Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Cuban Santería Santería contexts Santiago del Estero, Argentina · 2022

Argentina: life sentences for the killing of an eleven-year-old as a San La Muerte offering

Record class

Context only

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-styled 'brujo' devotee of San La Muerte

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

NOT AN AUTHORITY-ABUSE CASE — the child was not an adherent of anything. It qualifies as victim-directed ritual: the killing was staged as an offering, and the ritual writings recovered at the scene are court evidence of that framing.

  • Ritual, oath, or initiation
  • Violent occult ideology or sacrifice

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2022-09-23 · conviction and life sentences

    Tribunal of Santiago del Estero, Argentina (jury trial). Rodolfo Sequeira and Miguel Jiménez, known locally as 'El Terrible' and 'El Brujo', were convicted in September 2022 of the kidnapping, sexual abuse, homicide and dismemberment of eleven-year-old Mario 'Marito' Salto in 2016, and sentenced to life imprisonment; two accomplices received eleven and three years. Raids on the defendant's home recovered offerings to San La Muerte, drawings marked '666', and notes reading 'Sacrifice of Marito' and 'San La Muerte brings eternal life'.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • the child killed as an offering to San La Muerte
  • ritual writings and offerings found at the defendant's home

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report La Nación: life sentences in the Marito Salto case, 23 Sep. 2022.

National paper of record's court report.

Related record

Related cases · Cuban Santería

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