5 people die from drinking poison potion in Santeria “power” ritual, Mexican officials say
Neighbors in SW Miami-Dade fed up with carcasses in public spaces
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Five people have died after drinking a poison potion in a Santeria “power” ritual, police in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca said Wednesday.
Iván García Alvarez, the Oaxaca state police chief, said four men and one woman died after drinking a mix of substances he did not specify.
He said they were involved in Santeria, a faith that began in Cuba when African slaves blended Yoruba spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.
Department of Justice, which studied the Caribbean religion to better understand its thousands of devotees incarcerated in American prisons, Santeria requires devotion to the “orisha” spirits, which takes four main forms: divination, sacrifice, spiritual mediumship and initiation.
“In prisons, devotees build altars with discarded cereal boxes and provide sacrificial offerings of apples, oranges, coffee, cigars, and pigeon feathers. One inmate also made a candle out of butter that had turned sour,” the Justice Department said.
This week’s poison deaths come just weeks after police said 50 people died in Angola after being forced to drink an herbal potion to prove they were not sorcerers. A local councilor accused traditional healers of administering the deadly concoction.
“More than 50 victims were forced to drink this mysterious liquid which, according to traditional healers, proves whether or not a person practices witchcraft,” she said.
Source: cbsnews.com