Guerrero Bishop Calls for Compassion for People Growing Opium Poppies David Agren - Catholic News Service
go to original May 18, 2016

Risky Life of Mexican Poppy Farmers (Financial Times)

A Catholic bishop in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero has called for compassion toward the impoverished populations harvesting opium poppies out of necessity, saying such people are not sinners and are neglected by the government.

He asked the army to stop fumigating small farmers' poppy fields "until there are other options for opium poppy growers" and said the practice was "taking food out of their mouths (and) starving them to death."

"People who grow opium poppies are the most marginalized people in the state and the country. ... It's campesinos (peasant farmers) who plant the flower, not narcotics traffickers," Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa told the newspaper El Universal. "Those that plant (opium poppies) are somewhat enslaved, receiving a minimal benefit, and they grow it to get by. ... The church must not condemn it because the majority of people (growing poppies) do it because of a lack of options."

Priests in drug-producing Mexican states often confront the realities of local people growing illegal cash crops such as marijuana and opium poppies to put food on the table. Bishop Rangel made his comments as violence consumed the state of Guerrero, which lies south of Mexico City and includes some of the country's most marginalized municipalities.

Read the rest at Catholic News Service

Related: Mexico Debates Legalizing Opium Poppy for Medicine (The Nation)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!