Indigenous Raramuri Have Been Suffering at Hands of Mexico's Narcos for Decades Kenny Sokan - PRI's The World
go to original July 1, 2016

A Tarahumara indigenous family sits together in Guachochi, in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

In the canyons of northern Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental reside some of the fastest runners in the world: the indigenous Tarahumara population, who call themselves the Raramuri.



"Raramuri" means "foot-runner" or "those who run fast."

This indigenous group excels in running competitions worldwide. But to the authorities, they're becoming known for something else: Narco-traffickers have been exploiting them to smuggle drugs to the US. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of Raramuri arrested at the US-Mexico border doubled from 50 to 100 detainees.

Though this is a problem the Raramuri community has been dealing with for more than two decades, it has gone largely unreported in international media.

Randall Gingrich is director of Tierra Nativa, a Raramuri social and environmental advocacy organization. For 25 years, he has advised and supported Raramuri communities, and for 16 years lived with them in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, which he says is one of the most violent drug-producing regions in the Sierra Madre.

A number of factors make the Raramuri vulnerable to local drug cartels.

Read the rest at PRI's The World

Related: The Hot Land: After an Uprising in Mexico, the Return of the Narco Warlords (The Intercept)

Related: Living with Smugglers and Dopers on the Texas/Mexico Border (The Texas Tribune)

Related: Report: Heroin Turf Wars Among Mexican Cartels Fueling Homicides (Newsmax)

Related: Mexican Cartels and Their Cheap Heroin Are Driving Up Crime in American Cities, Report Finds (The Daily Caller)

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