Faith as a Battlespace: Exploratory CONOPS for Undermining the Narcocultura Elements of Santa Muerte Symbolism
This article presents a five-step model for mapping and dismantling adversarial symbolic systems, using narco variant Santa Muerte devotion as a case study. The model treats symbolic systems as structured, networked, and actionable. Using natural language processing, we map Santa Muerte’s core themes (e.g., protection, vengeance) and anchors (e.g., candles, colors), identifying high-frequency pairings and meaning actors that sustain belief through ritual and emotion. We then diagnose structural vulnerabilities, prioritize symbolic targets, and apply disruption tactics drawn from Marxist and postmodern theory, such as symbolic reversal, re-signification, and subversive mimicry. Finally, we propose replacement strategies to reorient symbolic energy. This framework, leading to CONOPS (Concept of Operations), equips information operators with a culturally informed, scalable method to challenge narco-spiritual propaganda by reshaping—not just attacking, the symbolic environments in which belief systems operate.
The Five Step Model
A compelling recent essay on the Santa Muerte, as an element of narcocultura (narco- culture), identified it as constituting a symbolic system whose propaganda potency can be neutralized through information warfare.[2] However, it did not explore exactly how the Santa Muerte functioned as a symbolic system, and its specific targeting strategies were presented at a high-level. This article fills that gap by mapping the symbolic structure of criminal variant based Santa Muerte worship, its themes, anchors, and their pairings. This renders it possible to identify leverage points for targeted interventions across cognitive, cultural, and religious/ritualistic domains. Just as conventional military operations rely on network maps to identify and strike key nodes, symbolic warfare requires mapping and disrupting the meaning-structures that sustain adversarial belief systems.
To advance the work of national security and associated professionals involved with anti-cartel operations, this article also introduces a structured, five-step model for attacking a symbolic system: mapping, diagnosing, targeting, disrupting, and replacing symbolic content (See Figure 1). This framework is designed to convert the abstract principles of human communication and symbolic anthropology into actionable strategy. While inspired by the anthropological conception of symbolic systems advanced by Clifford Geertz, there is, at present, no precedent for operationalizing such systems as targets in the context of information warfare. Critical/Marxist and post-modernist theorists have certainly conceptualized how symbols reinforce ideology and can be contested. However, their work is typically diagnostic, not prescriptive, and tactics were developed in an ad hoc manner by different theorists at different times.[3]
Figure 1. The 5 Step (Symbolic Attack) Model
Roland Barthes, for example, deconstructs the ideological function of everyday symbols, such as those found in advertising, fashion, or pop culture, but his work remains analytical. It does not offer an operational strategy for systematically dismantling symbolic power in adversarial systems.[4] However, the tactics developed critical/Marxist traditions have developed offer powerful tools, such as inversion (flipping dominant meanings) and re-significiation (assigning new interpretations to existing symbols).[5] Since they work, they will be repurposed here as step four methods for weakening the coherence of adversarial symbolic systems. As such, the model presented here is speculative but necessary. It offers a first step toward bridging symbolic theory and information operations. By treating belief systems as structured targets, this framework empowers information operators to weaken adversarial narratives not by attacking individuals, but by reshaping the symbolic environment (the bonds and relationships comprising it) in which those individuals derive meaning.
Symbolic Systems
To operationalize narco variant Santa Muerte as a target, we must first understand it as a symbolic system. At its most basic Geertz defined, “a symbolic system involves a collection of symbols (like words, numbers, or icons) and a set of rules or conventions that govern how these symbols are combined and interpreted to convey meaning.’[6] The Santa Muerte is specifically a religious symbolic system. Geertz defined religion as: “A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations… by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.’[7] While all symbolic systems help people make sense of their world, religion does more than organize meaning, it fuses emotion (mood), intention (motivation), and belief (worldview) into a unified and deeply internalized experience. It not only explains reality but gives it moral and existential force. This makes religion one of the most resilient and influential symbolic systems a human being can inhabit.[8]
While Geertz laid the foundation for understanding culture and religion as a symbolic system, he left the concept underdeveloped in structural and methodological terms. His interpretive approach explained what symbols mean but not how they relate to one another within a system. Neglecting how those relationships might be formally mapped. To fill this gap, Yuri Lotman offers a more systematic theory of culture by explaining how networks of interrelated symbols governed by internal rules of combination, repetition, and transformation.[9] By identifying which symbols frequently appear together, how often they are repeated, and which ones mark key distinctions (such as sacred vs. profane), this framework makes it possible to map symbols not as isolated icons but as interconnected parts of a larger belief system.[10] This allows us to see how certain symbols, like white candles, skulls, or cloaks, consistently work together to produce meaning, guide ritual behavior, and reinforce the emotional logic of devotion.[11]
Mapping the Santa Muerte
To disrupt the narco-culture aspects of the Santa Muerte’s influence, we must first map its symbolic system. Identifying the core themes (e.g., protection, love, vengeance), the recurring anchors (e.g., candles, skulls, colors), and how they combine to create meaning across texts, rituals, and testimonies. Anchors are the physical objects, colors, gestures, or ritual elements that make abstract concept tangible and communicate symbolic meaning.[12] We treat each theme-anchor pairing as a data point that reveals how belief is constructed and reinforced. We search for semantic networks, interconnected webs where meaning is generated through the relationships between co-occurring symbols.[13]
We used natural language processing (NLP) tracing to identify these connections across multiple types of texts, (prayers, songs, rituals, etc.), created by Santa Muerte devotees to expose recurring symbolic patterns and the hidden structure of Santa Muerte devotion. These co-occurrences were then transformed into a network map, where each node represents a symbol and each connecting line shows a documented link. This process reveals which symbols are most central, which pairings are most frequent, and where the system may be most vulnerable to disruption.[14]
Steps 1 and 2 Results
This section combines the first two steps of our symbolic attack model: mapping the Santa Muerte symbolic system and diagnosing the meaning actors that activate and sustain it. Although the symbolic anchors identified in Step 2 help define the structure visualized in Step 1, we present the mapping first to establish the system’s overall architecture before analyzing how these anchors manifest through ritual and emotion. The full network is too complex to unpack in detail here, but our analysis revealed a tightly woven system in which symbols rarely appear in isolation. Across devotional texts, folk songs, and personal testimonies, the dominant themes were protection, love, and vengeance. However, protection serves as the system’s central organizing principle. In this context, protection means a super-natural shield from law enforcement, internal-betrayal, attacks from rival cartels, etc. This protective function justifies devotion, reinforces ritual behavior, and lends moral legitimacy to otherwise dangerous or unlawful acts. These themes frequently co-occurred in blended combinations, suggesting that believers do not compartmentalize spiritual needs. The symbolic system functions as a combinatorial matrix, allowing users to customize belief for personal and emotional relevance.
The results of Step 1 are represented in a network diagram below, Figure 2: Weighted Symbolic Network of Santa Muerte Themes and Anchors. It provides a visual summary of the most dominant symbolic elements in Santa Muerte devotion. Blue nodes represent key themes (e.g., Protection, Love, Vengeance), while green nodes represent meaning anchors—ritual objects, colors, or offerings that give those themes physical form. The diagram was generated using qualitative content analysis (GEN AI) and NLP to trace co-occurrence patterns across prayers, songs, and testimonies; edge weights reflect the frequency of these pairings in the data. This network supports Steps 1 and 2 of the symbolic attack model by revealing both the structure of belief and the meaning actors, rituals and emotional states, that activate and sustain it. Readers should focus on the thickest connections, as these represent the most resilient symbolic pairings and thus the most strategic targets for disruption.
Figure 2. Weighted Symbolic Nature of Stanta Muerte Themes and Anchors
Our diagnostic analysis in Step 2 identified the most active meaning anchors that bring Santa Muerte’s symbolic themes to life in practice. Anchors such as candles, statues, and ritual offerings appeared with high frequency across the analyzed prayers, songs, and testimonies. The two most powerful theme-anchor pairings were protection with red and white and vengeance and with the color black. For example, lighting a black candle while reciting a prayer for vengeance is not just expressive, it is a deliberate cognitive-behavioral practice designed to produce a sense of power, protection, or justice. Emotional triggers such as desperation, grief, betrayal, and fear often accompany these rituals, serving as meaning actors that intensify psychological commitment. These clusters represent the system’s emotional engine, where belief is not merely declared but performed, embodied, and reinforced, making them top-priority targets for symbolic disruption.
Step 3: Targeting
In the third step we focus on identifying which criminally related parts of the Santa Muerte’s symbolic system present the biggest pay-off for disruption. To assist here we will introduce Bond-Relationship Targeting (BRT). Analysis revealed that not all elements are equally central, some themes and anchors are more essential, while others are peripheral.[15] Certain pairings are strategically more valuable because they represent core mechanisms of belief transmission and emotional reinforcement within the symbolic system. For instance, pairing black candles used in vengeance rituals with the color gold signifying wealth and power. Together, they do more than express belief; they form a ritualized declaration of dominance, spiritually sanctioning violent or illegal behavior while projecting invulnerability.[16] Disrupting high-usage symbols renders it harder for the belief system to function, spread, or feel real to the devotee.
One targeting strategy especially relevant to Santa Muerte is Bond Relationship Targeting (BRT), developed by Robert J. Bunker as part of his broader work on higher-dimensional conflict.[17] BRT doesn’t aim to attack symbols directly, it targets the emotional trust that people place in those symbols. In this framework, belief is not just about doctrine; it’s about a felt, personal relationship between the devotee and a supernatural figure like Santa Muerte. That relationship can be broken by exposing contradictions, failed promises, or moments when the saint “let them down.” For example, highlighting cases where a cartel foot soldier lit a white candle for protection but was still arrested or killed can create doubt in the protective bond. Bunker argues that these kinds of non-kinetic psychological operations are critical in modern irregular warfare, especially when faith or ideology drives violence.[18] His theory provides a practical lens for Santa Muerte operations: instead of just mocking or banning the image, you target the relationship itself, undermining the sense of reciprocity and loyalty that keeps believers emotionally invested.[19]
The data reveals that gaining protection from the Santa Muerte is the most strategically valuable theme in the belief eco-system because it makes the boldest promise and is the most widely invoked. Devotees develop a relationship with emotional attachments to the Santa Muerte if they believe it is shielding them from death, violence, and arrest, especially in high-risk criminal activities. However, the protection theme creates an emotionally high-stakes situation because the belief that protection is guaranteed if the correct ritual is followed (e.g., lighting a white candle, making offerings) creates a fragile dependency. When protection fails a believer is harmed, arrested, or betrayed despite their ritual, cognitive responses like cognitive dissonance are triggered. For example, one account from a law enforcement agent who asked an arrested narcotics smuggler with a Santa Muerte shrine why it did not answer her prayers for protection received as a response, “I guess I need to pray harder”.[20] This contradiction between expectation and outcome can be difficult to reconcile. Discrediting this promise, or reinterpreting protective symbols as dangerous or deceptive, can destabilize faith not only in the symbol but in the system as a whole.
Step 4: Disruption
There are a multitude of available symbolic disruption tactics, but we will draw from five rhetorical tactics developed by Marxist/Post-Modern theorists offering concrete methods for targeting high-frequency, high-impact symbolic pairings: symbolic reversal, de-sacralization, over-coding, re-signification, and subversive mimicry. Each provides a distinct path for undermining the Santa Muerte protection motif. First, symbolic reversal attempts to flip the meaning of a symbol.[21] For protection one could introduce an idea that burning white candles does not always invoke protective shields from the Santa Muerte and can even become a beacon that attracts danger. Next, overcoding injects new ideological content into old symbols.[22] In this context, one could reframe white candle-lighting as a lack of courage in a machismo narco-culture.
De-mythologizing attempts to change religious narratives by showing that they are not sacred as they were created by humans with self-serving motives.[23] So one could challenge the truth of the protection narrative by exposing how the candle ritual was arbitrarily invented by a Shaman as means to earn money. Re-signification replaces the dominant meaning of a symbol with new meanings.[24] Introducing the idea that lighting a white candle is not invoking a spiritual defense. Instead, it is a symbol of surrender or helplessness. Finally, subversive mimicry uses parody, satire, or exaggerated imitation to change a symbol’s meaning.[25] For example, parody content could depict a devotee performing a protection ritual, only to be immediately arrested or ambushed, highlighting the disconnect between the ritual act and real-world outcomes. Hypothetically, one could use all of these tactics in a synchronized manner to simultaneously undermine the belief that the ritualistic invocation of super-natural protection from the Santa Muerte works. This would erode the overall potency of the Santa Muerte as a narco-propaganda asset.
Underlying all five disruption tactics is BRT’s focus on breaking the emotional connection between the believer and the symbolic system, rather than attacking the symbols themselves. In the Santa Muerte context, this means using disruption tactics not just to challenge meanings, but to make devotees feel abandoned, betrayed, or manipulated by the saint they once trusted. For example, symbolic reversal works best when the ritual act—such as lighting a white candle, is not only shown to be ineffective, but linked to real-world failure (e.g., arrest, ambush, or spiritual silence). De-sacralization and de-mythologizing become most powerful when they erode the sense of reciprocal trust that underpins devotion. When disruption tactics are designed with BRT in mind, they target not just belief—but loyalty, identity, and emotional dependence, which are far harder to rebuild once broken.
Step 5: Introducing Alternatives
Finally, Step 5 of the symbolic attack model, replacement, focuses on filling the vacuum left by disruption with alternative symbols, meanings, or belief pathways. This step ensures that disruption does not merely create confusion or resentment but strategically redirects symbolic energy away from the target system. While some disruption tactics introduced in Step 4, such as re-signification and subversive mimicry, straddle both phases, Step 5 consolidates these and extends them into a broader replacement strategy. The goal is not simply to break symbolic associations, but to offer new ones that are emotionally resonant, culturally familiar, and behaviorally actionable. This supports the process of achieving de-radicalization end states.
Belief systems don’t collapse when symbols are discredited; they collapse when new symbols offer more compelling meaning. BRT suggests that you would need to create a replacement for the emotional attachment between the target and a new symbol. For example, rather than just attacking the belief that a white candle provides protection, we can introduce substitute symbols that meet the same emotional and spiritual needs.[26]
One could re-introduce Saint Jude (Judas Thaddaeus) who has been potent symbolic system in Mexico for several centuries and has historically served as source of divine protection. In essence, one needs to walk Santa Muerte back from narco-culture to a less threatening/extreme form of worship, or more preferably, veneration. BRT suggests that re-instituting the Catholic churches rich symbolic system is a ready-made method of replacement for the Santa Muerte.[27] These replacements don’t need to convert all Santa Muerte devotee’s, you just need to erode it’s power as a narco-culture symbol. When combined, the five steps form a full-spectrum strategy to dismantle and reconfigure belief systems at the levels of ritual, emotion, and identity.
Conclusion
If cartels can weaponize belief through symbols, then information warriors must learn to disarm them the same way. They must target the symbols themselves. The extreme narco based Santa Muerte belief system is not immune to disruption; it is built on recognizable patterns, emotional rituals, and repeatable acts that can be mapped, weakened, and replaced. This five-step model—as a focal point component of exploratory CONOPS—offers a practical framework for doing just that, giving strategists a roadmap to confront narco-spiritual propaganda not with brute force, but with sharper symbols, better stories, and more credible meaning.
Endnotes
[1] For background on this imagery and the incident see Robert J. Bunker, “Santa Muerte Shrine Found in Gang Member Residence with Narcotics and Firearms in San Antonio, Texas.” C/O Futures Dark Spirituality Imagery Archive. 3 March 2023, https://www.cofutures.net/post/santa-muerte-shrine-found-in-gang-member-residence-with-narcotics-and-firearms-in-san-antonio-texas.
[2] Douglas S. Wilbur, “Employing Information Operations to Challenge Cartel (Narcocultura) Derived Santa Muerte Propaganda.” Small Wars Journal. 21 April 2025, https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/04/21/employing-information-operations-to-challenge-cartel-narcocultura-derived-santa-muerte-propaganda/.
[3] John B. Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture: Critical Social Theory in the Era of Mass Communication. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990.
[4] Roland Barthes, Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.
[5] Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso, 1985.
[6] Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973, pp. 5–6.
[7] Kevin Schilbrack, “Religions: Are There Any?” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Vol. 78, no. 4, 2010: p. 1121, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfq063.
[8] Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson, Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
[9] Yuri Lotman, Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
[10] Umberto Eco, A Theory of Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976.
[11] Peeter Torop, “Lotmanian Semiotics and the Semiotics of Culture.” Sign Systems Studies. Vol. 30, no. 2, 2002: pp. 405–428.
[12] Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
[13] Op. cit., Lotman at Note 9.
[14] Kay L. O’Halloran, Gautam Pal, and Minhao Jin, “Multimodal Approach to Analysing Big Social and News Media Data.” Discourse, Context & Media. Vol. 40,100467. April 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211695821000040.
[15] Tony Kail, Santa Muerte: Mexico’s Mysterious Saint of Death. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2012.
[16] R. Andrew Chesnut, Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
[17] Robert J. Bunker, “Higher Dimensional Warfighting,” Military Review . Vol. 79, no. 5, 1999: pp. 53–62, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-D101-PURL-LPS12517/pdf/GOVPUB-D101-PURL-LPS12517.pdf.
[18] Robert J. Bunker, “Bond Relationship Targeting.” Leatherneck, 9 July2006, https://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?27811-Bond-Relationship-Targeting&p=160225&viewfull=1.
[19] Robert J. Bunker, “Terrorism as Disruptive Targeting.” TRENDS Research & Advisory. 15 February 2022, https://trendsresearch.org/insight/terrorism-as-disruptive-targeting/.
[20] Robert Almonte, “Santa Muerte: Patron Saint of Criminals.” Presentation at Law Enforcement Training Seminar, 2016.
[21] Stuart Hall, “The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’: Return of the Repressed in Media Studies” in Tony Bennett, James Curran, Michael Gurevitch, Janet Wollacott, Eds., Culture, Society and the Media, London: Routledge, 1982: pp. 56–90.
[22] Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey, Eds.(and Trans.). Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971.
[23] Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977.
[24] Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. New York: Verso: 1985.
[25] Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
[26] John Horgan and Kurt Braddock, “Rehabilitating the Terrorists? Challenges in Assessing the Effectiveness of De-radicalization Programs.” Terrorism and Political Violence. Vol. 22, no. 2. 2010: pp. 267–291, https://doi.org/10.1080/09546551003594748.
[27] Op. cit., Chesnut at Note 16.
