La Santisima es Justicia – Reckless Reporters Face the Truth

An anonymous comment on a SkeletonSaint.com post says simply –

La Santisima es justicia (The Most Holy is justice) 

This can be taken in a number of ways – seen through the lens of recent news stories about a Border Patrol raid on a trailer in Edinburg, Texas it speaks to how Santa Muerte’s iconography has become a sign post for testing the veracity and social effects of the media.

Here justice is the inevitable revelation of the truth behind the misinformation, fear mongering, and lassitude of most contemporary news outlets.

Andrew Chesnut and I predicted that the Border Patrol official report’s misidentification of Santa Muerte as a ‘Goddess of Death‘ and the subsequent repetition of this misinformation and continued misuse of the ‘narco-saint‘ and ‘narco-deity‘ tropes through various media outlets would lead to distrust and fear being spread throughout the community. True to our assessment, a news report from Amy Martinez at KVEO, an NBC affiliate in Brownsville, Texas, (which itself is just part of the cycle of fear) shows that this is beginning to take place as indicated by a resident quoted in the piece, who says:

“We haven’t lived here very long, but who would’ve thought something like this would happen. Especially dealing with that goddess of death. It’s scary and dangerous,”

It’s fitting that this report comes out today, on Friday the 13th, a day that is remembered for the 14th century execution of Jacques de Molay, commander of the Knights Templar, by French authorities on false charges of heresy and witchcraft.

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Another news story appearing today shows how ‘justicia’ represents the inevitable judgement which falls on those who think that corruption in one area of their life can be isolated from the rest of it. U.S. Marshall Robert Almonte, who has been responsible for spreading misinformation about Santa Muerte in his presentations on ‘narco-spirituality’ to police forces through the Americas, resigned in shame on Thursday due to charges of misuse of agency resources and violation of official policies.

Almonte was faced with a previous public shaming related to his self-declared expertise when his court room testimony on Santa Muerte was labeled ‘psychobabble’ by a panel of federal appeals court judges:

“…a panel of federal appeals court judges in New Mexico ruled that Almonte did not qualify as an expert on Santa Muerte – despite his claims that he’d spent “hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours” studying the topic.

His suggestion that a Santa Muerte prayer alone could be evidence of a crime “approaches psychobabble,” the panel said in a July 2014 ruling throwing out two drug convictions.

In denouncing Almonte’s testimony as baseless, the appellate panel borrowed language from the Salem witch trials.

“Almonte’s testimony essentially painted the defendants in this case as heretics, holding beliefs ‘not recognized by the Catholic Church,’ ” the judges’ wrote in their ruling overturning the convictions of two defendants and ordering a new trial.

Almonte declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service said she would not comment on news reports saying Almonte was being investigated by the agency’s inspector general for failing to report payments he’d received for unauthorized training presentations.”

This is a very good lesson for anyone who would present themselves as a subject matter expert in an area that affects the lives of others. His bias in reporting on Santa Muerte, which has helped to demonize and raise paranoia about Saint Death throughout the justice department and mainstream media, was just one element of his willingness to violate his duty in other areas. Now the truth is out, and he is forced to face a dishonorable resignation and the repercussions of his loose relationship with the facts.

La Santa Muerte es justicia – and the balance that she holds in her hand is equal for every child, woman and man – when the time comes for judgement may we all be humble, honest and sincere lest we be weighed in the balance and found wanting and face her scythe as an instrument of punishment rather than a tool of harvest.

“The new king of Babylon, was livin’ it up.. Laughin’ and drinkin’…..from God’s Holy cup…… When out of nowhere, there appeared this hand, writin’ words on the wall that he could not understand….. His knees started knocking….. he turned pale and cold, and this is what the words foretold…

You’ve been weighed in the balance and found wanting – The handwriting’s on the wall. If you don’t understand, that you don’t mess with God, than you don’t know the truth at all.”