The discovery in El Salvador of a shrine to Santa Muerte, a female deity associated with the criminal underworld, has revealed how the new religious movement has become popular among criminal groups outside of Mexico.
On July 31, the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office reported that they had stumbled upon a Santa Muerte altar at a bar in the city of San Miguel, east of the capital San Salvador, during a search operation against the bar’s owners, who were accused of sexual exploitation.
Authorities arrested two people and seized $10,000 in cash during the operation.
Another such case took place in Guatemala in mid-July, where the Attorney General’s Office reported that an altar dedicated to Santa Muerte and San Simón was found in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Guatemala City during a house search as part of a police operation against extortion.
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Santa Muerte, which is both a female deity and a new religious movement of the same name, was first known to be worshiped in Mexico. It has grown to become one of the most popular religious figures among drug traffickers and criminal groups in the country, as well as other communities with no connection to crime.
Criminal followers of the religion see Santa Muerte as their patroness and protector, similar to the Virgin Mary, the Christian figure. However, those who pray to Santa Muerte ask for the death of their enemies, as well as protection.
Santa Muerte has expanded significantly in the last two decades. Andrew Chestnut, an expert in Latin American history and religious studies, estimates that around 12 million people consider themselves followers of Santa Muerte in countries including Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
InSight Crime Analysis
While devotion to Santa Muerte by Mexican drug traffickers is not a new phenomenon, the discovery of an altar in El Salvador highlights the popularity of the religion in other criminal underworlds of Latin America.
In Mexico, Santa Muerte devotion is popular in areas like the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City, the birthplace of the criminal organization La Union Tepito, as well as Culiácan, Sinaloa, the home of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The spread of Santa Muerte to other parts of Latin America is facilitated by the already existing practice of alternative religions among criminal groups in the region. This is a product of the convergence of Indigenous and Catholic beliefs systems, which are common across Latin American communities.
SEE ALSO: Inside a Mass for Mexico’s ‘Santa Muerte’
Other examples of novel religions or quasi-religious figures popular within criminal subcultures include Santeria, practiced by some criminal gangs in the Caribbean, and the worship of popular saints and figures such as San Simón, a Maya deity who is now venerated by criminals for his renown as a trickster, Jesus Malverde, a folklore hero known as the narco saint, or San Judas Tadeo (Saint Jude), who was popular among the Colombian cartels of the 1980s and is still revered in parts of Mexico.
Santa Muerte’s popularity was also aided by the cultural exchange that arose from the sometimes overestimated presence of Mexican cartels in Latin America, Chestnut told InSight Crime.
“The expansion of Santa Muerte in neighboring countries and in almost all the Americas is due to Mexico’s large cultural influence, and those who are at the forefront of exporting Santa Muerte: the cartels themselves,” he said.
The violence that organized crime has brought to parts of Latin America also likely helped the spread of Santa Muerte, the Saint of Death.
”It is not surprising that the cult of Santa Muerte will grow and flourish during times of so much death. Many people turn to Santa Muerte as protection from possible impending death or to wish death on enemies,” said Chestnut.
Feature image: An altar to Santa Muerte found by authorities in El Salvador. Credit: Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador.
Imagers in text: Santa Muerte altar and statues in Culiácan, Sinaloa. Credit: Parker Asmann and Victoria Dittmar.
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Publish date : 2024-08-08 13:00:00
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