Drug gang kills rivals at Mexican death cult shrine[Nuevo Laredo]

Reuters ^ | May 11, 2007

[SwinneySwitch]

MONTERREY, Mexico, May 11 (Reuters) - Hit men from Mexico's Gulf Cartel drug gang handcuffed three men and shot them dead at a death cult altar on Friday, leaving lit candles, flowers and a taunting message for rivals in a worsening drug war.

Police near the northern city of Nuevo Laredo found the corpses at a shrine to Santa Muerte, a religious figure worshiped by criminals and many of Mexico's poor.

"This is for everyone who messes with the Gulf Cartel. Welcome to Nuevo Laredo, bunch of assholes," read the message, written on orange paper and taped to a wall near the altar, set up below a highway bridge.

Based just south of Texas, the Gulf Cartel is at war over lucrative territory and smuggling routes with an alliance of traffickers from Sinaloa state, led by Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. At least 800 people have been killed this year.

Altars to Santa Muerte, often depicted as a cloaked figure similar to the Grim Reaper or as a skeleton wearing a white dress, are common in some Mexican neighborhoods.

Petty thieves, convicts and even middle-class professionals swear the saint protects them and brings them luck. The Catholic Church frowns on the cult, which has pagan roots, but many devotees also see themselves as Catholics.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops and federal police to tackle drug cartels across Mexico, but the increased firepower has failed to contain the violence, including a recent wave of attacks on police.

Drug gang attacks have become bolder, including the killing of five soldiers in Michoacan state last week.

Responding to an anonymous telephone call, police found dozens of spent shell casings on the ground at the altar near the bodies, which had been shot in the head at close range, state authorities told Reuters.

A Mexican newspaper said the killers lit candles before they fled.

Suspected drug gang gunmen killed four policemen who worked as bodyguards for the family of the country's most influential state governor.

The officers, assigned to protect the family of State of Mexico Gov. Enrique Pena, were shot dead on Thursday night as they drove their sports utility vehicle in the Gulf port city of Veracruz, where the governor's young children were on vacation.

Pena, from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, is one of the rising stars of Mexican politics and is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in the next election in 2012.

[SwinneySwitch]

Santa Muerte ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[starbase]

Hit men from Mexico's Gulf Cartel drug gang handcuffed three men and shot them dead at a death cult altar on Friday, leaving lit candles, flowers and a taunting message for rivals in a worsening drug war.

What a charming story! It makes me want more Mexican culture in my country too!

[af_vet_rr]

What a charming story! It makes me want more Mexican culture in my country too!

They have killed Nuevo Laredo Police Chiefs within literally hours of their taking office. Not a very pleasant place. There are parts of the country that are wonderful - Every now and then I go down there and go fishing with friends or to one of the resort towns, but those ares are generally taken care of by the government police (since tourist dollars are important).

Nuevo Laredo, etc., on the other hand - I wouldn't trust the cops or the federales there. They've had shootouts just between the cops.

[Eyes Unclouded]

Oh they coming. They also looking at the Iraq insurgency as to see what tips they can use. Except serious calls for withdrawal from certain sensitive border communities coming soon. After all it was there land first right?

sigh...We won the west only to give it back I guess.

[tranzorZ]

You mean there are other articles involving Santa Muerta? Wow, is h a real Catholic saint or a Mexican folk hero of some kind?

[BenLurkin]

He's the one you don't want to see coming down the chimney.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

[CAWats]

Seems I remember reading about Mexicans drug dealers taping the decapitation of their rivals.

[BenLurkin]

?

[BenLurkin]

[starbase]

Well I'm sure there are people who know some decent places down there, but I've never liked Hispanic culture in any form. When I first went to Europe (about 20 years ago) I went to Spain and totally hated it.

Lazy, dishonest, noisy braggarts. Always on strike and sleeping half the day. Strutting around in a way that would start a fight in most countries, but there it was just shallow macho BS.

I didn't like it at all, so I left and never went back. And then I find Hispanic culture coming to me! Well, I have confidence that this immigration thing has become a poisonous albatross, and our "fix" of it, when it finally comes, will permanently remove immigration as a threat to us ever again.

But for those who like South America and Hispanic things, more power to ya! Personally, I'm sitting in Taiwan right now, and spend a lot of time in Asia. But I'll leave Hispanic culture to others, not my cup of tea at all.

[BenLurkin]

Ah ... soccer... I knew it!

[SwinneySwitch]

She is satanic.

The Death Cult of the Drug Lords Mexico’s Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed

http://leav-www.army.mil/fmso/documents/Santa-Muerte/santa-muerte.htm#following

[starbase]

sigh...We won the west only to give it back I guess.

We ain't giving nothing away, Jack! We can't give it "back" to Mexicans because it was never theirs.

I talked to a Mexican guy in a pub in the West about that. I said to him (we were just standing by the bar), I said "How can Mexicans say the Western US is theirs when it always belonged to the Indians, and the Indians never gave it to Mexico?".

He said with this nonchalant attitude, "Oh, it was the Spanish who took it."

And I said, "But if they steal it, then you get independence from them, it doesn't mean you just get what they stole when the Indians still never gave it to you."

He wanted to answer that, but just then the music started blaring and we couldn't talk anymore, so we wandered away from each other.

It was a friendly conversation, but it shows their often childish attitudes. I've found Mexicans never want to take responsibility for anything. They always try to say if others did something they they don't have to be responsible.

Like the Spanish stole the Indian lands, so the Mexicans just get to claim it. And they say if people in the US didn't buy drugs, then the Mexicans wouldn't sell them (but they make no effort to stop selling them), and I once heard a radio show where a bank out West was giving checking accounts to illegal aliens. They had a Mexican woman on who said "Well, if you give out the accounts then they can open them."

Always this childish avoidance of adult responsibility for their own actions. That is why Mexico is the reeking crap dump it is today.

[Red_Devil 232]

Great home page!

[GnuHere]

Note to self:
do not hang out at death cult altar.

[starbase]

Thanks.

[sgtbono2002]

Coming soon to San Diego and points north and west.

Thank You mr Bush and everyone on the Hill.

[tranzorZ]

Thanks for the link Swinn, very interesting.