(Image: recién llegados, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from ronaldrivas's photostream)
France24 has a report with photos documenting "Santos Malandros", or "Corte Malandra", a contemporary saint culture spreading in Venezuela (not entirely unlike "Santa Muerte" and "Jesus Malverde" in Mexico).
"These 'holy thugs' wearing dark sunglasses, baseball caps and guns tucked in their belts might have been petty criminals during their lifetime, but are now considered modern-day Robin Hoods."
Having had more than a passing acquaintance with magic/religious practice of this kind, I have to say that the article reads a little melodramatic. But it was interesting to see a phenomenon I'm only familiar with in Mexico and Central America expressed differently, further south.
(Thanks, Maggie!)
