La Mesa: Claudino Perez, a shaman who wears a necklace of jaguar fangs and a green hooded headdress, returns home to Colombia after a beer that changed his mind landed him in a Mexican prison.
Perez, 63, is one of nine people, mostly from indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru and Brazil, who have been arrested in several countries since 2022 for possessing ayahuasca in Mexico as an illegal substance.
He spent two years awaiting trial on drug charges.
All nine were released, but their arrest has fueled controversy over ancient Amazonian lips used as healing portals to the spirit world of indigenous peoples.
“In Mexico, you are just another criminal … they think we are traffickers,” Perez told AFP as part of a ceremony in La Mesa, 65 km from the capital Bogota.
Perez, a native of Huitoto, was arrested in March 2022 at the Mexico City airport after drug enforcement found a bottle of ayahuasca in his possession.
Prosecutors want a 25-year prison sentence against him.
It was revoked after Colombian President Gustavo Petro sent a team of academics to appeal to the court about the ancient use of ayahuasca, claiming to have tried ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca is extracted from the Amazonian grape, Banisteriopsis caapi, and mixed with leaves and other ingredients before being consumed in shamanic rituals.
It contains the active ingredient hallucinogenic dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, which is illegal in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and some European countries.
Mexico considers it a “serious problem for public health”.
He said he had done it dozens of times in Mexico.
Scientists are increasingly interested in the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs to treat addiction and mental health problems.
Ayahuasca has become fashionable among health-conscious Westerners who come to retreats in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, as well as among so-called “neo-healers” in Europe and the United States.
Celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Sting and Lindsay Lohan have spoken openly about drinking beer.
However, experts warn that there is a risk of side effects, especially if mixed with other drugs and can cause psychotic episodes.
Julian Quintero, representative of Accion Tecnica Social, a non-governmental organization that opposes the war against drugs, said the rituals involving the use of ayahuasca are moving away from local traditions,
“Latin American countries have regulatory gray areas, including limiting ‘authorities’ to use ayahuasca and ensuring that it is not practiced in ‘recreational commercial trade.’
Among Colombia’s indigenous population, 84 percent of adults over the age of 12 use ayahuasca as a traditional medicine, according to official figures.
In Peru, the authorities declared ayahuasca as part of the natural cultural heritage in 2008.
But in September 2023, Lauro Hinostroza, a healer from the Shipibo-Conibo tribe of the Peruvian Amazon, was arrested after arriving in Mexico City to attend an international congress on indigenous medicine.
He told AFP he did not understand why the 71-year-old had been behind bars for six months.
“The tool for healing is the plant, ayahuasca,” he said.
“We were arrested because we were poor and we were drug addicts … indigenous criminals,” Hinostroza said.
Mexican authorities did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
