Mexico’s Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed is dispossessed: Santa Muerte alive in El Paso / Juarez - El Pas
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Officials in Nuevo Laredo have destroyed more than 35 statues dedicated to a “Death Saint” popular with drug traffickers.
The statues, most depicting a robe-covered skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper, lined highways and roads in and around the Mexican city across the border from Laredo, Texas. One of the statues was located at the base of an international bridge linking Mexico and the U.S.
Soldiers stood guard Wednesday as city workers were seen taking down statues. The effort started before dawn on Tuesday.
A local official who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the drug gangs said remnants of the statues will be left at local police stations for owners to reclaim.
According to devotees of ‘Saint Death,’ the Patron Saint of Crime, Criminals, and the Dispossessed has been gaining popularity across the Mexico / U.S. border including the El Paso / Juarez border because people are disillusioned with traditional Catholicism.
The Death Saint, or Santa Muerte, is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.
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So, should they be selling candles commemorating Santa Muerte at my local Albertson’s? I think not, but they are.
See page 5 of this pdf catalog: