Holy Death Guards Road, where 21 bodies were found last year

JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) — The gray-haired man stopped his pickup truck on the side of the road. He got out and walked a few feet toward a building made of glass and concrete blocks. He crossed himself, bowed his head, lit a candle and placed it at the feet of the Holy Death.

“It’s very dangerous on the road. People are being killed and there are too many robberies,” said Albino, a truck driver from Juarez. “Every time I start a trip, I come here and light a candle so that it continues to watch over me.”

Albino began requesting favors from La Santa Muerte after co-workers told him stories of robberies, beatings and death threats while transporting goods from central Mexico to the border. He also drove past roadside crime scenes and saw people lying shot in the street.

The trucker said he came across the Holy Death memorial by chance on the Camino Real Highway in Juarez and he was happy about it. “I ask them every time to help me get home safely,” he said.

No one seems to know who built the building with the dozens of Grim Reaper figures – from simple miniatures to colorful, 12-inch-long statues. City and state officials in Juarez could not help without a street address.

The 8-foot-tall shrine stands at the foot of a hill in the westernmost part of Juarez. A black metal gate with a deadbolt lock guards the entrance. Solar-powered lights illuminate the building at night, and what appear to be surveillance cameras monitor 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, alcohol and fresh flowers were visible.

“These shrines are usually built by people who have made promises to a saint, in this case Saint Death, or have asked him for a favor,” said veteran Juarez journalist Hector Tovar. “There are several (shrines) all over the city. This one is new. We can see that construction is still underway.”

The shrine is located on a highway where 21 bodies have been abandoned in the past 14 months. Juarez police took the last two murder victims on Camino Real on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Border Report visited the area. They were two adult men wrapped in blankets and bound with electrical wire.

The Camino Real stretches from the southern outskirts of Juarez to the Anapra neighborhood, which borders the U.S. border wall – an area known as a gathering point for human smuggling.

Edgardo Enriquez, owner of a mystic shop in Juarez, says that many ordinary Mexicans consider La Santa Muerte a saint. However, he admits that the icon is also venerated by people who work in dangerous professions.

“More and more people are turning to the Holy Death lately. I think it’s because of the violence in the city (…) It’s not just normal people, but also police officers, (drug) smugglers and those who bring people across the border,” Enriquez said earlier. “I’m not asking who you are or what you’re doing, I’m just asking for permission to listen to them.”

What favors do the believers of this unusual deity ask of Holy Death? Not that he takes their lives, says Enriquez. But also that relatives, for example, overcome an illness and that their legal or illegal business activities flourish.

Santa Muerte statues are sold openly in markets in central Juarez. They have also been found in the homes of suspected drug cartel members accused of murdering and dismembering rivals.

In mid-February, the FBI announced the arrest of a suspected leader of the Artistas Asesinos gang in El Paso. She was known for ripping out victims’ hearts and placing them on a Santa Muerte altar in her home in Juarez.

Last September, the pursuit of a suspected car thief ended with the arrest of a man who held an altar for La Santa Muerte at his home in Chaparral, New Mexico.

And in October, the Mexican army raided the home of a suspected trafficker identified only as “Iker” and found a life-sized statue of the Holy Death, according to local news reports.

Guillermo, a Juarez resident and avid cyclist, said he runs past the shrine a few times a week as part of his 20-mile training. “I don’t know what it’s about, but I respect other people’s beliefs,” he said.

The cyclist says he does not feel at risk when riding through the area, although he remembers coming across a crime scene at the nearby Zoltepec overpass last year. “It was a young girl, 18 or 19 (years old). She had been missing for some time. (…) We have to live with things like this in this city,” he said.