The cult of Santa Muerte: How a folk saint called 'Saint Death,' adored by drug traffickers and well-meaning families alike, has been skyrocketing in popularity across America - while the. All Votes Add Books To This List. Leadership Spotlight: Compassion in Law Enforcement. If someone was leaving small items related to Santa Muerte in an area I was responsible for cleaning, and I wanted to dispose of them respectfully, I'd gather them in a box and once a month or so (depends how frequently they're appearing) I'd arrange them at the feet of a large Santa Muerte statue at a botanica. In the second crime, gang members burned a victim behind a house containing an altar and a small Santa Muerte statue. Before you begin a spell, it helps to have . Santa Muerte, 'the fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas' with an estimated 12 million followers, has grown in popularity during the pandemic, says VCU professor and author of 'Devoted to Death.' Share this story Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Print page By Mary Kate Brogan A few casual observers of the White Girl (la Nia Blanca) have erroneously attributed her female identity to the feminine gender of the word 'la muerte . Santa Muerte ( Holy Death) Is the female version of Death. Santa Muerte, also known as the Grim Reaper, is a popular folk figure in Mexico. Measurement: H: 10.75 Material: Resin Frequently bought together + Total price: Both church and state actively oppose an unofficial saint worshiped by millions in Mexico and in the United States. FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. government, U.S. Department of Justice. While not a fully developed religion, Santa Muerte has self-proclaimed priests, temples and shrines, and many ritualized elements. As a saint of last resort, Santa Muerte always has had a following among those who live in extreme circumstances. Leadership Spotlight: Is Happiness Overrated? The cult appears to have more European than Aztecan origins, with some individuals describing Santa Muerte as a new age Grim Reaper-type goddess, a bad-girl counterpart to the Virgin of Guadalupe.5 Her imagery includes that of a robed skeleton carrying a scythe and globe or scales. 2 Initial disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the FBI, DOJ, the Futures Working Group, Police Futures International, or any other institution or organization. Draw money, love, luck, and success. For most of the cartels foot soldiers and their gang associates, brutal deaths prove almost certain. These appear unfounded even though he had a skull shrine with offerings in his back yard and engaged in other bizarre activities. Tony Kail, Santa Muerte: Mexicos Mysterious Saint of Death (Seattle, WA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2010). The candles are the light of communication to the deity to grant her faithful worshipers their specific needs. Red symbolizes love. 14 Bunker, Torture, Beheadings, and Narcocultos, 166. Worshippers ask Santa Muerte for economic prosperity,. LordoftheLies April 16, 2020, 4:15am #4. New incident sources include: Another Slaughtered in Honor of the Holy Death, Noticieros Televisa (January 10, 2010), http://neglectedwar.com/blog/archives/875 (accessed August 28, 2012); Indetifican Cabeza Ofrendada en Tumba de El Barbas, (January 18, 2010), http://www2.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/mexico/estados/130952/identifican-cabeza-abandonada-tumba-el-barbas (accessed August 28, 2012); Mail Foreign Service, Drug Cartel Victims Discovered with Their Hearts Cut Out Close to Mexican Resort of Cancun, Daily Mail (June 7, 2010), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284590/Bodies-hearts-cut-close-Mexican-resort-Cancun.html (accessed August 28, 2012); and Daniel Borunda, Skeleton, Santa Muerte Altar Found at Alleged Kidnapping Site in Jurez, El Paso Times, July 15, 2011, http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18481956 (accessed August 28, 2012). Training also is offered by local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) centers whose Mexican cartel and gang-focused training increasingly has narcotics saint content. Group ritualized actions usually have several characteristics. Relating to one incident: In a telephone conversation with convicted Zeta Sicario Rosalio Bart Reta intercepted by DEA agents, Cardona bragged about how he slashedtwo teenagers with a broken bottle, gathered their blood in a cup, and made a toast to the Santisima Muerte, or death saint. One component entails the rise of the cartel and gang narcocultura (drug culture) variant of the Cult of Santa Muerte (literally translated as Holy Death).2 This variant of the cult promotes greater levels of criminality than the more mainstream and older forms of Santa Muerte worship. Leadership Spotlight: Are You the Single Point of Failure? Prior to the killing, Monroy, a neighbor, and the three killers spent the night drinking at a local bar and talking about Santa Muerte. In the past, inspired and ritualistic killings occurred primarily south of the U.S. border in Mexico. Introductory booklets and reports, subject matter experts, and training programs can provide useful background on this growing cult. Next to the rubble stood a small shed containing a Santa Muerte shrine with still-lit candles. Leadership Spotlight: Doing More with Less? While U.S. law enforcement personnel in some parts of the nation, such as southern Texas, are familiar with Santa Muerte worshipers working for the cartels, officers in other areas know little about such cartel members. This paper looks at the background of SMI Tultitln and the . Sometimes, authorities found only the victims skin. Leadership Spotlight: I Should Have Eaten More Ice Cream! Since 2006, 12 have died, 1,000 have been extorted, and 162 have been threatened with death. Santa Muerte and Day of the Dead celebrations are linked through the deep connection between death, migration, and identity on either side of the border, evoking migrant crossings and deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, the femicides in Ciudad Jurez and other border towns, the casualties of the drug wars, and the deep-rooted presence of . Far less has focused on some of the darker spiritualistic parts of the drug wars. A best-seller saint - Santa Muerte figurines are best-sellers in Mexican botnicas (esoterica shops). Kevin Freese, The Death Cult of the Drug Lords: Mexicos Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed, http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Santa-Muerte/santa-muerte.htm. On my Mexico journey this time, I went to the most dangerous neighborhood in Mexico City and experienced the festivity honoring the Lady of the Death, Santa . See Pamela L. Bunker, Lisa J. Campbell, and Robert J. Bunker, Torture, Beheadings, and Narcocultos, in Narcotics Over the Border, ed. The written report listed burning candles and a small statue and picture of Santa Muerte. Unlike the English language, Spanish has no differentiation for terms like "holy" and "saint", both referred to as "santo" (or "santa . During 2006 in Tijuana, Mexico, a cartel members associates turned on him after he spent all of the gangs money. St. #Expedite, also known as Saint Expeditus, is a patron saint of urgent matters. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. 22 Sessions conducted by U.S. I pieced back together her hand and scythe. However, ritualized actions are driven primarily by the beliefs, perceptions, or neuroses of individuals. More extreme forms of worship involve bowls of bloodanimal and humanat the altars and smeared on the religious icons and on the devotee as part of a blood pact.9. 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In April 2011 local law enforcement officers investigating a dozen killings in Chicago, Illinois, identified multiple suspects as Santa Muerte followers. The very name Santa Muerte says much about her identity. Santa Muerte is a folk saint. Leadership Spotlight: Fishing for Inspiration, Leadership Spotlight: Foundations of Leadership and Followership, Forensic Spotlight: Paint and Plastic Evidence Analysis in a Drug Possession Case, Crimes Against Children Spotlight: Parental Kidnapping - Using Social Media to Assist in Apprehending Suspects and Recovering Victims, Leadership Spotlight: Overestimating Yourself, Leadership Spotlight: Creating Extraordinary Moments, Forensic Spotlight: Next Generation Identification, Forensic Spotlight: Altered Fingerprints - A Challenge to Law Enforcement Identification Efforts. Because of the wide number of ideas. 1. Leadership Spotlight: Should You Always Lead from the Front? Leadership Spotlight: Have We Lost Civility? Effective Communication. Rather than plates of food, beer, and tobacco, in some instances, the heads of victims (and presumably their souls) have served as offerings to invoke powerful petitions for divine intervention. For instance, an altar containing blood, bones, burned plastic police figurines, and black statuettes and candles will determine different worshiper intent than one containing a rainbow statuette, blue and bone candles, and offerings of various types of fruit. Community Outreach Spotlight: COPTOBER Community Fair, Community Outreach Spotlight: Building Bridges. In December 2009 and January 2010 in Ciudad Jarez, perpetrators murdered individuals in apparent Santa Muerte ritual killings. In Cancun in June 2010, investigators found the bodies of six tortured victims, three with their hearts cut out and with the letter Z carved into their abdomens, in a cave outside of the resort city. It also is important to note that persons may move from inspired actions to either individual signatures or group ritualization. 9 Tony Kail, Santa Muerte: Mexicos Mysterious Saint of Death (La Vergne, TN: Fringe Research Press, 2010): 128. She is most often depicted as a female Grim Reaper outfitted with a scythe and wearing a shroud. During the early hours of October 10, 2010, a cartel kill team stabbed and beheaded Martin Alejandro Cota Jando Monroy, 38 years old, in his apartment. 'Santa Muerte' is no Saint. Tony Kail, Magico-Religious Groups and Ritualistic Activities: A Guide for First Responders (Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, 2008). No matter how jarring her appearance might be, she's a comforting figure to many people in Mexican communities and the surrounding areas. Candles of red, black, and white typically adorn the altar, invoking Santa Muerte and her protection. Santa Muerte perfectly embodies opposition to contemporary US responses to undocumented migrants, as well as historic (and contemporary) church and state exclusion of LGBTQ migrants. Robert J. Bunker and Pamela L. Bunker, Santa Muerte and Mexican Narcocultos (Quantico, VA: FBI Academy, Quantico, 2011), http://fbilibrary.fbiacademy.edu/bibliographies/ santamuertenarcos.pdf. They draw on other actions in the same culture/community. The Santa Muerte cannot manifest, she can only bring death - even when we ask her to manifest miracles, what we are actually doing is asking that she kill . Use the moon's power to heighten your work with her. Choose a quiet, clean, calm location like a shelf, small table, or clutter-free desk to build your altar. While no certainty exists that Santa Muerte-inspired, much less ritualistic, killings will spread within the United States, recent trends suggest that they will occur at least sporadically. Well, the answer, like most answers when you get down to the heart of it, is simple: the lessons of Death are of acceptance. I pieced back together her hand and scythe. Still, many of these men and women who brutalize, torture, and kill others need a way to rationalize their activities. Now light the candle with a wooden match, and in front, you place the stone that you will use as an amulet later. With the stakes so high, the sacrifices and offerings to Santa Muerte have become primeval and barbaric. I set up an altar near the doorway (our primary entrance) and respectfully welcomed his wisdom into our home. There always are common elements across scenes (e.g., a signature). Hello, I accidentally knocked over one of my Santa Muerte statues. The highest annals of the . Regarding one incident, authorities found at the crime scene the remnants of an apparent altar and the words Santa Muerte and cudanos flakita (take care of us, skinny) spray painted. The perpetrators comprised members of the Los Zetas Cartel, which has embraced Santa Muerte as its patron saint. 23 Samuel L. Feemster, Wellness and Spirituality: Beyond Survival Practices for Wounded Warriors, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, May 2009: 2-8; Spirituality: An Invisible Weapon for Wounded Warriors, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, January 2009: 1-12; and Spirituality: The DNA of Law Enforcement Practice, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, November 2007: 8-17. 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Although condemned by mainstream churches, this folk saint's supernatural powers appeal to millions of Latin Americans and immigrants in the U.S. flag. Bloodbaptizedin a shroud of human skin;Raise your wingsas we celebrate the dead;Sacrificein the honour of your wealth;Reward us nowin triumph we behead.1. The building hosts both a temple and a holistic medical and religious supply store (botanica) that carries votaries, amulets, rosaries, icons, and books of spells (Platner 2012). The death of someones enemies, protection from harm (or, at least, hope for a quick and glorious death), cultivation of a dangerous reputation, and ability to enjoy the benefits of fabulous richesincluding the company of beautiful womenbecome paramount. You Have 90 Percent More Learning to Do! Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. ORIGINS. MercurysMercy 1 yr. ago. He also works against procrastination and delay, helping in times of emergency. Officer Survival Spotlight: Accidental Deaths Among Law Enforcement Officers, Leadership Spotlight: Your Leadership Is Your Life Story (Part 1 of 2), Officer Survival Spotlight: Arrest Situations - Understanding the Dangers, Leadership Spotlight: Your Leadership Is Your Life Story (Part 2 of 2), Officer Survival Spotlight: Preventing Assaults - Assessing Offender Perceptions. 2 This variant of the cult promotes. Metro Transit Police Department, Washington, D.C. 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