Ganda for drugs in Ecuador turns to “a saint of death” to protect – and allegedly human victims

Sports gloves and red ribbons to remove evil, Ecuadorant The police ran into drugs understandable seeing the altar Santa Muerte – The Mexican “Saint of Death” that the local gangs have adopted as their own talisman.

The eerie statue of the skeleton of the coated robe-Kocki in the right hand and the globe of the land in the left-wing is in the fast-growing number of Santa Muerte Sanctuary found in criminal hiding places in the western city of Duran.

The offer of money, tobacco, alcohol, figurines and religious accessories, the gangsters accumulated it on his feet seeking the protection of the saint.

“The belief is that when he is entrusted with this Santa Muerte, he will not be caught or will achieve his goal because Santa Muerte takes care of them,” said Police Colonel Duran Roberto Santamaria for AFP.

Sometimes offers are more vicious.

A former band member said AFP, some colleagues are known to give human victims.

“They stole children from other cities and sacrificed them in front of her (Santa Muerte) when they wanted to land a big hit,” the man said, refusing to give their name.

Guardian of the healing and protection saint

Also known as a skinny lady or a white girl, Santa Muerte is a guardian of saints of healing and protection, and thousands of Latin American prayers are praying for her safe passage to the afterlife.

It was believed to date from the 18th century Mexico, the saint gained the following drugs there. Last November in Mexico were two women and a boy were Shot in the altar to La Santa Muerte.

The saints were recently adopted by Ecuadorian merchants and Hitters in Duran – a city that overcame drug gangs that extort and terrorize the locals.

In addition to making offers on the altars, the band members tattoo the character of the saints on their hands and carry amulets that carry her image around her neck.

Santamaria said that Santa Muerte came from Mexico about six years ago, when members of the Ecuadorant gang Los Choneros passed from the infamous Cartel Sinalo, who also conveyed his alien beliefs.

Duran police estimates that the altars have found a saint in approximately six of every 10 busts made in 2024.

Los Choneros is one of the 20 criminal gangs that Ecuadory President Daniel Noboa has declared “terrorist groups”, seeking re -elections on Sunday, because he wages a drug against drugs for a violent crime in the former South American country.

Just last week, the leader of one of the largest Ecuador’s crime unions, Los Lobos, was arrested in his house In the coastal town of Portoviejo. IN The US declared Los Lobos last year to be the largest organization for drug trafficking in Ecuador.

Noboa declared a state of extraordinary and distributed troops In the streets and prisons that were on violent, resulting in a slight decline in the homicide rates in 2024 in the previous year. The President took action last year after The inlets broke and opened the fire In TV studio and robbers, they threatened random killed civilians and security forces. The prosecutor who explored the attack was later shot.

Cops were afraid to work around the altar

Duran and the nearby town of Guyaquil are located in the epicenter of the ecuador violence, partly because of their proximity to the port used to send cocaine to Europe and the United States from neighbors Peru and Colombia – the world’s best drug producers.

Like Mexico, Ecuador is mostly a Catholic country, and the Church condemns the practice of displaying death as a personality as in the case of Santa Muerte.

However, most ecuadia has no problem reconciling the two, and Santa Muerte adopts a wider company, with representations sold in markets or even online.

This prompted observers to worry that people with Santa Muerte cases in their possession can be misleading gangsters in the middle of the Government burglary.

“People are already criminalized for their race because they are impoverished, they will now be criminalized for popular customs,” Ecuadorant Social Studies Cristina Burneo told AFP.

In further testimony to the reach of the saint, Santamaria said that many of his officers are afraid to work around the altar.

“Police told me that after surgery they were getting a headache, they began to feel sick and feel dizzy,” he said – although he personally does not believe in the power attributed to the saint.

Police investigating crime scenes or searches do not destroy the statues of Santa Muerte they encounter, unless there is evidence that they contain drugs or ammunition.

“There is freedom of worship in Ecuador and everyone can have it, it’s not a crime,” Santamaria said.