has replaced the Virgin Mary as an improbable source of unholy comfort to Mexico’s legions of gangsters and hitmen.
“If you revere her and are faithful to her, she might look after you. But she’s a mean saint and beware her vengeance,” said Nacho Puente, a Juarez market vendor. In the past he sold statuettes of Santa Muerte mainly to tourists seeking souvenirs of the Day of the Dead, Mexico’s perversely cheerful funeral festival.
To the dismay of the Catholic church and the disgust of the Mexican government, a bogus saint from popular folklore has become a crucial accessory for junkies, gang members and cartel kingpins alike.
The government has dubbed the skeleton a “narco-saint” and sent troops to destroy the garishly decorated roadside shrines erected in her honour. In drug-related trials or in raids on supposed cartel strongholds, Santa Muerte is repeatedly invoked as an indication of depravity and guilt.
At the trial of Gabriel Cardona, accused of kidnapping and murder on behalf of the Gulf cartel, investigators alleged that he collected his victims’ blood in a glass and drank a toast to Santa Muerte. When police smashed into a house allegedly occupied by a leader of the Sinaloa cartel, they found an entire room turned into a Santa Muerte chapel.
As one Freeper pointed out a few months ago, this isn’t a quaint little old custom, but a belief system which emboldens crimminal behavior.
Tiger one of Co worker who from that part of Mexico she is American citizen told me that it ancient cult that believe this crap
As you said, it is one thing to be a brutal criminal organization, but quite another to be the one with its own cult. It could be harder to crack due to fanaticism inspired by the cult.
From Wikipedia:
The country’s Catholic Church has deemed Santa Muerte’s followers devil-worshiping cultists.[1]
In Mexico, the Catholic Church has linked Santa Muerte to Satanism, saying she is being used to mislead desperate people.[3]
Priests regularly chastise parishioners that death is not a person but rather a phase of life.[4]
In addition they state that Santa Muerte is an idol, the worship of which has been rejected by God since the Old Testament. Worship of this or any other idol is a form of devil-worship, since the Devil tricks people into doing things such as this. The Devil can do many of the things that Santa Muerte reportedly does.[14]
Another reason the Church condemns worship of Santa Muerte is that her rites are based on Catholic liturgy.[2]
It is felt that at best the worship of a “Saint or Holy Death” is a misinterpretation of Catholic doctrine. A holy death or muerte santa means that the deceased has had the benefits of being spiritually prepared for death via the sacraments and confession, but the concept is not personified.[14]
Both Catholic and Protestant churches view the cult as a kind of black magic that needs to be condemned as trickery.[4]
[1] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Gray, Steven (2007-10-16). “Santa Muerte: The New God in Town”. Time.com (Chicago: Time). Retrieved 2009-10-07.
[2] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Araujo Peña, Sandra Alejandro; Barbosa Ramírez Marisela, Galván Falcón Susana, García Ortiz Aurea & Uribe Ordaz Carlos. “El culto a la Santa Muerte: un estudio descriptivo [The cult of Santa Muerte:A descriptive study]” (in Spanish). Revista Psichologia (Mexico City: Universidad de Londres). Retrieved 2009-10-07.
[3] ^ a b c d e f g h Ramirez, Margaret. “’Saint Death’ comes to Chicago”. Chicago Tribune (Chicago). Retrieved 2009-10-07.
[4] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Garma, Carlos (2009-04-10). “El culto a la Santa Muerte [The cult of Santa Muerte]” (in Spanish). Mexico City: El Universal. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
[14] ^ a b Garcia Meza, Daniel (2008-11-01). “La “Niña blanca” mejor conocida como La Santa Muerte [The White Girl, better known as Santa Muerte]” (in Spanish). El Siglo de Torreon (Torreon, Mexico). Retrieved 2009-10-07.
AH you could say that
AH you could say that
The druggies think that they get magical protection from the “saint”. That they are protected and some think they are made invisible to law enforcement. They mark the cabs of their rigs with charmes, amulets, etc. Makes it easier for them to be identified. US law enforcement is getting better at this. Stupid Mexicans.
I feel they should meet death face to face. Soon. Thanks TigerLikesRooster. Sounds like they’ve watched HBO’s “Rome” second season disk set a little too much. Or maybe the Martin Sheen movie “Believers”.
God keeps score.
I’d hate to be them.
UMM - what? Please elucidate!
research
research
Call it the Grim Reaper.
http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15213777
Time to bring in the exorcists. Seriously. If they have an effect in front of Planned Parenthood clinics praying the exorcism rite, they can take on a bunch of drug lords.
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