Occultism and crime make for a deadly combination, but they also make for fascinating stories. No matter what you call them, the Central American and Mexican drug cartels incorporate a bit of paganism into their dirty work by worshiping Santa Muerte. This is a female deity and folk saint in Folk Catholicism. The Mexican drug cartels often build shrines around the deity, also known as Our Lady of Holy Death, and offer the severed heads of their victims as offerings.
A skeletal image of the Santa Muerte holds a globe and a scythe while wearing a flowing white robe. Known as a ‘narco saint’, it is one of many rapidly growing religious movements that cartels worship in return for riches, protection, and silence to conceal their illegal dealings.
Almonte, who dealt with narcotics as a deputy chief of the El Paso police department, told New York Post that the cartels believed in the power of prayer and were certain to be protected by their saints. It created a whole new level of fearlessness among the cartel members, who believed they could earn salvation in heaven even after committing crimes like murder, he said. Almonte, who is writing a book about the saint, stated that the cartel commits most of its brutal crimes in the name of the saint.
The Santa Muerte cult has grown in popularity with almost 12 million followers in Mexico and parts of the US despite the cult being deemed blasphemous by the Roman Catholic Church and condemned by Pope Francis during his visit to Mexico in 2016. Catholic Herald says it is one of the world’s fastest growing ‘religious movements’. In impoverished areas of Mexico, Santa Muerte altars can be found in both private homes and public squares. Life-size effigies of the deity are housed in the Santa Muerte sanctuary in Las Vegas. There are times when rival cartels will not touch the offerings of cash on the altar for fear of facing the wrath of the saint.
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In 2016, Edgar, an assassin of the Juarez Cartel, talked about his worship in an interview while incarcerated. In order for everything to go smoothly, he prayed to the saint before he set each of his targets. ‘I sacrifice people for my Santa Muerte. The thing is that I kill for ordering, but I talk to her and say, ‘Hey, I go to a job. Just make me hit, I am going to give you that life, it is for you’. The interview published in The Small Wars Journal quoted Edgar as claiming to have killed at least 60 people for the cartel.
During colonial Mexico, followers of this cult worshipped Santa Muerte secretly after being forbidden by the Catholic Church. Tepito, one of Mexico City’s most violent neighborhoods, was made famous in 2001 when Queta Romero, a street vendor, prepared an outdoor shrine for the cult.
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