With the brutality that organized crime groups operate in Mexico, it is difficult to imagine that they could have any type of religious belief.
Is it possible that there is a theology behind armed gangs that, without any mercy, kidnap, torture, kill, and dismember rivals and traitors, going to the extreme of ingesting human flesh?
Claudio Lomnitz, an anthropologist at Columbia University, United States, believes that there is a spirituality that provides moral support for these criminal practices.
In his book “For a Political Theology of Organized Crime,” Lomnitz delves into the world of religious beliefs of organized crime and its relationship with power structures.
The Mexican researcher relates the political, social, and religious implications of the cults that operate within the cartels outside the institutions established from what he calls “ parallel sovereignties” to the State.
It is in this context that, according to Lomnitz, the cannibalism of criminal groups arises.
“Cannibalism is a transgression of the very foundation of public morality,” says the academic.
“There is no greater abomination than that,” he adds.
Lomnitz delves in this interview into the different types of cannibalism that have existed among criminal groups in recent decades, from an anthropological perspective, seeking the meaning behind the rituals developed by some of the largest drug cartels that have operated and operate in the country.
In November 2022, a viral video showing a man eating a human heart in Mexico is shedding light on the disturbing practices recruits must undergo at cartel “terror schools.”
A member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel—his stomach straining against a black sleeveless vest—is crouching over the body of a mutilated foot soldier from a rival crime group. The fallen man’s hands are bound and his chest looks like it has been torn open.
Shocking cellphone footage—captured in broad daylight—shows the hitman tearing large bites from the dead man’s heart.
Source: BBC Mundo
