(Mexico:)Santa Muerte Cult Leader Arrested

MEXICO CITY - The leader of Mexico's Death Saint cult has been detained on suspicion of participating in a kidnapping ring.

The "Santa Muerte" cult has become popular among drug traffickers in Mexico, in part because followers believe the skeletal figure of the female "saint" may protect them from death or arrest.

David Romo, the self-styled archbishop of the church, was one of nine suspects placed under a form of house arrest for 30 days pending investigation.

Romo claims he is the victim of political persecution and claimed he was tortured.

He also charged that he had been "severely tortured" with electric shocks and beatings.

Romo's church stood behind him and called on followers to demonstrate outside the government detention center where he is being held.

A spokeswoman for the Mexico City prosecutors office, Esperanza Velarde, denied the accusations of torture. She said Romo "knows he is lying" and "is trying to defend himself."

The prosecutors office alleged Romo participated in a kidnap gang known as "El Aztlan," a name that refers to the mythical homeland of the Aztecs.

The office said he recruited people to launder ransom payments through their bank accounts, and then transfer the money back to Romo or one of his aliases. Romo would then hand over the money to the kidnappers at the church's main shrine in a ramshackle but gaudily decorated building in one of Mexico City's toughest neighborhoods, it said. They say Romo got a cut of 25,000 pesos, or $2,040 for each payment transferred.

I don’t care, Santa Muerte is just about the coolest outlaw name you could have

From "Undercover Blues:"

Muerte: "The name is 'Muerte!'"

Jefferson Blue: "Mortie?"

Muerte: "Not 'Mortie!' 'Muerte!' Death!"

Mark

Do not for a minute underestimate the Santa Muerte cult. It has tremendous potential to turn into a murderous nightmare comparable only to the Thuggee (strangler) cult in India. Some estimates of at least its casual followers number as many as 2 million. And it is popular with, and partially funded by, some of the drug gangs.

Santa Muerte itself is a skeleton wearing the trappings of a Catholic female saint, but it is based on the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, the queen of the dead. The Catholic church considers it a severe heresy and roundly condemns it.

And while it seems quaint, a revival of the Aztec religion could be horrific, as just about every part of it involved human sacrifice in terrible ways.

All the cult really needs is a charismatic leader. Before, it was decentralized. If it develops a hierarchy, it could become an army overnight, whose sole purpose would be random murder, then to steal from the victim.

Both in Mexico and the United States. And nothing would distinguish a cultist from any other Mexican or Mexican-American.

I saw the title of this thread last night. I did not read it because I was going to bed. I picked up the book I was reading, Zombie Apocalypse, because I wanted to finish it up last night. The style of the book is a little weird, as the story is told through a series of diary entries, company memos and transcripts of news reports, but it's a decent story. But I digress...

Not long after I saw the title of this thread I got to a part in the book in which the cult of Santa Muerte was discussed and directly linked to the spread of the plague that the book is about.

As soon as I read the bit about Santa Muerte it made me recall this thread, which I hadn't read yet. When I got up this morning I decided to do some research on the cult and then read this thread. It's incredibly creepy how accurate the author's description of the cult is. And how realistic the scenario of their involvement is. As stupid as some may find this, it made me realize that if a plague of that nature DID crop up, our exposure to it would be contained through superior law enforcement and medical technology, but we would eventually be overrun by the virus as it filtered up from Mexico. MEXICO would be swamped and overtaken by such a plague, and because of our open border situation it would eventually overtake us.

But zombies are fiction, right? What about other medical threats? We've already seen some examples of that. And what role with groups like the Santa Muerte cult play in the spread of such diseases?

The saying is that "art mirrors life," and while some people would not consider a zombie novel "art," I think there is something to be said about the idea here.

So, I just wanted to share that little aside.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.