Repression of the Culto de la Santa Muerte in Mexico

This paper will consider how direct repression has been carried out against the Culto de la Santa Muerte, a religious movement which has had  great social impact during the last decade. Mexico is legally under a regime of laicidad  since 1860 and Church and state affairs have been separated since then.  In order to repress the Culto de la Santa Muerte the Catholic Church, international media and the Mexican state at different levels have constructed a social representation of the movement and its followers as members of what as been called "narcocultura", that is, a variant of popular culture linked to Mexico's drug traffic.   As a result this cult of the sanctified figure of death is not its has even lost official status as a religious association. Repression against the Culto de la Santa Muerte has affected leadership structures and provoked schisms in the movement which ironically may allow it to survive.

See more of: Regimes of religious regulation II: Multiculturalism and the management of religion
See more of: RC22 Sociology of Religion
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