"We live in a region where violent and slow, painful death have spilled across the borders," said the director of the Human Rights Institute at Central American University El Salvador, Benjamin Cuellar.

He noted that for the past 10 years, Latin America's murder rate has been twice that of any other continent.

In Mexico, President Felipe Calderon in 2006 deployed 50,000 troops to help local police stem the spiralling bloodshed across his country. Since then, however, drug-related violence has claimed some 28,000 victims, more than 13,000 in 2010 alone.

But the 2010 murder rate, Mexico's worst ever, is only part of the story. The ruthlessness, depravity and sheer cruelty shown by the killers has degenerated to unsuspected levels.

And thanks to the digital age, the gory executions of kidnap victims, the torture of rival gang members and the shocking decapitations of many can be downloaded in picture or video format on the Internet.

The ritualistic aspect of these murders, often carried out as initiation rites, add to their harshness.

Callous attitude

Western Michoacan state's La Familia drug cartel boss Nazario Moreno, who the government said was killed last week in a shootout with police, wrote a sort of "Bible" for his group, notorious for piling up bodies and tossing severed heads inside bars.

"The hit men are getting younger and more ruthless, sometimes acting out esoteric cult rituals such as beheading or dismembering their victims," said Mexico police commissioner Facundo Rosas.

Some of the names the criminal gangs give themselves witness their callous attitude. In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital across from El Paso, Texas, nearly 3,000 murders this year have been attributed to Los Aztecas and "Los Artistas Asesinos" (the murder artists).

In Honduras, authorities believe the September massacre of 18 factory workers in San Pedro Sula was a settling of accounts between the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, gang and its chief rival Mara 18 (M-18).

Three weeks after that mass shooting, neighbouring El Salvador passed an anti-crime gang law that punishes anybody found to belong to such groups with 10 years in prison.

But there are compelling reasons why some young people join criminal gangs.

Becoming a hit man or beginner drug trafficker "is the only door open" to young people living in poverty, author Elmer Mendoza, who wrote a best-seller on drug trafficking, said.

"But it's not only about eating and putting food on the table," she said. "It's also about marking out your own space within a group and getting admiration, so they can say: 'There goes so-and-so.' And that's what we're seeing in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil."

This is where the ritualistic element comes in, Mendoza said.

'Holy bandit'

That's why many hit men in Mexico belong to the cult of "La Santa Muerte" (Holy Death) represented by a scythe-wielding skeleton draped in the robes of a Catholic saint. It has an estimated following of two to five million people.

Other gang members worship altars to "holy bandit" Jesus Malverde, others still sacrifice their victims to Palo Mayombe, a bloody offshoot of Cuba's Afro-American Santeria religion.

In Venezuela, they make offers to the "Court of Malandra;" in Colombia, they pray for good aim to the Virgin of Sabaneta; while in Argentina drug traffickers cluster around the images of Sint Expeditus to help them overcome trials and tribulations.

"It is a deviation from historical religions toward pseudo-Catholicism and occultism, so that these individuals expect to get special favours," above all control over death, said Carlos Montiel, who wrote "La Fe de los Sicarios" (the faith of a hit man).

The decision to join a criminal gang is not always a personal one. Many are "manipulated by superstitious sect leaders who feed a massive level of violence," the Mexican researcher said.

In August, Organisation of American States secretary-general Jose Manuel Insulza admitted that Latin America was experiencing an unprecedented crime wave, which "in a number of cities has become a real epidemic”.

"Five years ago, we spoke separately of drug cartels, maras, armed gangs, kidnappers, smugglers and people traffickers. Now all this violence seems to converge in criminal organisations alone," he said after a Mexico City event.