Man Wakes Up in Coffin and Says He Was "Offered as a Human Sacrifice" Against His Will
Alvarez has sworn he was used as a sullu—a sacrifice to the goddess Pachamama.
Humans are fallible, and much of the human experience is universal, which means that many of us continue to make the same mistakes as generations of others before us. For example: Indulging in a few too many and waking up the next morning in some place we regret. Except maybe not like this. A man in Bolivia claims he got drunk and woke up to realize he was being offered as a human sacrifice. Read on to hear his harrowing story.
Summer is the season of outdoor festivals, and like millions of merrymakers across the globe, 30-year-old Victor Álvarez was taking advantage of the opportunity to get outside and maybe disconnect a bit with the help of alcohol. Specifically, he was attending the Mother Earth fest in El Alto, Bolivia, on Aug. 1. There, according to the New York Post, indigenous groups congregate to make offerings to Pachamama, the goddess of Earth and fertility. Álvarez had some drinks—many drinks, by his own admission. Then things got weird.
The Post reports that Álvarez passed out after imbibing too much. A few hours later, he awoke with the need to urinate. It was then that he realized he was lying inside a glass coffin that was covered with dirt.
"We'd gone dancing," Alvarez told local media. "The only thing I remember is that I thought I was in my bed and I got up to go pee, and I couldn't move. "When I pushed the coffin I barely broke the glass and, through the glass, dirt began to enter. I managed to get out. I had been buried."
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Álvarez says that once he came to, he realized he was in Achacachi, a town about 50 miles from the Mother Earth festival, reports Metro. He sought out the local police, who didn't believe his story. The officers told Álvarez he was still drunk, he says, telling him to go home and sober up.
But Alvarez has sworn to local media that he's telling the truth, claiming the group wanted to use him as a sullu—a sacrifice to the goddess.
Pictures and video were published in local media showing Álvarez looking bruised and smudged with dirt.
Pachamama is a mythological figure revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is considered an "Earth Mother" and the goddess of fertility, which extends to the land, enabling a productive harvest and causing earthquakes. Various media sources report that in the modern day, sacrifices to her are common—usually sweets, the occasional animal, but not, as far as is known, humans.
