Five people died after drinking a poisonous potion in a Santeria “power” ritual, police in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca said Wednesday.
Iván García Álvarez, Oaxaca state police chief, said four men and one woman died after drinking an unspecified mixture of substances.
He said they were involved in santeriaa faith that began in Cuba when African slaves mixed Yoruba spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.
García Álvarez said the victims mixed the potion themselves and drank it “to acquire certain types of powers.” He said the deaths at a home in Oaxaca City are being investigated as a group suicide.
García Álvarez said people were involved in Santeria and when they drank the potions, “the only thing that happened was that they died of poisoning.”
Their bodies were found on Saturday in a house on the outskirts of Oaxaca city with no visible signs of injuries. The victims were apparently related and between the ages of 18 and 55.
Prosecutors said at the time that tests were being conducted to identify substances found in the home.
In the past, shamanic and other rituals in Mexico have involved toxic or hallucinogenic substances such as devil’s trumpet, or jimsonweed, and Colorado River toad venom, but it was not known which substances were involved in the most recent deaths. in Oaxaca.
However, Santeria has been implicated in other cases of deception 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 practitioners. The suspect said he sold the bones to a man he met at a bus stop.
Some parts of the man’s confession may have to be taken with a grain of salt; He initially confessed to killing 20 women, but could only provide details (names and descriptions of the victims) in 10 cases.
According to the US Justice Departmentwho studied the Caribbean religion to better understand its thousands of devotees imprisoned in American prisons, Santeria requires devotion to “orisha” spirits, which takes four main forms: divination, sacrifice, spiritual mediumship and initiation.
“In prisons, devotees build altars from discarded cereal boxes and offer sacrificial offerings of apples, oranges, coffee, cigarettes and dove feathers. One inmate also made a candle out of butter that had turned sour,” the department said. of Justice.
This week’s poisoning deaths come just weeks after police said 50 people died in Angola after being forced to drink a herbal potion to prove they were not witches. A local councilor accused traditional healers of administering the deadly concoction.
“More than 50 victims were forced to drink this mysterious liquid that, according to traditional healers, shows whether or not a person practices witchcraft,” he said.