The Black Arts Have No Nonsense About Them

“Torture enables the torturer to capture the soul of the victim”Mexican drug minion Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo conducted an odd mix of magical rituals, a mish-mash of ceremonies that combined his mother’s Cuban magic with ancient Mayan and Aztec practices. He also used a dose of nagualism (a form of black magic that solicits magical powers from animals).In the 1980s, he convinced the northern Mexico drug lords, the Hernandez family, that his magic could help them keep their market against drug lords from southern Mexico and help them against the United States’ stepped-up narcotic efforts. Constanzo and his cult of sub-minions became an integral part of the Hernandez drug trade. His magical abilities were considered a key component of his success.Part of his magic entailed human sacrifices, which were often particularly cruel (including one sacrifice where the victim was slowly skinned alive) and, in keeping with Aztec tradition, involved tearing the victims’ hearts out. The sacrifices were designed to give Constanzo spiritual power in the form of slaves in the nether world. It’s a common belief in Mexican brugeria (black magic) that torture enables the torturer to capture the soul of the victim, who, through the ordeal, comes to fear the torturer completely, eternally. An added plus: The energy from the pain and fear of the victim is appropriated sacramentally by the torturer, and this energy gives him increased magical strength. After a human sacrifice, the Constanzo cult boiled the body parts in an iron kettle with animal blood, which they drank, believing that the blood made them unstoppable in battle.Remaining show notes here