Untitled

{"id":3717,"date":"2024-05-23T08:48:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T12:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/?p=3717"},"modified":"2024-05-23T10:53:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T14:53:18","slug":"mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The TEPJF determined that said action did not violate the principle of separation of church and state<\/span>, <\/b>did not constitute electoral propaganda with religious symbols, and did not incite violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The PAN had filed a complaint with the Electoral Litigation Technical Unit of the National Electoral Institute<\/span><\/a> (INE), which was dismissed<\/span>.<\/b> Subsequently, the PAN took its complaint to the Superior Chamber of the TEPJF, where the majority of the judges ratified the INE\u2019s decision, with the exception of Judge Janine Ot\u00e1lora Malassis, who voted against<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Judge Felipe Fuentes Barrera, responsible for the official statement,<\/span> confirmed the INE\u2019s decision, arguing that the grievances presented by the PAN were unfounded and baseless<\/span>.<\/b> He stated that the INE Technical Unit had carried out a comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of the reported publications, without the need for a substantive statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the ruling rejected the arguments that the Technical Unit should have carried out a constitutional interpretation on whether the figure of Santa Muerte violates the principle of secularism or represents a religion<\/span>,<\/b> indicating that these arguments did not attack the essential foundations of the contested agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge Janine Ot\u00e1lora Malassis disagreed, arguing that the ruling should be revoked because the analysis of constitutional principles on freedom of religion exceeded the purview of the INE Technical Unit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mexican Santa Muerte t-shirt controversy erupted a month ago, when the ruling party, Morena, posted the shirt on its official X account. The publication aroused criticism from opposition presidential candidate <\/span>X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez, who questioned the dissemination of the figure of Santa Muerte<\/a>, a skeletal folk saint not recognized by the Catholic Church who is at the center of the fastest growing New Religious Movement on the planet<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amidst the controversy President L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) argued that the issue \u201chas to do with religious freedom\u201d and urged citizens to \u201cbe respectful of believers and non-believers.\u201d \u201cIn this country we are free to have the religion that most closely adheres to our faith and we are also free to not have religion and we must be respectful of believers and non-believers,\u201d he expressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mexican president attributed the controversy that arose after his party shared the image to the current election season. \u201cDue to the season, now everything becomes newsworthy,\u201d he said. After the image was released, opponents criticized it being used to support the president, while supporters argued that it is just a meme.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defense of Santa Muerte in the name of freedom of worship by the Mexican president was politically strategic in the sense that there are millions of devotees and sympathizers and the great majority are working class, who form the core of support of both the Mexican president and his Morena party whose presidential candidate, Claudia Shienbaum leads her rival, X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez, by at least 20 points in current polls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented by the National Action Party (PAN) against the ruling party, Morena\u2019s use of a t-shirt with the image of Santa Muerte and the phrase \u201cReal men don\u2019t not speak badly of L\u00f3pez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3408,"featured_media":3720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380],"tags":[620,80,65,27,45,1629],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-santa-muerte","tag-amlo","tag-andrew-chesnut","tag-catholic","tag-mexico","tag-santa-muerte","tag-xochitl-galvez"],"yoast_head":"\nMexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Global Catholic Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/andrew.chesnut.3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-23T12:48:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-23T14:53:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/912\/2024\/05\/442480045_10211600701211051_2237329849238220650_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Chesnut\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AndrewChesnut1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Chesnut\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/\",\"name\":\"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-23T12:48:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-23T14:53:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/8b9e762541b45283ed0045cc2cdff1ca\"},\"description\":\"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/\",\"name\":\"The Global Catholic Review\",\"description\":\"Insightful, thought-provoking, and stimulating discussion \u2013 Patheos\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/8b9e762541b45283ed0045cc2cdff1ca\",\"name\":\"Andrew Chesnut\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cff690b3be75c4b5eccaa63bbe3d5ad?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cff690b3be75c4b5eccaa63bbe3d5ad?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Chesnut\"},\"description\":\"Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut earned his Ph.D degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and joined the History Department faculty at the University of Houston in 1997. He quickly became an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history Professor Chesnut was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at VCU in 2008. The chair was established as the Most Rev. Walter F. Sullivan was nearing retirement as the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond to honor his nearly thirty years of service. For Professor Chesnut the chair became a unique opportunity to develop Catholic studies in a global context and at a large public university. Professor Chesnut\u2019s early work, Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty (Rutgers University Press, 1997), traces the meteroric rise of Pentecostalism among the popular classes in Brazil following the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church. His second book, Competitive Spirits: Latin America\u2019s New Religious Economy (Oxford University Press, 2003) focuses on the three groups that have prospered most in the region\u2019s pluralist landscape, Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African disasporic religions (e.g., Brazilian Candomble and Haitian Vodou). Professor Chesnut's most recent book is Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (Oxford University Press, 2025). It is the first in-depth study of the Mexican folk saint in English and has received widespread media coverage.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/vcu.academia.edu\/AndrewChesnut\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/andrew.chesnut.3\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drdeathanddivinity\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@AndrewChesnut1\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/author\/achesnut\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt","description":"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt","og_description":"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/","og_site_name":"The Global Catholic Review","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/andrew.chesnut.3\/","article_published_time":"2024-05-23T12:48:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-23T14:53:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/912\/2024\/05\/442480045_10211600701211051_2237329849238220650_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andrew Chesnut","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AndrewChesnut1","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Chesnut","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/","name":"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-23T12:48:59+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-23T14:53:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/8b9e762541b45283ed0045cc2cdff1ca"},"description":"With Mexican elections less than two weeks away, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) rejected the challenge presented","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/2024\/05\/mexican-tribunal-rules-on-controversial-santa-muerte-t-shirt\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mexican Tribunal Rules on Controversial Santa Muerte T-Shirt"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/","name":"The Global Catholic Review","description":"Insightful, thought-provoking, and stimulating discussion \u2013 Patheos","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/8b9e762541b45283ed0045cc2cdff1ca","name":"Andrew Chesnut","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cff690b3be75c4b5eccaa63bbe3d5ad?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2cff690b3be75c4b5eccaa63bbe3d5ad?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Andrew Chesnut"},"description":"Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut earned his Ph.D degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and joined the History Department faculty at the University of Houston in 1997. He quickly became an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history Professor Chesnut was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at VCU in 2008. The chair was established as the Most Rev. Walter F. Sullivan was nearing retirement as the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond to honor his nearly thirty years of service. For Professor Chesnut the chair became a unique opportunity to develop Catholic studies in a global context and at a large public university. Professor Chesnut\u2019s early work, Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty (Rutgers University Press, 1997), traces the meteroric rise of Pentecostalism among the popular classes in Brazil following the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church. His second book, Competitive Spirits: Latin America\u2019s New Religious Economy (Oxford University Press, 2003) focuses on the three groups that have prospered most in the region\u2019s pluralist landscape, Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African disasporic religions (e.g., Brazilian Candomble and Haitian Vodou). Professor Chesnut's most recent book is Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (Oxford University Press, 2025). It is the first in-depth study of the Mexican folk saint in English and has received widespread media coverage.","sameAs":["https:\/\/vcu.academia.edu\/AndrewChesnut","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/andrew.chesnut.3\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drdeathanddivinity\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@AndrewChesnut1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/author\/achesnut\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3408"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theglobalcatholicreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}