Colombian shaman arrested in TX, charged with Ayahuasca possession

This was posted on the freetaitajuan.org website:

"It is with great joy in our hearts that we write to update our community with news that the criminal charges against Taita Juan have been dropped as of today, November 16, 2010. At some point within the next couple of days, the court will begin the process of transferring Taita Juan out of prison and into the immigration authorities who will make arrangements for his return to Colombia. We will have more details by the end of today, in the meantime thank you again for keeping this prayer alive and strong. We did it!"

save planet,destroy united states.

Linda D. If he is considered a medience man in his country he had a right to be carrying his native medication. He should be released stop trying to interfer with other countries beliefs and start working on fixing what is wrong here.

(Siento que mi español es terrible.)

Serían buena idea chequear con los autoridades antes de traer la medicina en e.e.u.u. Tal vez los anfitriónes estadounidenses sabían que esta problema pasaría. Claro que otra organización en los e.e.u.u. tiene permiso usarla, y Señor Chidoy (un hombre importante en un religion de otro país) tal vez obtenga permiso especial. Tal vez...

Claro que este situación no es sorpresa por los estadounidenses que sabían de que este medicina estaba en el avión. Yo ne sé si Señor Chidoy les contó sobre traerla... No pensar en esto sería desafortunadamente. Con suerte, le va de cárcel pronto.

Para la ley es algo nuevo esto de las plantas sagradas y sus rituales los cuales son milenarios delicados e inteligentes cuando se consumen con verdadera conciencia, como seres humanos tenemos que aprender a respetar y a conocer las tradiciones sin impedir su desarrollo otorgado por su natividad. mas bien deberian pedirle a este shaman que les comparta un poco de su conocimiento y ahi si sabremos.... con respeto att: alex orjuela.

este camino del espiritu es para la humanidad entera y la felicidad y la paz ue estamos buscando es el trabajo de estos seres de luz ayudar a sanar todos estos males que nos estan matando no es justo este acto de impedir que halla algo hermoso en la tierra no me es posible estar de acuerdo con que encierren a un ser como es un taita la libertad esta en el espiritu pero esto hace que no se siga con la felicidad del espiritud para hacer su trabajo dejen en libertad a este ser y no sigamos permitiendo que la tierra se acabe por nosotros mismo

PEDIMOS RESPETO POR LAS TRADICIONES ANCESTRALES, POR LA MEDICINA SAGRADA Y RESPETO POR LA VIDA Y LA INTEGRIDAD DEL TAITA JUAN, PARA QUE PUEDA ESTAR DE REGRESO A COLOMBIA LO MAS PRONTO POSIBLE Y ASÍ SEGUIR AYUDANDO A LA SANACIÓN DE LA HUMANIDAD....FREEDOM FOR JUAN TAITA!!!!

It's time for the natives of Central and South America will be consolidated into a single church, which is protected against these assaults on their culture, religion and traditions.
The natives of north america created the Native American church to protect its integrity and its culture persecuted and punished by the laws of the United States.
Perhaps the natives of Central and South America do not deserve equal respect?
no more violations of human rights, respect for all these traditions that are the heritage of humanity.

HOLA SOY AMIGO Y TOMADOR DE YAJE DESDE HACE 12 AÑOS CON EL TAITA JUAN BAUTISTA AGREDA. LOS MEJORES AMIGOS QUE HE TENIDO EN MI VIDA SON GENTE INDIGENA. QUIEN NO CONOCE AL TAITA JUAN, NO SABE QUE ES TRANSPASAR FRONTERAS CON EL CORAZÓ, QUIEN NMO A TOMADO AYAHUASCA NO SABE LO QUE ES SENTIRSE Y SENTIR TODA LA VIDA Y RESPETO POR NUESTRO ENTORNO EN EL CORAZÓN. ASI QUE ES UN ENCUENTRO CON UNO MISMO Y CON DIOS. ES UN CAMINO DE AUTOCONOCIMIENTO ES UN CAMINO MISTICO. DEL GUERRERO. Y EL TAITA JUAN ES UN GUERRERO IMPECABLE!

Liberdade Religiosa, Tradições Latino-Americanas,Liberdade do Ir e Vir!
A constituição dos EUA, Garante!

Viva a Ayahuasca, Viva o Santo Daime!

www.umbandaime.com.br

This is not right. I stop everything now. I stop my life. What I'm thinking about. I stop my emotions. I tune out the world. I focus on this man, and I meditate on the future. He is no longer in jail, and he is happy. I focus on that. See it as reality. See it as tomorrow. Then I come back to today, and I "remember" the future. And I say it this is my will, freedom. And it shall be. If you all do this, he will be freed.

@Maguire:
"The law should exist to protect people."

In a sort of twisted, myopic way, that's what the CSA does. Keep in mind that some people who support drug prohibition do so because they believe that these drugs are harmful. They are trying to protect US citizens from consuming substances that have not been scientifically proven to be safe (in the sense that they ayahuasca has not been run through clinical trials (yet)). (Mostly) unfortunately, that's the way we do things in the U.S.

I'm playing devil's advocate partially because I believe that in order for culture to accept the use of ayahuasca, we have to understand the mindset of those that oppose it. Rather than pump our fists in the air (and this is a pump-worthy case, for sure), we should thoughtfully, heartfully engage the culture in conversation about what religious freedom means, how plant medicine is good for the soul, and how we can be safe doing it (MAPS and the UDV/Santo Daime case already took the first steps here).

Peace.

@thistle

Yes, he was recently transfered to a federal facility, so it would seem that any legal proceedings will be carried out by the feds, so the RFRA is an applicable piece of legislation. Having restored the Compelling State Interest test what you say is theoretically true, but I think he'll have his work cut out for him. Complicating any potential legal defense with the RFRA is the fact that the group promoting him advertised him as a healer performing medicine work, and did not advertise any religious context. When the UdV came before SCOTUS they did not have to argue that they were a bone fide religion -- the prosecution granted that at the outset. This is not a given in the current case. I wish him the best of luck, but I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

For a discussion of the case, including updates, more details, and information provided by people how have been in touch with his family and countenances, see the following link:

[link]

Apparently he came through customs with 30 liters of the tea. Apropos of the article posted here a few weeks ago from The Sun ("Mind Bending Jungle Drug...") this could be spun in a very bad way.

@anonymous: this man was arrested by ICE, so federal law is applicable, not state law. under RFRA, it is not Taita Juan's burden to prove he is a member of a group which has previously been determined by the courts to be allowed to use psychoactive compounds in the course of religious worship; it's the government's burden to prove that the way in which he was employing ayahuasca interferes with the normal functioning of government.

Bollocks to the notion of this poor man having to respect the damn law.
Need we all remember that the law of white Christians has only existed in the US for a few hundred years. This man's people have been around (maybe not the states, but bloody close enough) for thousands of years, doing this same thing.
The law does not (or at least should not) exist for mindless idiots to follow and worship blindly (XXX, I'm looking right at you). The law should exist to protect people. From murderers, rapists, thieves, charlatans and morons that would lock up a harmless witchdoctor because of a culture clash. Anyone that endorses an injustice like this deserves to be locked up themselves. Get off my planet.

Regardless of all of the legal mumbo jumbo that I have just read, this arrest was still in bad taste any way you look at it

@dave

"WTF? Doesn't this conflict with the rulings in the Supreme Court for, what was it, Santo Daime? (Or was it UDV)?"

No, it doesn't. SOCTUS ruled that the UdV's use of their sacrament was protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Similarly, the 9th circuit ruled in favor of the Santo Daime. But this curandero isn't part of either of these groups, and this isn't a religious freedom case to begin with. Unfortunately, the rulings confer to use rights to anyone outside of their particular groups.

The RFRA itself was found to be unconstitutional, by the way, when applied to the states. So, even with the RFRA in place, individual states are "free" to outlaw the use of the sacrament in religious contexts; the RFRA only binds at the federal level.

@XXX

"Ayahuasca is illegal in the US, you have to respect the laws of the land.."

Yes, ayahuasca is illegal (under the CSA it can be considered schedule 1). As for "respecting" the laws of the land, I guess that depends upon what you mean by "respect." If you break the laws you run the risk of being prosecuted.

I'm not sure why you list Canada as a valid destination, because ayahuasca is also illegal in Canada (in fact, the vine itself contains scheduled compounds in Canada, whereas in the US only the common admixture plants do. It's possible that prosecution would be less likely in Canada, but that's not the same as saying that it is legal. Peru is a safe place if one wants to travel. Brazil is not (recent legal changes there make it legal only for members of religious groups; while there are many "retreat centers" in Brazil, if the government wanted to crack down on them, they now could.

"The law will make no exceptions adn it shouldnt".

Actually, the laws do grant exceptions. The entire rasion d'etre of the RFRA (mentioned above) is to grant exceptions to the CSA for the religious use of plants (the law was written to protect the Native American Church's use of peyote, but it has been used successfully by the UdV).

But the curandero in question wasn't in a protected group, so he shouldn't expect to be protected from the law.

According to Peter Gorman (who contacted the authorities), the Taita is currently being held for knowingly possessing a schedule 1 substance, and a public defender has been appointed. IMO things don't look good for him. I seriously doubt that he's facing "20 years in federal prison," but they don't look very good anyway.

Well, it looks like his handlers or U.S. hosts screwed him over on this one. Or maybe this is some stunt to get attention and maybe try to get the courts to extend the Santo Daime ruling to other users/healers or something--at least that way, he would've been aware that this was going to happen.

Fuck

Ayahuasca is illegal in the US, you have to respect the laws of the land,..... if its illegal its illegal,,, its not hard to go to canada, costa rica, colombia or peru for an ayahuasca ceremony
dont expect any exceptions.. and if u dont like it... well either leave or go to jail... The law will make no exceptions adn it shouldnt... we should rally and demonstrate to the GVT that aya is not la recreational drug and is a medicine... but for that we need to unite..xxxx

What a shame!

FREE TAITA JUAN.

Average airport security and Customs are (rightfully) trained only on the letter of the law, so I can't fault them for doing their jobs as they know how to do them. However, those higher in the legal food-chain should realize this situation is farcical and release this man.

Good observation
Charlie

HA-HA!

WTF? Doesn't this conflict with the rulings in the Supreme Court for, what was it, Santo Daime? (Or was it UDV)? Is it because he's not part of that church so he gets busted? Hrmph. So fucking stupid.

Welcome to the Land of the Free!

This is insane!