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Saturday, October 6, 2018

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).

16 comments:

  1. Que Milagro. A tiny ray of common sense. Now if only there was news that private industry could process mota into chemicals legal for sale in the United States it would mean another bite out of the criminal's industry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The weed is already here. No one except the southern states where pot is still not legal. And no serious dabber, edible, or concentrate user would ever use those products from Mexico. Weed is a decoy to get loads of synthetics, coke, and smack through. All big busts lately are meth and synthetics...that's the cash cow for most cartels. US is interfering with Chinese export of precursors. Street prices climbing in most areas already, or will be. They are finally literally following the money.

      Delete
    2. Common sense depends which side of the fence one stands on. We are all aware of the importance of the poppy (medically / recreationally) for its revenue.
      Morally speaking, the Mexican government is transitioning to control the drug market. Legitimizing itself with the necessary steps for the watchfuleyes of the public and world.
      I must admit that this idea of selling to only government will not stem the violence. Rather infuriating those who are not in association with the government. Reffernce to: independent dealers and organized crime families.
      The idea sounds like a good solution. However, there is never a perfect solution due to who truly benefits.

      E42

      Delete
  2. Cjng got that plaza too

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was the famous el RR from CJNG

      Delete
  3. they will sell to the government, to make the morphine which is used in health care for pain in patients.

    Did you see what just happened there, Mexico Co just got into the prescription opioid business.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Following in the same footsteps of pharmaceutical companies here in the US and abroad for legitimate profits.
      Wouldn't be surprised if American parmacutical companies interests involved in this process.

      Let's just hope that rules and regulations are set forth for consumers safety requirements. Then again it's Mexico after all. Where anything can be purchased or swayed by other means.

      Delete
  4. This is a fools solution..in the end it will fail as the country as a whole slides further down the path to destruction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Salvador Cienpedos is the mexican secretary of defense bastard who disappeared the ayotzinapos and the evidence, now must be involved in production and hopes to make good money out of it, he has been murdering and disappearing Mexicans since MEXICO 68 fresh out of military college and now is helping Astudillo while both scratch each other's brokeback.

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  6. I believe and I said it again , legalization will lower violence by 70/80% and it will provide jobs for lots of people

    ReplyDelete
  7. More Fentanyl to America then.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How much is Cienfuegos getting paid?

    ReplyDelete
  9. The only reason it's so expensive is because it's illegal. If it's decriminalized, the price would drop like Marijuana did .Also, the cartels would increase Meth Production in that region to offset losses. This is not the answer for their ignorance and cycle of drug dependence economy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cienfuegos has been complicit with the CJNG for years. "El Padrino" as he is referred to has been partnered with El Mencho and protected him from Navy and Police operations for quite some time. The DEA and the rest of the USG and GOM turn a blind eye while Padrino flies coke in on GOM aircraft and protects Mencho. Old 100 fires even brokered millions in payoff money to the families of the Soldiers and Police killed when Mencho shot down the helicopter a few years back. So now he wants to legalize opium? Maybe he should be called Marioneta de Mencho instead of El Padrino. "El Hombre en La Sombras"

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anyone who thinks violence in Mexico will decrease with medical opium has no idea what's going on in Mexico.

    First, violence in Mexico is now more related to extortion and all the rest.

    Two, demand for opium is way down due to artificial substitutes.

    Three, the medical opium market is already flooded with cheap product from Turkey and Afghanistan.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just like when arming civilians came up in Congress, but look nothing was done, Mexico is a quagmire, nothing will improve.

    ReplyDelete

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