"Santa Muerte is pretty popular here in the El Paso area," Almonte said. In his classes, Almonte said, he stresses that just because a person has a Santa Muerte item does not mean the person is involved in crime, and the item is not enough probable cause to make a stop. law enforcement has seen an explosion of Santa Muerte figurines, altars and amulets found in connection with drug seizures from Oregon to Pennsylvania.Īlmonte, who teaches police courses on the topic, said he gets two or three inquiries a week from law enforcement about Santa Muerte and other folk saints. They pray so law enforcement does not arrest them, seize their contraband or convict them." "Criminals pray for protection from their enemy, and the enemy begins with law enforcement. "People pray to Santa Muerte the way they would pray to any other saint, asking her to intercede on their behalf on personal issues in their lives," Almonte said. Marshal Robert Almonte, a former El Paso police narcotics officer and deputy chief who has extensively researched saints revered by the Mexican underworld.
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"What is real important that a lot of people need to understand is that it is not only criminals who pray to Santa Muerte," said U.S. In June, the Mexican army destroyed many Santa Muerte shrines in Nuevo Laredo, claiming the roadside monuments were linked to organized crime.īut believers claim that "la Nica Blanca" is a force for good or ill depending on each follower and that she is unfairly maligned by nonbelievers, the media and religious groups. Roman Catholic priests and other Christian groups have condemned the Santa Muerte as idolatry, witchcraft and even devil worship. The Santa Muerte (Holy Death or Saint Death) phenomenon is a mixture of Catholicism, pre-Hispanic traditions, shamanism and what some would term magic.įollowers pray to "la Santcsima" for health, employment and protection but can also ask her to return a lover who has strayed, make a person fall in love and eliminate an enemy in the increasingly dangerous Mexico.
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The latest development, Zavaleta said, is decals on the rear windows of vehicles showing the female hooded figure and stating, "Dios me cuida y ella me guia" (God protects me and she guides me).Įarlier this month, Chihuahua state anti-kidnapping agents found a skeleton dressed as a bride in a large altar to the Santa Muerte in a house used to hold kidnapping victims in Jucrez.
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Zavaleta has seen the Santa Muerte grow in popularity in the past decade in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, spreading from altars kept secretly in homes to public displays of devotion to a saint not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.