One Hundred Academics for Ayahuasca Dignity in Colombia

One Hundred Academics for Ayahuasca Dignity in Colombia

September 11, 2015

Yagé, or ayahuasca, is the name of a plant and also of a beverage made from it that is used in many native tribes in the Upper Amazon in South America for sacred rites. It is an integral part of the culture of various indigenous ethnicities in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. In the past decades, though, non-indigenous people have sought it, either for the spiritual experience, or as a tourist attraction.

Opinions on the expansion of the popularity of the beverage vary between and among indigenous tribes. But some instances generate widespread rejection. Such is the case of Alberto José Varela, an Argentinian man, based in Spain, who has been selling the plant in Europe, as well as tourist packages to the Colombian Amazon for retreats involving the beverage.

About 100 hundred academics and experts on indigenous issues, from universities Latin America, Europe and the United States, now denounce him for varied reasons in a letter that we now reproduce in full below:

AN OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE COFÁN PEOPLE AND AGAINST THE ACTIVITIES OF ALBERTO JOSÉ VARELA

We hereby manifest our support for the representatives of the Cofán people who signed a public denunciation1 against Mr. Alberto José Varela and his commercial activities involving Yajé.

In their denunciation, they point out that Mr. Varela does not have the permission or approval of the Yajé authorities of Colombia to transport or use the Yajé medicine; that they have not trained or instructed anyone from Mr. Varela’s organization, including Mr. Varela himself; and that he was not granted authorization to commercialize Yajé. By the same token, they note that Mr. Varela has made no economic investments for the benefit of the Cofán community, nor for the preservation of their culture and traditions.

The undersigned manifest our concern over the proliferation, in Colombia and many other countries, of a business model in which Yajé (also known as Ayahuasca) is used solely in the interest of making a profit; disrespecting the plant, its proper management, and the sacred character bestowed upon it by native peoples and mestizo populations of Southeastern Colombia.

The activities of Mr. Alberto José Varela are especially worrisome because he claims to have been “initiated” in 2001 by Taita Domingo Males Miticanoy, calling himself “the first Westerner authorized to use the ayahuasca of Taita Querubín in Europe,” 2 and referring to his organization, Ayahuasca International as “the first multinational corporation dedicated to Ayahuasca.” 3