By Tracy L. Barnett
Images courtesy of Eduardo Santamaría and Celina De Leon
Free Taita Juan campaign
Editor’s note: Charges were thankfully dropped last week and Taita Juan has been freed. Angela Dodge, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston, told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that the felony charge against Juan Agreda-Chindoy, 42, was dismissed “in the interest of justice.”
One of my most profound experiences on my journey through Latin America – and indeed, in my life – was an invitation to attend an indigenous ceremony last month with three shamans of the ancient Amazonian tradition of yagé, or ayahuasca.
This herbal medicine, used throughout the centuries by traditional peoples in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador for religious and healing purposes, produces powerful visions – considered by modern science to be hallucinations, but by its native practitioners to be a window onto another dimension.
I felt tremendously honored to witness and participate in a millennial tradition that has been jealously guarded for centuries, to enter that sacred world with these wise souls and to be granted a new perspective on myself, my work and the world around me. It’s a memory I will cherish always.
So it was with no small sense of dismay that I returned to civilization to discover that just two days after my initiation into this ancient world, another Amazonian shaman was being detained at the airport in my hometown of Houston. Taita Juan Bautista Agreda Chindoy was ultimately charged with possession of a controlled substance – DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca, designated a Class 1 Drug. Ayahuasca is a controlled substance in Colombia, as well, but certain individuals are authorized to use it, and Chindoy, a fourth-generation medicine man, is one of those individuals.
Unfortunately, as Chindoy was to discover, that authorization is not recognized in the United States.
Chindoy is a widely respected community leader who is in the process of establishing a traditional healing clinic in his village of Sibundoy in the Putumayo region of Colombia. He was on his way to Oregon to visit with some of his followers, individuals who had traveled to his village to receive his treatments.
Those friends have retained a lawyer and launched a campaign to free Chindoy, which will be a complicated and time-consuming process, given the various agencies involved.
The friends have been advised not to discuss the case while it is pending, but have disseminated detailed information about the case, about Taita Juan and about ayahuasca at their website, www.freetaitajuan.org.
Chindoy is “one of the few remaining indigenous spiritual leaders in the world that holds the ancestral medicinal knowledge of an ecosystem that is rapidly disappearing,” the site says.
I reached his attorney, Kent Shaffer, who gave me an update on the case.
Chindoy was finally able to speak with his wife, Carmen, by internet phone 10 days after his imprisonment.
“They’re just amazed,” Shaffer said. “They can’t believe this is happening; it’s like a nightmare for them.”
Shaffer is working to establish Chindoy’s innocence under case law that allows for religious use of controlled substances, including a Supreme Court case involving ayahuasca.
“Where he comes from, he is authorized to use this medicine,” Shaffer said. “It was clearly not his intention to break the law; when the authorities asked if he had anything to declare, he said yes, I have ayahuasca with me,” and he took it out and showed them. He didn’t try to hide it.”
Shaffer was hopeful that Chindoy would be released within the next three to four weeks. Under a best-case scenario, he would be deported. Unfortunately, at that point he may need to go through another set of proceedings to be allowed to leave the country, as his entry with the substance was also a violation of immigration law. Chindoy’s supporters are now seeking supportive families or individuals in Houston who are willing to host him in case he is released on bond but not yet allowed to leave the country.
“The government’s got to understand that not everyone possesses drugs for the wrong reason,” said Shaffer. “This substance was not created in a lab, it was created by combining plants and vines together to make a tea for healing and spiritual purposes, and it’s been going on for hundreds of years in little villages all through the Amazon. Now he comes to us as a healer and all of a sudden he’s branded as a drug dealer.
“We’re trying to get the government to understand this is not a person who comes with bad motives at all. We’re trying to get them to consider the good work he’s been doing for decades.”
The prosecutor in the case, Rick Haynes, could not be reached for comment.
Taita Juan, as he is called by friends and followers – “Taita,” meaning “father,” is a title of respect for indigenous spiritual healers – is the father of four and the godfather of 20. In addition to his traditional medicine clinic, he has established an ethnobotanical garden of Amazonian healing plants to ensure that the native traditions are preserved and passed down to the next generation. In his village, he receives thousands of visitors around the world, some seeking healing, others doing research. He is also a highly skilled artist, and together with his wife, Carmen, he runs a store that markets indigenous artwork and crafts from the region.
“Taita has an incredible sense of humor and the warmth of his spirit and heart extends to those around him,” his supporters have written. “For all his contributions, Taita Juan is esteemed and loved by many.”
For more information, see www.freetaitajuan.org.
