Sporting a necklace of jaguar tusks and a headdress of inexperienced feathers, shaman Claudino Perez is again residence in Colombia, overseeing an ayahuasca ceremony after the mind-altering brew landed him in a Mexican jail.
Perez, 63, is certainly one of 9 folks, primarily from indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru and Brazil, who’ve been arrested in Mexico since 2022 for possession of ayahuasca – labeled as an unlawful substance in lots of international locations.
He spent two years awaiting trial on drug prices.
All 9 have since been launched, however their arrests have reignited a debate over the traditional Amazonian idea utilized by indigenous folks as a therapeutic portal to the religious world.
In Mexico, “you might be simply one other felony … they classify us as traffickers,” Perez informed AFP on the sidelines of a standard ceremony in La Mesa, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the capital Bogota.
Perez, from the Uitoto folks, was arrested in March 2022 on the Mexico Metropolis airport after drug enforcement brokers discovered bottles of ayahuasca in his baggage.
Prosecutors requested for a sentence of 25 years in jail.
His case was dismissed after Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who mentioned he had tried ayahuasca, despatched a workforce of lecturers to Mexico to deal with the courtroom on the traditional makes use of of ayahuasca.
– Rituals, remedy and pattern –
Ayahuasca is extracted from an Amazonian vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, and combined with different leaves and components earlier than being consumed in shamanic rituals.
It accommodates the hallucinogenic energetic ingredient dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, which is prohibited in Mexico, the USA, Canada and a few European international locations.
Mexico considers it “a very significant issue for public well being”.
Perez has traveled the world with ayahuasca to deal with these looking for its therapeutic advantages. He mentioned he has been to Mexico dozens of occasions for this function.
Scientists are more and more within the therapeutic makes use of of psychedelic medicine to deal with habit and psychological well being issues.
