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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Courthouse powder fits voodoo ritual

    http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/monte ... 216460.htm

    Posted on Mon, Aug. 07, 2006

    Courthouse powder fits voodoo ritual
    Piles of gypsum resemble symbolic practice of purification -- or cursing -- ceremonies

    By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
    Herald Salinas Bureau

    Gypsum found in piles and strewn about the perimeters of a courtroom in the Salinas courthouse recently may have been part of a ceremonial practice meant to purify -- or perhaps curse -- the premises, an authority on the subject said.

    Ruben Mendoza, director of the Institute of Archaeology at CSU-Monterey Bay, said the mystical practice goes back to ancient times among indigenous groups in Mexico and Central America and is still used today.

    Mendoza said Aztecs, Mayans and other Mesoamerican communities purified each corner of a structure by tossing corn pollen or ground corn or limestone into the wind to the north, south, east and west.

    Practitioners continue to believe the practice will "open the portals to their ancestors" in the heavens and in the underworld and that the power of their ancestors will help bring about benevolent results, he said.

    In modern times, Mendoza said, the practice has been assimilated for negative purposes by some using black magic and an off-shoot of the Santeria religion.

    On the afternoon of July 20, the east wing of the Salinas courthouse was shut down after courthouse safety officer Bob Kennedy found a white powder placed in piles and strewn about the entrances to Judge Robert Moody's courtroom, Department 8.

    Employees were evacuated and the substance was tested and determined to be gypsum.

    The next day, Kennedy said he believed the powder was placed there for ceremonial or mystic purposes. He said the gypsum was obviously placed purposely and that he had seen similar practices among domestic workers from Guatemala.

    Courtroom bailiff Tammy Ballew said Moody believed he had seen the powder outside the courtroom in the morning, but she and other Sheriff's deputies weren't aware of it until the afternoon.

    Gypsum chosen for availability|

    The only defendants in Moody's courtroom that afternoon were three defendants in a Seaside assault case who are natives of El Salvador and alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The notoriously violent gang has spread from Los Angeles in frightening proportions throughout the United States, Mexico and Central America.

    The three had been in Moody's courtroom from the morning and into the afternoon for a pretrial hearing. Two of the three eventually pleaded guilty to charges that day.

    Mendoza, who is about to publish a book on the religious and ceremonial practices of indigenous cultures in Mexico and Central America, said the gypsum that was found was almost certainly placed there for ritualistic purposes.

    He said he has attended ceremonies in Mexico and the Southwest that began with ground corn being strewn to the winds in four directions to open the portals to the supernatural for positive purposes. Indigenous people will also place the powder in piles, in what archaeologists calling caching, he said, for the same purpose.

    In this case, he said, gypsum was likely used not for its properties, but because it was the most available powder. Ballew said the powder had paint chips in it, as though it had been scraped from drywall. Traces of it could still be seen outside the courtroom on Friday.

    "Unless you get it from the horse's mouth it's not always clear what their intention was," Mendoza said, "but if it was in the courthouse, clearly they were trying to purify the location... so benevolent and positive things would happen to the group in question."

    On the other hand, said Mendoza, upon learning that the defendants were alleged members of MS-13, it is possible that a friend or relative was "trying to integrate practices from traditional indigenous communities into a variant that is trying to capture a different kind of power for themselves."

    Mendoza said criminal elements in Mexico and Central America have been known to assimilate the practice for the purpose of cursing or frightening their enemies, and to summon supernatural powers to help them in their criminal endeavors. Some, he said, believe the practice can make them invisible to law enforcement.

    Dark side of Santaria|

    In a well-documented case in the mid-1980s, Mendoza said, a Cuban-American drug trafficker in Mexico attracted a cultlike following by combining some of the traditionally benevolent practices of the Mesoamerican peoples into a variant of the Cuban-Caribbean folk religion Santaria, called Palo Mayombe.

    Palo Mayombe, he said, is seen as a dark side of Santaria and integrates human sacrifice. Adolfo Constanzo, the Cuban-American drug trafficker, is known to have sacrificed at least 25 people, including a young American, in the area of Matomoros, Mexico, Mendoza said, and also used the practice of scattering corn powder.

    Ballew, Judge Moody's bailiff, said no one saw the gypsum being scattered. And the attorneys for the three defendants who were in court that day scoffed at the idea that someone related to them would have scattered the powder on their behalf.

    Two of the defendants' wives were present in the courtroom, Ballew said. Some of the gypsum was found in the women's bathroom next to the courtroom.

    The defendants were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and street-gang activity in connection with a neighborhood brawl in Seaside.

    Lawyers skeptical of theory|

    Neftali Bonilla, 27, pleaded guilty that afternoon to assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and will be sentenced Aug. 24.

    His lawyer, Susan Chapman, chuckled at the idea that Bonilla's wife was responsible for the gypsum and the prosecution's contention that Bonilla is a member of what has been called the most violent gang in America.

    "No," she said. "My client and his wife have always been respectful and polite. And certainly, their demeanor is appropriate for the courtroom."

    Daniel Antonio Miguel, 26, also pleaded guilty to assault that day and will be sentenced on Aug. 24.

    His attorney, Terry McCleerey, said the defendants felt they had done nothing wrong but pleaded guilty with an assurance they would receive felony probation so they could get out of jail.

    "He is probably the most mild-mannered defendant I've had for quite some time," McCleerey said of Miguel. "He barely qualifies as a gangster. He's a very passive guy."

    Asked if he thought the defendants were part of Mara Salvatrucha, the Monterey lawyer said, "If they are, I think they're from a different branch. They don't fit the description of any of the MS-13 that I've heard about."

    One defendant, Edwin Reyes, 26, did not accept the plea that day and is scheduled for trial Sept. 9. His attorney, Scott Erdbacher, said Reyes and witnesses insist he was not involved in the assault.

    While Reyes' wife was in court that day, Erdbacher dismissed the idea that members of the defendants' families would try to curse the courtroom, prosecutor or judge.

    "MS-13 is hard-core," Erdbacher said. "These guys are hardly like that. They're easygoing guys. It's hard to believe they're even gang members."

    herald.com.


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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Is the the same relegion that was killing white doves in Florida for Castro to die?
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