HomeNewsAnalysisPraying for Death: Blood Sacrifice and Organized Crime in Latin America
ANALYSIS

Praying for Death: Blood Sacrifice and Organized Crime in Latin America

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 17 JAN 2017 BY PATRICK CORCORAN EN

A new collection of essays tackles patterns of cultish behavior and ritualized violence among illegal groups across the globe, from the Zetas and the Familia Michoacana to Al Qaeda and the Lord's Resistance Army.

Edited by longtime organized crime analyst Robert Bunker, Blood Sacrifices: Violent Non-State Actors and Dark Magico-Religious Activities consists of 14 essays by 13 different authors, spread across nearly 300 pages. The tie linking the writings is revealed in the title; all of the pieces relate to different criminal groups' use of blood sacrifice, ritualized violence, pseudo-religious bloodshed, or some offshoot thereof.

Beyond that, the essays' focus varies a great deal. In addition to the groups mentioned above, readers are treated to extended treatises on Las Reglas de Kongo (an Afro-Cuban religious tradition that has gained popularity among certain traffickers); amphetamine and other drug use by members of illicit groups; and human sacrifice among Islamic terrorist organizations.

Bunker's essay, titled "Narcocultura and Spirituality: Narco Saints, Santa Muerte, and Other Entities," is easily the richest material for students of Latin American organized crime. Focusing primarily on Mexico, Bunker details the manifestations of countercultural religiosity among Mexican criminal groups, from Jesús Valderde and Santa Muerte to more obscure variants like San Simón and Juan Soldado. He describes their influence over criminal groups that dominate the nation, including the Zetas, the Knights Templar, and the Sinaloa Cartel. His essay also includes a lengthy section on La Familia founder Nazario Moreno González, an evangelical Christian whose devotion to the New Jerusalem had a substantial impact on the way his gang presented itself to the public.

SEE ALSO: Familia Michoacana News and Profile

Bunker's essay offers as comprehensive an overview of Mexican gangs' predilections for cult behaviors, pseudo-religious rituals, and the titular blood sacrifice as has been published to date. He presents the phenomenon as something akin to a parallel religious culture that has emerged in opposition to the orthodox Catholicism that has dominated in Mexico since its foundation. Taken in tandem with the rest of the book, Bunker's essay points to many similarities between the Mexican groups' affinity for ritualized bloodshed and those of other organizations around the world.

InSight Crime Analysis

Apparently nodding toward the incongruity of seriously studying blood sacrifices in 2016, Bunker and his co-authors compare their approach with alternative frameworks pursued by contemporary analysts, ranging from behavior science and rational scientific inquiry to data mining. They also argue, both explicitly and implicitly, that this salacious, bloodthirsty aspect of criminal groups has not received its due attention.

To a large degree, they make a compelling case. It becomes clear over the course of the book that the cases of cartels' brutality are more widespread than is often appreciated; the oft-cited tally of total gangland deaths in Mexico since 2006, currently above 100,000, has become shorthand for a destructive pattern, but it fails to convey the acts of wanton cruelty and suffering that populate this narrative. The focus on blood sacrifice fills that void.

We discount the impact of such criminal practices at our peril.

Bunker and company demonstrate that such cases are often linked to rituals or abetted by cultish belief systems, rather than being entirely calculated and tactical. In other words, gangs may resort to atrocities for propaganda, but this propaganda function has periodically stemmed from the gangs' ritualization of violence. Because the atrocities have such a devastating impact on public opinion, this ritualized bloodshed has a genuine though indirect impact on the security strategies Mexico and other nations have adopted.

SEE ALSO: InDepth Coverage of NarcoCulture

For instance, Felipe Calderón came to the presidency in 2006 intent on launching a war against organized crime following a drumbeat of spectacular attacks during the campaign, most famously when members of the Familia Michoacana dumped several severed heads around a nightclub in Uruapan. While it is unclear that this event was part of any larger ritual, the Familia was one of the first gangs to endow its activities with a veneer of dark religiosity, and it subsequently became known for such atrocities.

In this case, the line from the emergence of a gang steeped in the occult to a massive change in Mexico's policies was short indeed. As the Familia shows, we discount the impact of such criminal practices at our peril.

The book is less convincing insofar as it serves as an argument that Latin American gangs' propensity for blood sacrifice should be at the forefront of our collective understanding of their operations, or that it should be influencing policymakers in developing public security strategies. Ultimately, there is not much evidence that trafficking groups' atrocities are much more than a byproduct of their members' existence on the margins of society and years of relentless combat, rather than a strategic objective in and of itself. While projecting rational incentives onto criminal groups carries with it certain risks, treating them as profit-motivated and power-hungry is a better guide to Latin American criminal gangs' goals and their dangers than any alternative.

"Blood Sacrifice" also overindulges the idea that this counterculture is invading Mexican society writ large. One essay puts forward the notion that "traditional Mexican values and norms are being incrementally replaced by those steeped in illicit drug use, criminality, and violence." There is no easy way to measure this, but for people who spend substantial time among Mexican civil society, this implication that occult rituals are gaining a substantial toehold simply doesn't ring true. The Mexicans who were horrified by corruption and brutality in 2006 generally remain so today. The values that define the society may have been tested by a decade of public security challenges, but they remain largely unchanged.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 8 NOV 2021

Cocaine, synthetic drugs, weapons, migrants, gasoline - this range of criminal economies has seen violence escalate in Mexico's northern state…

ECUADOR / 16 NOV 2021

After yet another prison massacre, Ecuadorean authorities have doubled down on Mexico’s two biggest cartels being behind gang warfare in…

MARIJUANA / 13 DEC 2022

The legalization of marijuana at the state level in the US has forced organized crime groups in Mexico to adapt…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report continues to be a reference in the region

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Staff Cited as Experts by International Media

21 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime deputy editor, Juan Diego Posada, was interviewed by the Associated Press about connections between the ex-FARC mafia and Brazilian criminal groups, and…