Mexican police say 5 dead in Santeria ‘power’ ritual

Police in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca said Wednesday that five people have died after drinking poison during a Santeria “power” ritual.

Oaxaca state police chief Iván García Álvarez said four men and a woman died after drinking a mixture of unspecified substances.

He said they were involved in Santería, a faith that began in Cuba when African slaves merged Yoruba spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.

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Garcia Alvarez said the victims prepared and drank the drugs themselves “to gain some kind of power.” He said the deaths at the Oaxaca City residence were being investigated as a mass suicide.

Garcia Alvarez said people were involved in Santeria and when they took the drug, “all that happened was they died from the poisoning.”

Their bodies were found Saturday in a house on the outskirts of Oaxaca City, with no signs of trauma. The victims are apparently related and range in age from 18 to 55.

Prosecutors said at the time that tests were being conducted to identify the substances found in the home.

In the past, Mexican shamanic and other rituals have used toxic substances such as devil’s trumpets, Jimson weed, hallucinogens, and Colorado River toad venom, but a recent fatal accident in Oaxaca It was unclear what kind of substance was involved.

However, Santeria has also been implicated in other skull looting cases in Mexico.

In 2018, a man from a Mexico City suburb confessed to killing at least 10 women and claimed to have sold the bones of some of his victims to Santeria followers. The suspect allegedly sold the bones to a man he met at a bus stop.

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It may be necessary to take some of the man’s confessions with a grain of salt. He initially confessed to killing 20 women, but was able to provide details such as names and descriptions of the victims in only 10 cases.