{"id":261,"date":"2021-03-07T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noria-research.com\/?p=22626"},"modified":"2023-12-19T14:59:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T13:59:33","slug":"chapter_3_between_manna_and_uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/chapter_3_between_manna_and_uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 3 &#8211; Between Manna and Uncertainty. Poppy as a Political Opiate in Guerrero."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIn the eighties, even up to the crisis of \u201994, a kilo of gum could get you a new pick-up. Or you could build a whole house, with good materials. You had money for lots of things, enough for a long time. That\u2019s how business was. Sure, it was also dangerous, but there was no way <em>not<\/em> to get involved\u2026 Nothing else gave you that kind of money, you see?\u201d<br><br>Conversations in the Sierra of Guerrero, municipality of Coyuca de Catal\u00e1n in the Hotlands (<em>Tierra Caliente<\/em>), November 2020.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Any inquiry into the topic of poppy cultivation among growers in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, immediately brings one up against two central themes of drug production: on the one hand, the illegality of both the resource and the work, on the other, its unbelievable profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the clearly fundamental nature of these two axes, in reality few studies have focused on the local social dynamics associated with illicit crops, or examined the concrete consequences of the illegality that frames producers in their daily lives. In an effort to document these aspects, this chapter analyzes the creation and circulation of the wealth generated by, and around, poppies in Guerrero by examining the social particularities of an activity whose profitability can only be deemed \u201cabnormal\u201d. In effect, the money earned by producing and commercializing drugs \u2013setting aside myths about the multimillion dollar sums exchanged in international trafficking\u2013 has an enormous impact on the societies where such illegal activities are performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-800x1000.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-800x1000.jpg 800w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-1536x1920.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-400x500.jpg 400w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LECOUR_Spotlight-scaled.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Romain Le Cour Grandmaison &#8211; All Rights Reserved &#8211; Guerrero, 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Studies in Mexico have documented the marihuana booms in Sinaloa and Michoac\u00e1n in the 1970s and 80s<sup data-fn=\"noria-2328\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-2328-link\" href=\"#noria-2328\">1<\/a><\/sup> where, in a short time, peasants with scarce resources gained access to a source of income that brutally broke with existing frameworks of profitability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>In Mexico, opium functions as a \u201cpolitical opiate\u201d.<br>It enables marginalized rural areas to economically survive while the State keeps its social, educational, and development functions to a minimum.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the fragment of the interview that introduced this chapter shows, this income is usually described, and converted into, legal equivalents, so selling a kilo and a half of marihuana equals a ton of corn, a year of migratory labor in California, or almost ten years\u201d wages for an agricultural laborer in Michoac\u00e1n<sup data-fn=\"noria-3779\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-3779-link\" href=\"#noria-3779\">2<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Testimonies of this kind abound in two regions of Guerrero: the Sierra and the Monta\u00f1a<sup data-fn=\"noria-4070\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-4070-link\" href=\"#noria-4070\">3<\/a><\/sup>. From the 1980s to the economic crisis that hit the opium gum market in 2017-2018, the profitability of poppy cultivation had no equal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Historically, sure, prices fluctuated, but never below 8 or 9,000 pesos a kilo. If you harvested 10 kilos of gum, that was 80,000 pesos. After expenses you could get 60, 65, maybe 70,000 pesos \u2013free\u2013 for just four or five months of work. When are you going to get 70,000 pesos from four months of work on corn or beans? Impossible!<br><br>Interview &nbsp;\u2013 Guerrero \u2013 October 2020.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This level of return reflects, simultaneously, two key aspects of drug production: first, demand, in this case consumption in the United States and Canada, and second, the illegal nature of the product. Remuneration is high due in part to the risks involved, but also to the costs of transporting drugs to markets in \u201cthe north\u201d. The price begins to increase from the moment the gum leaves the peasants\u201d hands. It continues to rise as it passes from one intermediary to the next. Once transformed into heroin, its value jumps again, and by the time it crosses army checkpoints and international borders to finally reach the streets for distribution, it explodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Understanding the weight of poppies in Guerrero is impossible if we fail to consider the socioeconomic implications of illegality. In fact, poppy is an economic resource that <em>upsets<\/em> social and economic equilibria.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Observations of this kind are what led us to analyze the poppy as an economic resource that <em>upsets<\/em> social and economic equilibria. As we sought to elucidate this perturbing dimension of poppy production the term of <em>manna<\/em> is particularly useful: the substance described in the Bible as a \u201cmiraculous delicacy\u201d, that in common speech means a \u201cgood or gift received free and unexpectedly\u201d<sup data-fn=\"noria-6353\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-6353-link\" href=\"#noria-6353\">4<\/a><\/sup>. In economic jargon, manna has been used to describe the bonanza generated by petroleum extraction and the levels of profitability associated with it, due simply to luck. Some countries endowed with hydrocarbon deposits developed economies that depend almost exclusively on providential resources like oil or natural gas, products that are especially susceptible to the ups-and-downs of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The law and illicit crops<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The same can be said of poppies, which in this section are examined as: 1) a source of unexpected wealth associated with a foreign world, since the flower is not endemic to the area, and its derivatives (opium, heroin) are not consumed in production zones; and 2) an element that has deeply transformed the equilibrium of local economic life. What we can never lose sight of, however, is that poppies introduced a crucial variant; namely, that this \u201cprovidential\u201d resource is illegal. Understanding the weight of poppies in the study area is impossible if we fail to consider the socioeconomic implications of illegality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adopting this approach poses several central questions: what social consequences has immersion in an illicit economy had for inhabitants of producing zones in Guerrero?; what do we know about the characteristics of a working life conducted in, and through, illegality?; what does this entail, for example, in terms of the construction of citizenship, family life, relations among residents, and interactions with public authorities?; and, what is the impact of imposing the stigma of criminalization on entire regions and populations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" src=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-1920x1283.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-1920x1283.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-1000x668.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-500x334.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-768x513.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homme_SEUL_CR-2048x1368.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">C\u00e9sar Rodriguez &#8211; All Rights Reserved &#8211; La Monta\u00f1a de Guerrero Project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our fieldwork was conducted in rural zones of Guerrero that entered the poppy economy in the 1980s and 90s in a context of State-imposed structural reforms, processes that privatized land and fostered an entrepreneurial transformation of agribusiness in Mexico, and chronic structural poverty and occupational vulnerability. This chapter focuses on the social and economic aspects of these developments, since other important features of the poppy economy, such as repression, violence, and insecurity, are addressed elsewhere.<sup data-fn=\"noria-9362\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-9362-link\" href=\"#noria-9362\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We use the word \u201cillegal\u201d in its strict sense; that is, to refer to an activity \u201cthat violates established law\u201d, in an attempt to avoid normative postures that identify \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d actors, and romanticized accounts of poppy growers in Mexico. Our goal is not to propose categories of understanding created from outside, but to describe and analyze, as objectively as possible, the living conditions of tens of thousands of rural families in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A perturbing resource<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What our fieldwork in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a of Guerrero between 2018 and 2020 reveals is the <em>revolutionary <\/em>character of the emergence and evolution of the poppy economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When recalling the beginnings of gum production, our informants describe a resource that transformed people\u2019s perspectives on work, relations among peasants, the value of land, and even local customs and consumption practices; in short, a fundamental economic turn whose consequences have been felt for the past forty years. Peasants explain, for example, that the profitability of gum production led many to gradually reduce, even abandon, food crops like corn and beans, replace commercial crops like coffee, or suspend industrial activities (e.g. forest exploitation) because local competitiveness collapsed and disappeared in the 1980s and 90s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, over just two generations, the poppy became virtually the only source of employment and income for whole areas of Guerrero. Indeed, it ended up defining a way of life, as a man from the municipality of Leonardo Bravo in the Sierra explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cToday in the Sierra young people are poppy-growers (<em>amapoleros<\/em>). That\u2019s the reality. And it\u2019s our fault, the parents. Those were years with excellent prices, so the whole family got into raising poppies. That makes four generations now dedicated to this, forty years, easy. Gum prices made us dependent, we only worked on this. We\u2019re talking about twenty years of good prices\u2026 We used to be farmers, peasants, cattle-ranchers, laborers\u2026 The prices made us gum producers (<em>gomeros<\/em>). And the government made us drug-traffickers (<em>narcos<\/em>)&#8221;<br><br>Interview &nbsp;\u2013 Chilpancingo \u2013 November 2020.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We recorded similar comments in the Monta\u00f1a: one elderly man in the municipality of Malinaltepec complained that young people \u201care no longer peasants, they\u2019re poppy-growers (<em>amapoleros<\/em>) who don\u00b4t know how to grow or work anything else\u201d<sup data-fn=\"noria-12373\" class=\"fn\"><a id=\"noria-12373-link\" href=\"#noria-12373\">6<\/a><\/sup>. He expressed a generational bias but it is clear that these peasants became laborers <em>specialized <\/em>in poppies as growers, peons, cutters (<em>rayadores<\/em>), runners (<em>corredores<\/em>), collectors (<em>acopiadores<\/em>), heroin cookers, transporters, traffickers, or even hitmen (<em>sicarios<\/em>). Clearly, the poppy created new branches of activity, just like any other local industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Though it may seem counter-intuitive in light of the prejudices often associated with people in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a, it is interesting to observe that drug money flows <em>from<\/em> growing areas <em>into<\/em> important cities in the valleys below.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>bonanza <\/em>triggered by this particular form of manna also creates bubbles for the circulation of money that transforms consumption modalities in producing regions. The first space where spending becomes evident is the communities and towns where growers and traffickers live:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIn the good times, the economy of the zone was fluid, because 95% of folks in each town grew poppies, the other 5% worked in something else, but it\u2019s a fluid economy. The woman with her store didn\u2019t plant poppies, but sold sodas, cookies, cheese, bread, everything\u2026 And the townsfolk that got money from gum spent it in her store. Since the economy flows thanks to income from poppies, the storekeeper also does pretty well\u2026 so does the guy who sells cement, bricks. He gets money because peasants with a little money buy materials to build a house or lay a floor; money that\u2019s reinvested\u201d<br><br>Interview \u2013 Filo Mayor, Leonardo Bravo Municipality \u2013 May 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Money from poppy cultivation is, indeed, spent on everyday expenses, as this interviewee noted, but people also use it for fiestas, celebrations, weddings, and other cultural and religious rites. Beyond this, though it may seem counter-intuitive in light of the prejudices often associated with poor people in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a, it is interesting to observe that resources flow <em>from<\/em> growing areas <em>into<\/em> important cities in the valleys below, a process we verified in both study areas. Our interviewees explained that earnings from poppy crops \u2013that circulate in cash due to factors linked to the illegality of transactions\u2013 are spent in cities like Chilpancingo, Chilapa, Tlapa de Comonfort, Tecp\u00e1n de Galeana, Acapulco, or Zihuatanejo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cMoney comes down from the Sierra into the city. People come with wads of bills to buy clothes, construction materials, household appliances, pick-ups. The brainier ones open stores in Chilpancingo or buy lots, houses, set up businesses [like] gas stations. The city really benefits from that gum money&#8221;<br><br>Interview \u2013 Chilpancingo &#8211; November 2020.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Another key element of this regional economy are the street markets (<em>tianguis<\/em>) manned by merchants from the city who offer merchandise directly in towns in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a. One resident of the municipality of Coyuca de Catal\u00e1n in the Sierra summarized this. The idea is clear: \u201cWhen poppy crops are good, everyone benefits\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cPeople here are used to the <em>tianguis<\/em>. Merchants from cities cross the whole Sierra with their goods [\u2026] food, clothes, construction materials, tools, toys for kids \u2026 all kinds of stuff [<em>chingaderas<\/em> (shit), he laughs]. When the gum\u2019s good, they come pretty often, pick-ups full of stuff. They bring more when it\u2019s payment time, you know, after the harvest. They know when to come [and] set up their <em>tianguis<\/em> and organize fiestas. People spend tons of money buying most anything, but everybody\u2019s happy. The sellers left pretty happy \u201ccause they\u2019d sell everything quick, then return after a few weeks. That\u2019s how it was\u2026 With the crisis, they stopped coming. It was sad, [towns] deserted. I get it, you know, they\u2019d come but not sell anything, lose money\u2026 now it seems they\u2019re coming back little-by-little, and that helps us out, but you still need to go down to the city and that\u2019s expensive\u2026 transport, gas, [work] days lost, and you never know what might happen on the way\u2026\u201d<br><br>Interview &#8211; Coyuca de Catal\u00e1n Municipality &#8211; November 2020.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly, the poppy economy nourishes not only growing areas, but spreads benefits across broad areas of the state. This illustrates the connections between areas in the Sierra and urban centers, spaces that live in a relation of marked interdependence in which the spectacular profitability of poppy crops is primordial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Illegality and uncertainty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our interviewees comments on the profitability of gum are, however, coupled with descriptions of a reality marked by uncertainty. Clearly distinct from macro-logical explanations of drug markets with their accounts of apparently simple, well-organized, perfectly transparent mechanisms, during our talks and interviews people spoke of lives adapted to the ephemeral, constantly exposed to impositions, obstacles, and threats, of hard times that alternate with periods of calm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What they narrate can be summarized as fluctuation: nothing \u2013good or bad\u2013 lasts, certainly not the bonanza of the illicit economy, though this is something that both peasants and experts find hard to grasp. A resident of the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo explained it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe poppy was good from the 80s more or less\u2026 really good maybe 10, 15 years ago, and lasted for around 10 years [2005-2015]. The price was really good. Now, I\u2019m not saying that people lived well, but you got by. Then it all came tumbling down\u2026 Truth is, we never imagined the price could fall\u201d<br><br>Interview \u2013 Filo Mayor, Leonardo Bravo Municipality \u2013 May 2018.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Every single person we interviewed mentioned this inability to foresee the collapse of the poppy economy, but their <em>a posteriori<\/em> analyses link it to the regimen of chronic uncertainty in which they live, a direct result of the illegality of the activity. Growers are not only unable to predict with any certainty how the market will behave (as occurs with legal activities, as well), but also have no official channels to turn to for information, protection, or support. At planting time, peasants have no idea what the selling price of a kilo of gum might be months later. Some information comes in early in the growing season and rampant rumors give an idea as to prices. In October and November 2020, for example, growers in the zones where we made observations and held interviews decided to plant poppies again because the information that circulated suggested that \u201cthere was demand\u201d so their gum might sell at a \u201cgood price\u201d, from 8,000 to 20,000 pesos a kilo ($400 to $1,000 USD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1510-750x1000.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22812\" srcset=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1510-750x1000.jpg 750w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1510-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Romain Le Cour Grandmaison &#8211; All Rights Reserved &#8211; Guerrero, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode revealed several crucial dynamics. First, considerable price differences between Sierra and Monta\u00f1a \u2013the latter historically disadvantaged\u2013 and between different towns and communities<em> in the same<\/em> <em>region<\/em>. Once again, contrary to what \u201cmacro\u201d studies of the drug economy often express, there is no homogeneity when it comes to prices, either in temporal or geographic terms. What exists is great fluctuation related to factors that may be social, economic, territorial, or political. As a result, even without considering important issues like plagues and the army\u2019s eradication campaigns, there is no <em>guarantee <\/em>as to the outcome of these peasants\u201d labor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Relations are based on networks of trust, circles of known intermediaries, and each grower\u2019s capacity to obtain advantages from a certain collector or buyer. Another resident of Heliodoro Castillo explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe peasant doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019ll do well because there\u2019s no way to know. You might get an idea of the price year after year once you have experience. You know that <em>rainy season <\/em>gum [June-September] is the cheapest\u2026 and you have to sell it at more or less so much\u2026 And <em>dry season<\/em> [gum] [February-May], the same, so it goes\u2026 it\u2019s all a gamble. You go in totally blind, no guarantee, I mean, it\u2019s illegal, right\u2026 How could there be a guarantee? Who\u2026 the trafficker\u2026 the collector? Nope. Nobody. The information you get comes from your <em>compadres<\/em> [men you trust], neighbors, the whole world here talks about it, compares prices, but you just wait to see what happens\u201d<br><br>Interview &#8211; Filo Mayor, Leonardo Bravo Municipality &#8211; 2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Another important feature of the poppy economy is that, especially for growers, it operates through credit and debt. Growers who fail to not accumulate capital from one harvest to the next \u2013the majority\u2013 cannot make the required investments in tools, agrochemicals, or hoses (for irrigating the plants) before sowing. So people ask local storeowners for loans:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYou go to the man in the store and say: <em>\u201cSir, loan me 20,000 pesos, I\u2019m going to invest in gum\u201d<\/em>. He lends it to you because he knows you\u2019re not going to lose. Well, so long as you keep an eye on nature, plagues, hailstorms.. When you sell your gum, you pay back the guy in the store\u201d<br><br>Interview \u2013 Filo Mayor, Leonardo Bravo Municipality &#8211; 2018.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What this interviewee failed to mention (aside from the issue of eradication) is the uncertainty that surrounds the selling price. Credit\/loan economies like this face an ever-present risk of crisis. Beginning in 2017-2018, cycles of indebtedness worsened as the price of gum collapsed. One storeowner in the municipality of Malinaltepec in the Monta\u00f1a commented on this in November 2019, when prices were extremely low:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Question: \u201cWhen did this start\u2026 when there wasn\u2019t so much?<br><br>Interviewee: In the stores, you mean?<br><br>P: Yes.<br><br>I: Well, I guess it must be three or four years now\u2026 more or less.<br><br>P: Did it happen slowly, or was there a point when the price just dropped?<br><br>I: No\u2026 it was real sudden, yeah\u2026 Like I\u2019m saying, here in the community, you know\u2026 It\u2019s affected more those who have kids studying, it\u2019s tough to study\u2026 Pay tuition and everything\u2026 Uniforms, all that stuff, you know, school supplies.<br><br>P: Do people sometimes ask for credit in your store? Do you give credit?<br><br>I: No [not now], I\u2019ve already got a long list.<br><br>P: Since when do people owe you?<br><br>I: Two, maybe three years.<br><br>P: Really?<br><br>I: I say they can pay bit-by-bit; you know, we help each other out.<br><br>P: So you don\u2019t open your store so much?<br><br>I: For a little while. There\u2019s lots of stores [so] we let the others sell.<br><br>P: What do people usually buy on credit?<br><br>I: Oh, sodas, sugar, fruit\u2026<br><br>P: Before, how often did you stock your store?<br><br>I: Before? I\u2019d go to Tlapa once a week\u2026<br><br>P: And now?<br><br>I: Now? not even once a month\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interview &#8211; Malinaltepec Municipality \u2013 November 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This extract shows that the local and regional economy operates through the cycles of poppy planting and harvesting; four-month periods recently shaken by extreme peaks and valleys. The people affected may include storeowners like the one cited, as well as collectors and traffickers. These circumstances intensify the risks of violence and repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What happens is that the debt remains and impacts the lives of everyone involved: an indebted peasant may end up working in a relative\u2019s poppy field, perhaps with a promise to receive a share of profits, or maybe sells his labor as a peon to a neighbor for a season, paying some expenses with his wages and trying to pay off the debt. In the end, people in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a speak of lives marked by adaptation, economic shock, solidarity, and alimentary precariousness, all exacerbated by an atmosphere of constant mistrust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A political opiate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>People\u2019s resentment is aired not only inside their communities, but is also voiced against all three levels of government: municipal, state, and federal. In fact, many interviewees associate the development of the poppy economy with a transformation of the government\u2019s attitude towards them. Our interviewees mentioned, for example, that public services and infrastructure were better thirty or forty years ago than today, but most interestingly, they describe close links between politics and illicit crops:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-background\">\u201cQuestion: What\u2019s the relation between politics and poppies?<br><br>Interviewee: Politics and poppies go together real well, don\u2019t ever doubt it. The government says it\u2019s fighting [it], says it don\u2019t know, don\u2019t see. But that\u2019s not how it is. The government knows, let\u2019s you get away with it, and gets rich with it.<br><br>P: So\u2026 that\u2019s how it works?<br><br>I: Look, here in the Sierra, for example, in the eighties or nineties the government watched the Sierra, saw the poppies and said: <em>\u2018Aha, these guys don\u2019t need anything\u2019.<\/em> And there\u2019s some truth in that\u2026 folk in the Sierra will never ask you for anything. And because they had money from poppies, well, they had less reason to do it. That suited the government fine, and it washed its hands of us. That\u2019s why you see the roads destroyed. They invest zero resources. When I first came, the roads were better than today. I assure you. I\u2019m talking about the eighties, early nineties. Gradually, the government stopped investing, stopped maintaining. The roads are a good example because you can see it right away. They\u2019re deteriorating and you see it with your own eyes\u2026 And if the roads are so bad, well imagine the health center, the little school\u2026\u201d<br><br>Interview &#8211; Chilpancingo \u2013 November 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" src=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-1920x1283.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-1920x1283.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-1000x668.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-500x334.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-768x513.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Viande_CR-2048x1368.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">C\u00e9sar Rodriguez &#8211; All Rights Reserved &#8211; La Monta\u00f1a de Guerrero Project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This testimony concurs with studies that show how the transformation of the role of the Mexican State is linked to the structural reforms of the 1980s and 90s; programs and policies that have deeply affected the Mexican countryside by privatizing land, fomenting a shift towards export-oriented agribusiness, and imposing severe budget cutbacks on public programs that once supported agriculture. This helps us understand how and why illicit economies developed and enjoyed success: they did not emerge <em>against <\/em>the State, but to a great degree reveal a form of adaptation to conditions imposed on workers. This interviewee continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe government looks at you and tells you: <em>\u201cHey, you guys make money from poppies, so why are you asking me for assistance? Just go and do your thing, get involved with gum, and I\u2019ll wash my hands\u201d.<\/em> And that was that. Options dried up, the government left us with poppies, that\u2019s it, and looks the other way. That lets them keep the money, see? Don\u2019t doubt it. All the federal programs that supposedly came, where are they? Where\u2019d they go? And the fertilizers the government pays and distributes, do you really think they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re for? The money falls into their hands [and] that\u2019s why we\u2019re all fucked. Poppies give you money for a while, but don\u2019t leave nothing for the rest of your life&#8221;<br><br>Interview \u2013 Chilpancingo \u2013 November 2020<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This testimony allows us to identify several important points. First, the individualistic character of poppy farming. Despite certain solidarity mechanisms, cultivation, earnings, losses, and risks are all managed and suffered individually, family-by-family. Second, and related to this, how this manna is applied varies markedly among households. In each town, our interviewees spoke of families that knew how to successfully save and invest the money earned from gum sales: perhaps buying building materials for house improvements, a pick-up for independence, or \u2013in some cases\u2013 investing in education for children, some of whom have graduated and followed trajectories of upward social mobility, though this usually means abandoning their regions of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Understanding how and why illicit economies developed and enjoyed success is key. They did not emerge <em>against <\/em>the State, but to a great degree reveal a form of adaptation to conditions imposed on workers.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If we think in structural terms, however, for the vast majority of families the manna from poppies has not opened opportunities for social mobility, but only allowed a few people to attain higher social status in their communities in the Sierra and Monta\u00f1a. There are cases of families that became \u201cimportant\u201d or \u201cpowerful\u201d through the poppy trade, though the truth is that most of them already had financial (resources, stores, land) or political (members in key posts or friendship with people with such profile)s capital before they began growing poppies. Thus, they integrated poppy cultivation into already established and potentialized family economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for the majority, poppy cultivation only allowed families to live from one year to the next amidst cycles of uncertainty due, primarily, to the illegal character of this resource. The result is that the fantastic profitability of opium gum has had virtually no structural impact on ameliorating inequalities, poverty, educational backwardness, discrimination of various kinds, criminalization, or investment in infrastructure by the State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on the definition of poppy as an opiate leads us to argue that in terms of political economy this flower functions as a \u201cpolitical opiate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It works as a paradoxical form of subsidy that enables marginalized rural areas to economically survive while the State keeps its social, educational, and development functions to a minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One fundamental aspect of this political opiate is that while these regions can maintain themselves economically, it justifies inaction by government and the wider society. What the public perceives, once again, is the distorted idea that the drug economy is a stable world that responds to dynamic mechanisms of supply and demand but has no impact on people\u2019s lives. <br><br>The goal of this chapter was to demonstrate the opposite, and to emphasize that as long as we ignore the social, political, and economic realities of illicit crops it will be impossible to understand the consequences they have for countries like Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-footnotes\"><li id=\"noria-2328\">See COCHET, Hubert, <em>Des barbel\u00e9s dans la Sierra. Origine et transformation d\u2019un syst\u00e8me agraire au Mexique<\/em>, Paris, ORSTOM \u00c9dition, 1993&nbsp;; MALKIN, Victoria, \u00ab&nbsp;Narcotrafficking, migration and modernity in rural Mexico&nbsp;\u00bb<em>,<\/em> <em>Latin American Perspectives<\/em>, vol. 28, n\u00b0 4, 2001, p. 101-128&nbsp;; BLAZQUEZ, Ad\u00e8le, <em>Lecture d\u2019un ordinaire en contexte de violence dans le Nord du Mexique. D\u00e9guisements du quotidien et d\u00e9tournement de la tension, <\/em>M\u00e9moire de Master, EHESS, 2013. <a href=\"#noria-2328-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 1\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"noria-3779\">L\u00c9ONARD, \u00c9ric, <em>De vaches et d\u2019hirondelles. Grands \u00e9leveurs et paysans saisonniers au Mexique, <\/em>Paris, ORSTOM \u00c9ditions, 1995. <a href=\"#noria-3779-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 2\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"noria-4070\">See the work of Pierre Gaussens on Guerrero. For example &#8220;The Other Red Mountain&#8221;. <a href=\"#noria-4070-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 3\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"noria-6353\">I take this expression from the work of Christian Geffray. See \u00c9tat, richesse et criminels<em>, Mondes en d\u00e9veloppement<\/em>, n\u00b0110, 2000, p. 15-30, et dans Yann Guillaud et Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric L\u00e9tang (eds.), <em>Du social hors la loi. L\u2019anthropologie analytique de Christian Geffray,<\/em> Marseille,IRD \u00c9ditions, 2009, pp. 243-270. <a href=\"#noria-6353-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 4\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"noria-9362\">These themes are analyzed in a second series of reports, to be published in April 2021. <a href=\"#noria-9362-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 5\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"noria-12373\">This dynamic has also been documented by Nathaniel Morris for Noria in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. <a href=\"#noria-12373-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 6\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction \u201cIn the eighties, even up to the crisis of \u201994, a kilo of gum could get you a new pick-up. Or you could build a whole house, with good materials. You had money for lots of things, enough for a long time. That\u2019s how business was. Sure, it was also dangerous, but there was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":23049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_molongui_author":["user-15"],"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"See COCHET, Hubert, <em>Des barbel\u00e9s dans la Sierra. Origine et transformation d\u2019un syst\u00e8me agraire au Mexique<\/em>, Paris, ORSTOM \u00c9dition, 1993&nbsp;; MALKIN, Victoria, \u00ab&nbsp;Narcotrafficking, migration and modernity in rural Mexico&nbsp;\u00bb<em>,<\/em> <em>Latin American Perspectives<\/em>, vol. 28, n\u00b0 4, 2001, p. 101-128&nbsp;; BLAZQUEZ, Ad\u00e8le, <em>Lecture d\u2019un ordinaire en contexte de violence dans le Nord du Mexique. D\u00e9guisements du quotidien et d\u00e9tournement de la tension, <\/em>M\u00e9moire de Master, EHESS, 2013.\",\"id\":\"noria-2328\"},{\"content\":\"L\u00c9ONARD, \u00c9ric, <em>De vaches et d\u2019hirondelles. Grands \u00e9leveurs et paysans saisonniers au Mexique, <\/em>Paris, ORSTOM \u00c9ditions, 1995.\",\"id\":\"noria-3779\"},{\"content\":\"See the work of Pierre Gaussens on Guerrero. For example \\\"The Other Red Mountain\\\".\",\"id\":\"noria-4070\"},{\"content\":\"I take this expression from the work of Christian Geffray. See \u00c9tat, richesse et criminels<em>, Mondes en d\u00e9veloppement<\/em>, n\u00b0110, 2000, p. 15-30, et dans Yann Guillaud et Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric L\u00e9tang (eds.), <em>Du social hors la loi. L\u2019anthropologie analytique de Christian Geffray,<\/em> Marseille,IRD \u00c9ditions, 2009, pp. 243-270.\",\"id\":\"noria-6353\"},{\"content\":\"These themes are analyzed in a second series of reports, to be published in April 2021.\",\"id\":\"noria-9362\"},{\"content\":\"This dynamic has also been documented by Nathaniel Morris for Noria in the state of Nayarit, Mexico.\",\"id\":\"noria-12373\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"podcast":[],"project":[34],"region":[15],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","project-opium-project","region-americas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chapter 3 - Between Manna and Uncertainty. Poppy as a Political Opiate in Guerrero. - Mexico &amp; Central America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are the effects of drug money on the regions of productions?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/noria-research.com\/mxac\/chapter_3_between_manna_and_uncertainty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Between Manna and Uncertainty. 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