HomeNewsBriefA Look at Paraguay's Narco-Churches
BRIEF

A Look at Paraguay's Narco-Churches

NARCOCULTURE / 29 JAN 2015 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

A series of recently published photos -- showing churches owned by alleged drug traffickers in Paraguay -- is a reminder of the sometimes complicated intersection between religion and organized crime in Latin America.

In mid-January, authorities reported that local police officers in eastern Paraguay were accused of stealing over 250 kilos of seized cocaine and handing it over to alleged drug trafficker Clemencio Gonzalez Gimenez, alias "Gringo." During the investigation into the case, police officials searched Gonzalez's properties in the province of Amambay, and found a building that some might find surprising -- not a nightclub, or even a zoo, but a small church. Photos were originally published by ABC Color and are reprinted by InSight Crime with permission. 

church2

This is not the first example of a suspected drug trafficker who decided to build his own church in Paraguay, according to ABC Color. In 2009, the country's anti-drug agency SENAD found a church (see below) on the property of trafficker Jarvis Chimenes Pavão, who was one of Paraguay's most wanted criminals before his arrest. 

church1

In 2011, the SENAD also discovered a "mini-sanctuary" (below) at the residence of drug trafficker Tomas Rojas Cañete in Ciudad del Este. Authorities raided his property and seized over 100 kilos of cocaine.

church3

InSight Crime Analysis

Drug traffickers who profess to believe in and follow the rules of the Catholic Church often have ulterior motives for practicing their faith, says one expert.

"They [drug traffickers] are mostly looking for divine protection and aren't concerned with Christianity as an ethical system," Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of the book "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," told InSight Crime.

Chesnut noted that in Paraguay's case -- where 90 percent of the population is Catholic -- cases in which criminals subscribe to a particular religion "mostly plays out in a Catholic context."

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Paraguay

But that's not the case in other parts of Latin America. In Puerto Rico and Colombia, those involved in the drug trafficking underworld are known to practice Santeria -- a combination of West African and Roman Catholic beliefs and practices -- in belief that it will help them avoid detection from authorities. In Mexico, some locals in the state of Michoacan canonized a founder of criminal group La Familia Michoacana, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, alias "El Mas Loco," and built a church to venerate the "narco-saint" after his reported death in 2010 -- he later turned up dead following a gun fight with authorities in 2014. The Knights Templar, a splinter group of La Familia Michoacana, has carried on this tradition of quasi-religious mythology by indoctrinating new recruits with an evangelical devotion towards God. 

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 / 12 JAN 2022

The son of a former Paraguayan congressman has been accused of overseeing large cocaine shipments to Europe, illustrating how corrupt…

BRAZIL / 15 JUN 2023

From Colima to Caracas, some parts of Latin America have stubbornly high homicide rates, far higher than the rest of…

COLOMBIA / 8 JUN 2022

New details have emerged about the assassination of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, including that the hit was methodically planned in…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…