Cienfuegos in Guerrero: “Legal Poppy Growing Possible Solution”

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: El Sol

By: Carlos Moreno A.
Extra Material from Noticieros Televisa

The Secretary of National Defense, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, said that the legalization of the cultivation of poppy in Guerrero "is already on the table", and "could be a way out of the problem" in the state with insecurity, violence and criminal groups.

However, he said, they would attend to "the security of the peasants", because they would no longer sell the poppy gum to "delinquents", but instead, they will sell to the government, to make the morphine which is used in health care for pain in patients. "

In brief statements to reporters after the inauguration of the 41st Infantry Battalion in Teloloapan Guerrero, Cienfuegos Zepeda, said that the subject of the poppy cultivation will have to be debated, but in principle "I think it is correct, and it is a proposal made by the governor a while ago, and see how it works. " He also said that the security that would be given to the farmers who cultivate the drug should be considered .

With regard to the proposal of a National Guard in place of the armed forces now serving, will be, Cienfuegos Zepeda said " I think, now I do not know it, but that if any corporation that can serve in the country, a unified command, the coordinations of security corporations are a must.

On the subject of the proposal on the possible command of the Sedena, Cienfuegos said that  the president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has them in his power, "he has agreed, has been quite friendly, in terms of the relationship we have, he asked us for the proposals, we delivered them and we are waiting for him to decide who the new command will be. "

On whether  the soldiers will remain in the streets with  the new incoming federal administration, Cienfuegos Zepeda, considered that they have been doing it for several years, and today, "they intend to find some other way of dealing with the problems of security and see in a coordinated way with the new government and to determine what it is like, we could continue to support public security structures with military support.

Meanwhile, the 41st Infantry Battalion Inaugurated is  in Teloloapan, Guerrero;

This battalion will have 4 commanders, 520 troop elements and 45 officers, reported in his participation, the commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion, Carlos Martín.

The governor, Hector Astudillo Flores, acknowledged the military presence in the municipality of Teloloapan in the northern region of Guerrero, in his message at the start of the opening parade of the 41st Infantry Battalion, with the aim of improving the security conditions in the area .

Astudillo Flores, recalled that, in a conversation with the Secretary of National Defense, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, told him to establish a battalion in the municipality, "with the purpose that nearby municipalities could count on the solidarity of the defense and the government of the state and increase security conditions ".

In the central square of Teloloapan, the governor, welcomed the Army and thanked him for his stay in this municipality, to "contribute to improve conditions improve peace improve progress".

"We appreciate your determination to achieve what is established today, the 41th Infantry Battalion, here an investment was made for your stay, we have done it together, Federal, State Government and National Defense," said Astudillo Flores.

The act was also attended by the Secretary of National Defense, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, the municipal president, Efrén Ángel Romero Sotelo, the State Attorney General, Jorge Zuriel de los Santos Barrila, and military authorities.

The Secretary of National Defense inaugurated, in Guerrero, a new military barracks in the municipality of Teloloapan, in the north of the state, where he asserted that before the current administration ends, four more barracks will be put into operation in the country, in Chiapas. , Jalisco, Sinaloa and Quintana Roo.

Worldwide, Mexico is in third place in the planting of poppies with 28,000 hectares per year; the state of Guerrero occupies the first place in the production of opium gum.

During a poppy eradication operation in the Sierra Madre del Sur, intelligence works of the National Defense Secretariat reveal that of the 81 municipalities that make up the state, 63 are planted marijuana and poppy. The latter is the most profitable for drug traffickers.

One hectare of poppy produces 11 kilos of opium gum. When processed in clandestine laboratories, one kilo of powdered heroin is obtained.

The basic element for the cooking of opium gum is lime in a period of 24 hours to extract the morphine and then the heroin, " said the Major of the infantry Rodrigo Olguin Gomez, in charge of operations against drug trafficking of the Sedena.

Upon reaching the border with the United States, that kilo of pure heroin powder reaches $35,000 US dollars.

To collect the opium gum, it requires a lot of precision when scratching the bulb of the plant often done with a small sharp piece of stone.

They let the resin come out around and then, with a container, they make it a U or V shaped groove in the lip of a tin can  and they collect the flowing gum after scratching grooves around the seed heads or bulbs, " described a Mexican Army soldier.

A normal poppy plant produces between 6 and 8 bulbs. However, drug traffickers have genetically improved it. A plant found in Tamazula, Durango, was found to have 43 bulbs.

Depenalization of poppy gives hope to peasant farmers of Guerrero: 

In the Sierra de Guerrero , corn is not a business. There, men and women, poppies, are waiting for the decriminalization of the poppy, their source of work. This is the second part of a special report on "Despierta" . Our partner Saul Sanchez Lemus went to the dangerous, complicated and poor Sierra de Guerrero and this was what he found.

We are in the Filo Mayor, is the region with the highest production of poppy and marijuana , the highest and most secluded region of the Sierra de Guerrero.

-And since when do you plant?

"Since I remember, that I started about 12 years ago, I started to walk already with someone who already knew how, 10, 12 years old I believe ".

Another poppy and marihuanero says:

"Here I regularly sows  the enervants,  the poppy and  the marijuana. Well, there is no other way out, there is no alternative to just planting this, it is the only way that resources can have. "

Corn is not business. The proposal to decriminalize drugs is making visible the true dimension of the production of drugs in the Sierra de Guerrero. Before it was a taboo subject, an open secret and few dared to talk about it. Now many, too many, are talking about the issue, and some are even recognizing that they are producers of poppy and / or marijuana.

Humberto Nava Reyna, president of the Supreme Council of the Peoples of the Filo Mayor, explains:

In 40 years the economy of the sierreños has been that of the poppy, the sowing of the poppy, the harvesting of the gum and the sowing of the marijuana  ".

All, the whole sierra is dedicated to drug trafficking because there is no other economy. The number of enervante producers revealed by the Supreme Council of the Peoples of the Filo Mayor is impressive. 50,000 amapoleros and marihuaneros alone in this region known as the Filo Mayor.

Arturo Martínez, deputy-elect, says:

They are many people of flesh and blood and they have to be attended, not as a number, but as a reality. That when one goes to the region because there is like a ghost going through the whole of the Filo Mayor because the theme of the poppy ".

In this place called the Filo Mayor the poppies began to grow by the hundreds. In November, all the hillsides will be filled with colorful flowers, as in this image that the poppies shared. They are the plants of the last harvest, those that already scratched to extract the opium gum.

  

It is striped at this time until 2 in the afternoon and you leave it until the next day, you go, you fall asleep early and get going before dawn to join the team, " says an amapolero or poppy farmer.

To join the gum harvesters ATVs are indispensable vehicles in the Filo Mayor. It is the only way to move around these forests, hillsides and forgotten roads, through which no one passes.

Only they, the amapoleros and ,the mariguaneros, who in this community have formed a surveillance and protection system. Among the peasants here, some take care of each other, "says an amapolero.

One is notified by radio. When the Government arrives, for example, it arrives at a small town and they already warn you and you have time to get out of there, from work.

The faith of these men and their families is in one word, decriminalization. They see it as the possibility of a change that can bring benefits in many ways and end the persecution, the violence.

Well,  I hear that the project is what I would like it to be, " say a marihuanero and poppy grower.

Arturo Martínez, deputy-elect, says:

I'm not the one to say it is  safe conduct, but you have to go see them. When you see them face to face and go there to the region and you know them and you talk to them, it totally changes your perspective. "  They call us criminals, bad people but we are not, " says a poppy farmer.

18 countries cultivate poppy lawfully. 50, including Mexico, do so illegally, according to the United Nations (UN).