Today in the drug war: changes! Juarez drug-war dead passes 3,000. Drug war icons, like statues of Santa Muerte—a Saint of Death, popular with the narcos—are showing up in the U.S: in New Hampshire. Citizens of Mexican towns are holding demonstrations—for the narcos and against the government.
And the head of La Familia Michoacana is on the payroll of a public elementary school.
Up is down. Ice is hot. Hamburgers are eating people.
The Mexican bureau of tourism might want to consider changing its branding campaign:
And please enjoy this little tidbit about Santa Muerte, New Hampshire's newest resident:
While Santa Muerte has been a tradition for decades in Mexico, Almonte said Mexican authorities have lately begun seeing cases where brutality is committed in her name: "Some of these beheadings have been offerings or sacrifices."He said in one case in Tijuana, Mexico, that he investigated about a year and a half ago, a drug smuggling syndicate tortured and cut off one of its own members' arms and legs using an electric saw. A female gang member then used the same saw to sever the victim's head as an offering for protection from Santa Muerte, Almonte said. Mexican authorities eventually arrested those involved and recovered all of the body parts — except the head.
"When they asked her about it, she kept responding 'Santa Muerte has it. I gave it to Santa Muerte,'" Almonte said.