New front in war on drug gangs

Authorities in Mexico destroy shrines to saint revered by criminals

By Sandra Dibble (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. March 29, 2009

A girl trotted back to the family car in December after a visit to the Santa Muerte chapel overlooking Rodriguez Dam, one of five shrines around Tijuana and Rosarito Beach now reduced to ruins. (David Maung)
LA SANTA MUERTE FACTS

Followers seek protection, health, love and work.
Also known as La Santisima Muerte, La Niña Blanca and La Flaquita.
Strong following among people who work at night, including taxi drivers, waitresses, prostitutes, police officers and criminals.

Offerings include flowers, candy, alcohol, cigars, money and jewelry.
Online: For photos, videos and more stories about the border drug war, go to borderwar.uniontrib.com.

TIJUANA – At a small roadside chapel overlooking Rodriguez Dam, followers of La Santa Muerte regularly came by with offerings and petitions – for health, for protection, for work. They were shocked last weekend when they found the concrete block structure smashed to pieces.

As Mexican authorities wage war on drug gangs, they have opened a new front: the small shrines and chapels where criminals are said to seek protection from La Santa Muerte, a popular saint not sanctioned by the Catholic Church whose name means Saint Death.

Often called La Niña Blanca, the white girl, she appears as a skeletal figure in flowing white robes with a large scythe. Gang members favor tattoos of her likeness, pendants with her image, and engrave her figure on their weapons. But her followers also include homemakers, laborers, taxi drivers, even police officers.

“I feel so angry,â€