Guerrero Ecologists Promote Drug Crop Alternatives

...ers...

...These charges were similar to the ones which had been used to jail OCESP's now internation- ally known leaders Rodolfo Montiel y Teodoro Cabrera for three years, until they were freed following the suspicious death of their lawyer Digna Ochoa...

...Then they turn most of the cleared land to poppy or marijuana production...

...The communities themselves see these iniciatives as the key to their economic independence and their freedom from the power of the local caciques...

...But what seemed to me important about what was happening in Petatlan valley was that there the impulse for change was coming from the farmers themselves rather than being imposed by the government...

...It was still pitch dark when, riding on a rick- ety old quatrimotor-a four-wheeled motorcy- cle-OCESP President Juan Bautista Valle Sdnchez, Secretary General Felipe Arriaga and I began the twelve-hour trek to a ranch high on a mountain peak in the Petatlcn valley...

...The Organizaci6n de Campesinos Ecologistas de la Sierra de Petatldn y Coyuca de Catalan (OCESP), perhaps Mexi- co's best known environmental group, is active there...

...Many local farmers, their own lands degraded by the environmen- tal aftereffects of uncontrolled logging, find themselves forced to grow drug crops in order to survive...

...OCESP's high national and international pro- file has helped the group gain a hearing from state and local off~cials when they demand greater resources for their region...

...Because less forest was being 20NAI2[A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 20 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASby Jordi Pius Llopart DRUG ECONOMIES OF THE AMERICAS OCESP act~vists at the Petatlm VaIIrv ranch Pres~dent Juan Sautista Vall~ spat& second from kfr, oroanirrr Pol~rno Cabrefa Toms standmg second from rrqht cleared, less land was being converted to drug crop production...

...Sierra caciques and their political buddies found this particular source of illegal income cut off...

...But now that they see I'm able to feed my family," he said, "they all want to know how to do what I'm doing...

...See "Drugs, Guerrillas and Politicos in Mexico...

...Then we got a ride on another, newer quatrimotor to the ranch where the seven young men were anxiously waiting to tell me their version of what was happening in the region: "The caciques are accusing us of crimes we haven't committed," Roberto Cabrera Tor- res told me, "every time we ask for a legal action in our favor they accuse us of a new crime...

...There I was to interview seven OCESP activists who had been hiding out for several months after local authorities accused them of drug traffick- ing and membership in a guerrilla group...

...On a two week trip last February, I was to learn how deeply the environmental and drug issues have become intertwined, and what OCESP is doing about both...

...This phrase-"their things"-echoed one that Arriaga and Bautista had used earlier...

...They try to d~spell the fear of reprisals from the caciques...

...On my trip down from OCESP's moun- tain hideaway, I met another of the organiza- tion's activists, Jeronimo Orozco Tapia...

...Meanwhile, they continue con sus cosas-with their things...

...They had told me they believed OCESP's work was responsible for "clear differences" between Petatl6n valley, where OCESP is strongest, and neighboring Coyuquilla valley, where OCESP had been losing influence...

...These include the pro- duction of river shrimp, organic fertilizers, and avocados-as well as the sustainable commer- cial production of iguanas, which are locally viewed as both a food source and an aphro- disiac...

...At the same time, OCESP is trying to encour- age new kinds of economic act~vity in this impoverished region...

...They are now even trying to extend the model into the much more problematic Coyuquilla valley...

...they have so far failed in many other drug producing nations, including Peru and Bolivia...

...At first everybody laughed at me," Orozco comment- ed, as he proudly offered me what turned out to be a delicious ceviche made with shrimp he had produced...

...Alternative development is nothing new and there is reason to be sceptical about such plans...

...For evident reasons, the OCESP leaders did not feel safe in discussing the caciques' activi- ties openly...

...A ctivists like Orozco make it a point to attend local community meetings and they travel to the most remote parts of the zone to encourage those local people who are still involved in "the same things" to try the new alternatives...

...The zone is also a center of marijuana and opium poppy production...

...I attended a meeting in the Petetlan community of El Zapotiyal where federal officials seemed to be listening attentively to alternative development proposals put together by each of the valley's villages and settlements...

...When I pressed them about what these differences were, they were happy to talk in detail about promising new enterprises, like shrimp farm- ing, that were underway in Petatlan, while about Coyuquilla they would only say vaguely that "the same things as always" were occur- ring...

...but reading between the lines I came to understand their strategy in con- fronting the powerful local figures: First, OCESP wanted to put an end to illegal logging and then it would provide area residents with economic alternatives to drug crops...

...He had been one of the first to take the risk of trying to make a living from one of the alternatives...

...They had suffered abuse, assassina- tions, and the jailing of their top leadership, but they had won over public opinion and had succeeded in preserving a large part of the local forest...

...They've accused us of being guerrillas, murderers, cattle rustlers and marijuana growJordi Pius Llopart is a human rights lawyer and NACLA staffer whose Guerrero fact-finding mission was sponsored by Global Exchange and Mexico's Miguel Agustin Pro Judrez Human Rights Center...

...He raises shrimp in a tank, even though he has received no outside aid to do so...

...As I learned more about the region, howev- er, I understood that "things" referred to ille- gal logging and drug production: The local caciques-who already control the region's best lands-first log the sierra's forests, mak- ing big profits from the sale of the wood...

...Six hours into the journey, the road became too steep for the ancient quatrimotor, and we hitchhiked by truck until the road ran out alto- gether...

...It was two in the morning when I was awak- ened to begin a journey that would take me high into Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sur and deep into one of the most troubled and remote parts of the state of Guerrero, the region that includes the Petatl n and Coyuquil- la river valleys...

...T he environmental group had first become nationally and internationally known because of the peaceful road blockades it had organized to keep trucks loaded with ille- gally logged wood from reaching area sawmills...

...we've been unable to keep working to defend our forests and our people because we've had to keep hidden from the police and the military...