JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) — The gray-haired man stopped his pickup on the side of the highway. He got out and walked a few feet towards a glass and cinder-block structure. He made the sign of the cross, bowed his head, lighted a candle and placed it at the feet of Holy Death.
“It’s very dangerous out on the road. People are killed and there are too many robberies,” said Albino, a long-haul trucker from Juarez. “Every time I’m about to make a trip, I come here and light a candle, so she continues to watch over me.”
Albino began seeking favors from La Santa Muerte after coworkers shared stories of robberies, beatings and death threats while hauling goods from Central Mexico to the border. He’s also driven by roadside crime scenes and seen people lying on the road, shot up.
The trucker said he came upon the shrine to the Holy Death along Juarez’s Camino Real Highway by chance, and he’s glad he did. “I ask her to help me get back home safely every time,” he said.
No one seems to know who built the structure housing dozens of figurines of the female Grim Reaper — from simple miniatures to colorful foot-long statues. Municipal and state officials in Juarez were unable to help without a street address.
The shrine stands 8 feet tall at the foot of a hill in westernmost Juarez. A black metal gate with a deadbolt lock guards the entrance. Sun-powered lights keep the structure lit at night and what appear to be security cameras watch the sliding glass doors and ongoing construction on the side.
When Border Report visited the site, the gate and glass doors were open, several candles were still burning and offerings of fruit, liquor and fresh flowers were evident.
“These sanctuaries are usually built by people who have made promises or are asking favors from a saint, in this case, Holy Death,” said veteran Juarez journalist Hector Tovar. “You can find several (shrines) throughout the city. This one is recent. We can see construction work is still going on.”
The shrine stands on a highway where 21 bodies have been abandoned in the past 14 months. Juarez police picked up from the Camino Real the latest two homicide victims on Thursday – less than 24 hours after Border Report visited the area. It was two adult males wrapped in blankets and bound with electrical wire.
Camino Real stretches from the southern outskirts of Juarez to the Anapra neighborhood abutting the U.S. border wall — an area known as a staging point for migrant smuggling.
Juarez mystic shop owner Edgardo Enriquez says many ordinary Mexicans see La Santa Muerte as a saint. But he admits the icon is also worshipped by individuals engaged in dangerous trades.
“Lately, more people are turning to Holy Death. I think it’s because of the violence in the city […] It’s not just average people, but also policemen, (drug) smugglers and those who get people across the border,” Enriquez said earlier. “I don’t ask who you are or what you do, I just ask her permission so that she listens to them.”
What favors do believers in this unlikely deity ask of Holy Death? Not to take their lives for one, says Enriquez. But also, for instance, for relatives to overcome an illness and for their licit or illicit business endeavors to thrive.
Santa Muerte statues are sold openly in downtown Juarez markets. They also have been found in the homes of suspected drug cartel members accused of murdering and dismembering rivals.
In mid-February, the FBI announced the arrest in El Paso of an alleged Artistas Asesinos gang leader known for taking out victims’ hearts and placing them at a Santa Muerte altar in her home in Juarez.
Last September, a high-speed pursuit of a suspected car thief ended in the arrest of a man who kept an altar to La Santa Muerte in his Chaparral, New Mexico, home.
And in October, the Mexican army raided the home of a suspected human trafficker identified only as “Iker,” and found a life-sized statue of Holy Death, according to local news reports.
Guillermo, a Juarez resident and cycling enthusiast, said he dashes by the shrine a couple of times a week as part of his 20-mile workout. “I’m not familiar with what it’s all about, but I respect other people’s beliefs,” he said.
The cyclist says he doesn’t feel imperiled passing through the area, though he recalled coming across a crime scene last year at the nearby Zoltepec overpass. “It was a young girl, 18 or 19 (years old). She had been missing for some time. […] Such are the things we have to live with in this city,” he said.
