angeles cruz martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, January 31, 2023, p. 13
After nine months of being in unofficial preventive detention, the trial against José, a traditional doctor from Peru, accused of introducing narcotics into the country, began last Thursday. Like him, seven other people were detained for the same reason, at the Mexico City International Airport on different dates in 2022 and are still awaiting trial.
They are accused of carrying Ayahuasca, a mixture of plants that in South American countries is used in indigenous communities as part of traditional medicine. It is an ancient practice, explained the lawyers Natalia Rebollo and Jesús Alonso Olamendi.
They affirmed that the accusations of drug trafficking are excessive and lack substantiation. Rebollo commented that there are more than 500 research reports on the benefits of preparing different plants in the management of mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress and anxiety, among other health problems. It should be used during ceremonial rituals conducted by indigenous people who know about the use of Ayahuasca.
The issue has reached the morning conferences of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who offered the collaboration of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection to review the cases. Apart from José, the indigenous people Lauro, from Peru, and Claudino, from Colombia, are imprisoned in the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City. Erick, originally from Brazil, is in the South Prison.
Non-indigenous Mexicans, Gabriela, Elizabeth, Alain and Saúl, are also deprived of their liberty for the same reason.
Rebollo commented that the arrests have occurred by ignorance
of officials because the General Health Law establishes which components are prohibited, particularly Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) of synthetic origin. He warned that international treaties state that the use of this substance of plant origin is not controlled
and it is the one that is contained in the Ayahuasca.
The lawyers are members of the Ethnobotanical Education and Community Service Foundation, a global organization that collaborates with the legal team that follows up on the legal proceedings against the eight defendants. They commented that from the Intercultural Forum on Entheogenic Medicine, held last week in the Senate of the Republic, the possibility of creating a regulation on plants and fungi was opened, with respect and understanding of indigenous traditions.
