Pachamama rituals linked to alleged human sacrifice in new report

The report highlights a criminal case covered by the Bolivian newspaper El Deber on March 15, 2024. According to the source, a court in El Alto sentenced two men, age 56 and 68, to 20 and 30 years in prison, respectively, for crimes connected to the disappearance of a 25-year-old woman, Shirley H.R.A., in 2021. The prosecution charged them with aggravated human trafficking and criminal association. The victim, a mother of two, was last seen on October 20, 2021, when she was summoned to a location in El Alto by an acquaintance.

Judicial findings indicate that the woman was drugged, transported while unconscious, and taken to a local mine. There, according to the investigations, she was buried as an offering to Pachamama. The body has not been recovered, but the court accepted the reconstruction of events presented by the prosecution, which was based on eyewitness testimony and investigative evidence. It is not clear whether the burial took place while she was still alive, but it is considered plausible, given the sacrificial nature of the crime.

“Sacrifices follow the belief that Pachamama requires blood in order to be appeased, as they are a way of thanking her for the material goods received,” El Deber reads. “As part of the ritual, miners set up tables with incense, herbs, and roots, which they then sprinkle with alcohol and beer. They then slit the throats and extract the hearts of several llamas, in a ceremony known as wilancha.”

Further details reported by El Deber describe the involvement of multiple individuals. The victim was allegedly lured by a woman identified as a ritual practitioner, together with her husband. These individuals reportedly coordinated with others, including intermediaries who facilitated contact with miners. According to prosecutors, the participants received payment and resumed their normal activities, believing the crime would not be discovered.

InfoVaticana’s report also refers to a separate journalistic investigation published by La Prensa that included testimony from a ritual specialist, or yatiri. In that account, the practitioner stated that human offerings are still carried out, particularly in connection with construction projects and mining operations.

Pachamama is considered the “Mother Earth” of Andean cosmology, a divinity venerated by the Incas and by various indigenous peoples as the goddess of fertility and abundance. She remains central to traditional rituals in Peru, Bolivia, and other Andean regions.

Often syncretized with Christian elements, she represents one of the few surviving pagan cults that still involve not only vegetal offerings — especially coca leaves — but also animal sacrifices and, according to some testimonies, in extreme and criminal cases, even human ones.

READ: Pachamama idolatry returns: Cardinals who condemned Francis’ scandal now face Leo’s

Among the best‑known rites is the wilancha, in which animals, especially adult llamas and alpacas, are killed with the spilling of blood onto the earth as an offering. Another ritual involves the burial of llama fetuses, often dried or burned. These specimens are commonly found in local markets.

On October 4, 2019, in the Vatican Gardens on the eve of the Amazon Synod, Pope Francis took part in a pagan ceremony featuring Pachamama statues depicting nude, pregnant women and ritual dances. The pope “blessed” a statue. The statues were displayed in the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, near the Vatican, and carried in procession to St. Peter’s Basilica, causing a serious scandal among Catholics.

On October 21, 2019, some Catholic laymen took three statues from the church and threw them into the Tiber River. On the following October 25, Francis publicly apologized for the incident: “As the bishop of the Diocese of Rome, I ask forgiveness from the people who were offended by this act.”

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