Cartoonist Glauco's Murder and Santo Daime

I debated with myself about posting this, but decided that you guys are not kids and can think. Glauco was a sweet and talented guy, is a cherished figure in Brazil and I adored Geraldão, his main character. Santo Daime is a controversial religion and had been target of a smear campaign by rightist magazine Veja, and I just didn't feel like adding fuel to that. But this is an interesting case that deserves our attention. I think this case was a total freak incident that does not prove anything about the ritualistic use of ayahuasca. Give me twenty murders and we can begin to talk.

Marcelo Balvve writes for The True Slant:

Ayahuasca has been used ritually by South American Indians for thousands of years. But a modern ayahuasca-based tradition sprung out of Brazil, and has become one among the country's many popular syncretic religions. Santo Daime began in the 20th Century with Afro-Brazilian spiritual leader Raimundo Irineu Serra, who under the influence of ayahuasca communed with the Virgin Mary of the Rainforests.

Today in Brazil, Santo Daime encompasses various groupings with slightly differing ritual practices. Since January of this year, after decades of inconsistent and blurry government attitudes toward the vine, its religious usage was legally sanctioned by Brazil's drug control body CONAD, which developed its new policy toward ayahuasca in consultation with Santo Daime-linked groups such as the Cefluris Institute.

At that point, the policy did not trigger too much scrutiny. Then, on March 12, Glauco Villa Boas, a prominent, cerebral, and popular political cartoonist for the influential Folha de São Paulo newspaper, was murdered at his home. His son, Raoni, was also killed. The events leading to the double murder are still cloudy and in dispute.

But Glauco, as he's known in Brazil, was a leader at a Santo Daime church. His alleged killer had frequented the church, according to police reports. Some of the hypotheses around the murder connect the suspected shooter's motives and state of mind to the religion and its psychoactive sacraments.

Cartoonist's murder triggers debate of ritual ayahuasca usage in Brazil, implications for U.S.

Previously:
Santo Daime, a mix of religious traditions (video)

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