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Weekly Report - 24 November 2016 (WR-16-46)
MEXICO: Guerrero violence puts spotlight on poppy trade
Security forces are increasing patrols after a surge of violence in the troubled southern state of Guerrero. At least 26 people were murdered and 10 kidnapped over the long weekend (Monday was a public holiday in Mexico). The governor of Guerrero, Héctor Astudillo, attributed the violence to bitter turf wars between local criminal gangs competing for control of the opium poppy trade. Astudillo has been a vocal advocate of legalising opium poppy cultivation for medicinal purposes, which he argues would reduce drug-related violence by severing the dependence of farmers on criminal groups who buy their poppy harvest to produce heroin, as the Mexican state could buy their harvest instead in order to produce painkillers, such as morphine and codeine.
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