Out From the Shadows - Day One

Although registration and a bit of mingling took place last night, the Out From the Shadows conference speakers began addressing the conference this morning. It was a few minutes past nine, at the Autonomous University of Yucatán’s Felipe Carrillo Puerto theater.

Felipe Quispe, representative of Bolivian campesinos, cocaleros, and indígenas as leader of the Bolivian Confederation of Unions of Agrarian Workers, brought a strong presence to the podium during his talk. Maybe it was the pressure he felt building inside him through the recent bloodshed in his home country – his talk was moved forward in the day so that he could return to Bolivia as soon as possible. Or maybe it was the coca leaf that he brought to display to the conference. “As indigenous people,” he said, we ahve a very profound respect for this leaf.” It gives him and the indigenous people of Bolivia much pain, the, to have a war against drugs prohibit even chewing this leaf. The message he brought to the conference was that this war on drugs is a war on his culture. “We are like foreigners in our country,” he said. Leaving the podium, he shared handfuls of the short green leaf with the audience, one of which was the next speaker, Mario Renato Menéndez Rodríguez.

Mario was introduced by his friend, Narco News founder, School of Authentic Journalism coordinator, and traveling guitarista Al Giordano. He shared his pride at the enthusiasm of his 26 student journalists he invited to the conference. And their beautiful faces. “U.S. journalists don’t smile” in their conferences, he said, because they align themselves with the ruling class instead of the people.

But now, a word about Mario’s voice. He needs no microphone. His naked voice works better than the auditorium’s Bose speakers. It even travels through walls: the translators in the next room did not cease translating even after Mario lowered the mic from his lips. That voice of his seems to begin at the depths of his belly, which threatened to burst the buttons of the guayabera he wore this morning. It seems to fly from his lips because it is not hassled by the neck that his stout body does not possess; he is all chest and shoulders.

This earth-shaking voice delivered a speech on decriminalization. He estimated that the drug trade is a $600 million business, where profits go to the ruling class at the expense of the ordinary people. And not just their comfort, or well-being, but their lives: If a person in Mexico speaks out against narco-trafficking, says Mario, “he meets with death.” Decriminalization would end the corrupt business that causes so much grief.

“If you decriminalize, he said later on the hotel base of the School of Authentic Journalism, “the United States would have no more pretext to intervene in Latin American countries.”

For our 1:00 lunch meeting, conference participants ate at the upscale Los Almendres. Let’s not talk about the food (a meager portion of over-salted slices of pork, or a soupy hard-boiled egg dish that will make vegetarians think twice about ordering meatless food in Mérida. What ever happened to tamales, arroz, y frijoles?). Despite the shock to my palette, I did enjoy the presence of Sinaloa Congressman Gregorio Urias, who gave a history of his state and the trafficking of drugs.

Hours later, the day’s activities were coming to a close as we listened to don Andrés Vásquez de Santiago, the elder member of the Indigenous National Congress of Mexico.

Other speakers of the day included: Gustavo de Greiff, ex-Attorny General of Colombia; Nancy Obregón of the Confederación de Productores Agropecuarios de las Cuencas de Cocaleras de Perú.