How Faith in Aztec Mythology Led to a Modern Murderous Cult
One of the drawbacks of lies and scams is that it can get difficult to continue the deception once suspicions are aroused. If that happens, one option is for the scammer to simply cut and run. Another is to double down, and defend the original lie and scam with more lies and scams. The latter option could easily snowball, as illustrated by a series of unfortunate events that took place in the 1960s in the small Mexican town of Yerba Buena, Tamaulipas. Brothers Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, two smalltime crooks, arrived there in 1962, and discovered that the locals still believed in Aztec mythology. That was music to their ears.
The brothers convinced the impoverished and mostly illiterate inhabitants that they were prophets of the old native gods, and would lead them to hidden Aztec treasure. By the time it was over, things had gone seriously haywire, and descended into a grisly cult that cut out the hearts from the chests of its still-living victims, and drank their blood. Santos and Cayetano Hernandez took advantage of the gullibility of Yerba Buena’s residents, who bought the crooked brothers’ claims to be prophets of the Aztec gods. The conman siblings established a religious sect whose members met in nearby caves. They also reduced their followers, male and female, to sex slaves whom they abused in drug fueled orgies.