Santa Muerte and Mexican narco-culture representations

Record summary

During the 2000s, Mexican and international media increasingly linked Santa Muerte with drug trafficking, prison religion and violence. The resulting controversy is a useful lead for examining how an intermediary religious figure becomes recoded as occult, satanic or criminal, despite broader devotional uses involving healing, protection and family welfare. Sources include newspapers, police statements, documentary films and anthropological studies. The uncertainty is substantial: reported affiliations may reflect selective policing and media framing rather than representative devotional practice, and visual possession of an image does not prove ritual allegiance.