When you buy some bread you dont ask yourself who made it. I lived in Asunción for 10 years. Is where I met my mate ( a photographer of ABC Color) and I never thought about visiting those fields where most popular herb in the country is grown, apart from “mate”. I had some good reasons: several people died in this attempt. First one was journalist of “Noticias” in Pedro Juan Caballero, the capital town of marihuana. Santoiiago Leguizamón died in april 26, 1991 with 21 gun shots while he was celebrating the Day of Journalists in Paraguay. Some say he had a picture of Pablo Escobar Gaviria with Fahd Yamil (a local narco) and with ex president Andrés Rodríguez
Maybe destiny made Amadeo and me kenw about “Pedrojuan” – as local ppl call this town- in the middle of carnaval season while we were working in a tourist guide about the country. Pedrojuan is the capital town of Amambay department. Punta Pori in Brazil is at the end of International avenue which crosses town. Fiesta of king ***** was famous for abundance of alcohol, cocaine and marihuana. Cannabis traffic employes half of the citizens covered with a blanket of silence when you want to talk about
We arrived in the noon tired of the heat and of the typical places of interest we had been experiencing. we get a room near the popular market, the heart of this urban neighborhood that looks big and messy. We were trying to sleep there with the loud music coming from a nightclub in the hotel in front of us. We heard some some shots later and music stopped. A few minutes later the siren of an ambulance. When it took away, the music and the party continued.
A brazilian guy was shot but is finnally save. "It's a normal thing here, last week we were with some friends taking “tereré” when a van at full speed crossed and strafed the house in front," told us the next day Joao, a boy who lives in Punta Pora in the paraguayan side. "If you do not get with the mafia, the mafia will not get with you," warned us when we wanted to know more about the matter.
They say that the safest way to know the kitchen of drug traffic is to wait for some police operation. But we had a contact, the corresponsal of ABC Color in Amambay, Candido Figueredo. He always mentioned in his chronicles a village near Pedrojuan that is not in my travel guide, but it really deserves to be registered. This place is where 60% of all marijuana of Paraguay is produced: Capitan Bado
Candido survives dayly in a hostile territory, where the silent war between drug gangs leaves about ten deaths per month. Is a sturdy and rustic looking guy close to his fifhties. 4 years ago due a serie of articles about the drug kings of Capitan Bado, the head office of the newspaper Pedrojuan was shot. "In such area is cultivated some of the most reputed marijuana of America and probably of the world.
Favorite place to throw the lifeless bodies (his is worth $ 50,000) is the International Avenue because "the police dont investigate until they find out if the dead are Brazilian or Paraguayan. It's a no man's land”. Candido has also received threats from police forces that protect the drug trade, and his house was shot twice. So, he is guarded by police and carryes a 45 caliber pistol. During a talk in his office came the name of Waldir Bofinger, director of capitanbado.com. He is a brazilian jounalist who lives in such village, 3 hours from Pedrojuan, and the guy who can lead us there for a walk.
In ABC Color, Amadeo tell us when leaving, Candido is more known for their strange passions than for his writes. He collects as if they were stamps, pictures of mutilated bodies, some without hands, some without head, and all with bullets in their hearts. Among his personal relics also includes a collection of skulls collected over the years from drug traffickers, got in their visits to the clandestine cemeteries of Amambay.
The Captain's Verses
“It's rainy season, Capitán Bado is isolated. You should buy the ticket back there”, we were told in the ticket office. Was the last warning before getting into a microbus, drive through a narrow dirt road on a not very accessible place and travel 120km. A woman sitting behind us asked why we were going there. I lied with enthusiasm, "we are making a tour guide". "Thats good, it's a beautiful place. Do not forget to go to the waterfalls. Aguaray 88 meters high." She said proudly. Through the window we could see the hills and forests where many of the farmers live, near the border with Matto Grosso do Sul, southern foot of the Amazon in Brazil.
“Growing marijuana has become a tradition, a family business. Something which is passed from grandfather to their children and their grandchildren," says Waldir Bofinger while walking towards his home. He is a “Brazil-guayo” who speaks in “portuñol” (mix of spanish and portuguese), lenguage of Capitan Bado and he doesnt hesitate to offer us his help if we wait until after siesta.
In the evening we walk through the city, fairly organized despite being isolated on routes (half of the streets are paved, the houses are brick made and there are schools, colleges and even universities). Bofinger told us to go to Captain Bado plantations is a challenge. In fact, they are within a radius of between 20 to 100 kilometers. We can approach by car, stop at a certain place and still a long journey on foot through the bush. Is night already.
The first phrase from Bofinger, already seated in the dining room, is brutal: "Capitan Bado is one of the cities of Paraguay with the highest percentage of widows. The girls want to stay with the drug dealers due the money and proper life they lead but they have a very short life, reaching the maximum of life of 35 years old. Despite most farmers pay the price the cops need to justify their salaries and the business is not safe, they still chose to marry "with the owners of the seeds." The worst massacre was between 1995 and 2001, when the murderous narco Brazilian Fernandinho Beira Mar - considered one of the biggest drug smugglers and arms of Latin America lived in Capitan Bado.
Early, very early, the sun burns the tent. Before leaving, Bofinger takes Amadeo camera, demanding security, forget it. "I got it to return with photos and life," he jokes. In a warehouse away from the center, he contacts a farmer who knows another farmer, who knows another one ... who hase a farm where he grows corn, cassava, and a little more hidden, Brazilian cannabis (supposed some of the world's best sativas).
The only way is to walk almost an hour for a long “tapepoí”, Guarani name for the narrow path made by walking in the bush. We received a wrinkled old man with a privileged shape, who works the land with their children and grandchildren. Is outraged that C.B. is not included in the guide that we ordered. "This was the breadbasket of the north, we gave corne and wheat to the country for years," he says. He has also planted soybeans, but there is always cannabis. We asked for the plants. The elusive grandfather calls for discretion. Says that a decade ago the Brazilians got into the area and killed entire families, like yours, grown in small plots of 10 square meters and got between 30 and 50 kilos. "Now they bring people who goes inside the mountains with a shovel, machete, and food. Clean five, six acres, and with bad luck they produce two tons per hectare," complaining the old man takes a glass of sugarcane "Aristocrat" in the dining room, under a makeshift roof at the entrance to the ranch. Nobody is richer for growing, but sometimes they can pay some pleasures.
15 -20 years ago we used to get really nice green bricks from Paraguay, but for some reason, it seems that the market got dominated by the newer shitty way of slash and press with no dry or cure....ergh
I've had some fantastic nearly seedless lime green skunky Brick weed before that I would take over 'mid grade' any day.
It's always a roulette but sometimes it really pays off and I kick myself now for not saving some of those seeds.
THIS IS THE FIRST I EVER HURD OF SOME1 THINKING THEY ADD AMMONIA TO WEED.. if your any kinda weed grower,smoker etc one should no that if buds are still wet or just not fully dry that when you put the weed in a bag with no air that they will get an ammonia smell..come on people alittle CS goes along way. most nuggs from brick are pretty decent from the start..but then they get compressed and sit in humid,dry rooms etc for months at a time turning the weed to a shitty dirty ammonia smelling schwag ditch weed.
We used to get kilo bricks all wrapped up in packaging tape.. There would be a bladder around the brick and it had ammonia in it . If not opened correctly you had ammonia herb....It seemed the better herb "from our connection at the time" was wrapped that way...I would like to think other retailers where as careful as we where but i some how doubt it...