Posted on 02/09/2005 1:52:06 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Drug Gangs Force Indians to Drop Tradition
Wed Feb 9,10:13 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters
By Tim Gaynor
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican drug gangs are forcing Indian tribes to abandon their traditional crops and grow marijuana and heroin poppies, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The report by Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute said armed drug gangs were driving communities of Tarahumara, Guarijio and Pima Indians to give up their age-old way of life in the mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua states.
More than 50,000 members of the tribes have lived in caves and log cabins in remote canyons in the Western Sierra Madre mountain range in the area for millennia, surviving on subsistence corn crops.
They mix Roman Catholic rites with traditional beliefs in sun and moon deities, and chew hallucinogenic peyote buttons to perform an ancient dance to cure the sick.
Researchers said drug gangs from neighboring Sinaloa state are entering the remote region and forcing the native villagers to stop growing traditional corn in favor of marijuana and heroin poppies.
"These three groups have been forced to abandon their traditional crops by the drug traffickers, and it is having a great impact on their way of life," anthropologist Alejandro Aguilar told Reuters in a telephone interview from Sonora.
"While some elders are trying to conserve traditional festivals linked to the maize harvest, the arrival of these groups from Sinaloa brings ... western clothes, cassette recorders, pistols and the consumption of alcohol," he added.
Aguilar said that the drug gangs had also intimidated some Indian communities into dropping traditional Holy Week Catholic Church rites to worship Jesus Malverde, the patron saint of the drug runners.
"The elements from Sinaloa are ... asking them to venerate the image of Malverde, the patron saint of the narcos, who is not recognized by the Church," Aguilar said.
Sinaloa is the cradle of the Mexican drug trade, where Chinese migrants first came in the 19th century to grow heroin poppies to make opiate-based pain killers for sale in the United States.
Since then, local drug gangs have continued to cultivate heroin and marijuana crops to smuggle north over the border and have transported tons of contraband cocaine for Colombia cartels. .
Recreational drug usage is helping to quicken our downward spiral.
As we used to say, "ANY story is better than none, when caught."
I didn't know there was a patron saint of Drug lords
img src="http://www.sermonaudio.com/newsimages/17588.jpg">
I didn't know there was a patron saint of Drug lords
Ping
That does not follow. What does follow is that our current regime for dealing with it is counterproductive.
I see that mine has become the dreaded red-x.
Those drug arswipes will rue the day they meet up with ze dredded red-x of ze dezzert!
Red-x? We don't need no steenking red-x's!
We never hear much about drug eradication programs in Mexico. So, if the Federales aren't confiscating crops and the traffickers are increasing production, then demand must be increasing.
Or, more likely, corruption is increasing.
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