This article originally appeared in the Tucson Citizen and was used by permission.
“Drug-smugglers have a patron saint? That’s unbelievable!” my wife exclaimed.
I had just returned from a day in the desert searching for migrants in distress.
My colleagues in No More Deaths had come across three migrants on the trail and had shared food and water.
But while hiking one canyon, we discovered a shrine hidden in a deep alcove in the canyon wall. Inside the dark alcove was a 3-foot-wide poster of Jesús Malverde. Below the poster were candles and prayer cards bearing his image. We had stumbled into a shrine of the narco-saint of the borderlands.
According to folklore, Jesús Malverde was a Robin Hood-like bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor in the highlands of Sinaloa, Mexico. He was either shot or hanged by authorities in 1909. Originally known as the “Angel of the Poor,” Malverde over the past 50 years has become the patron saint of drug smugglers. His shrine is near the railroad tracks in Culiacán. Personal healings, miracles, and narrow escapes for drug smugglers are all attributed to his intercession.
Jesús Malverde is not recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
On the hike back to the truck, it occurred to me that Jesús Malverde may be a lot more than just folklore and legend. The narco-saint may be more powerful than the Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs, and Homeland Security. After all, the U.S. government has been waging a “war on drugs” on the border for almost 40 years now. We have spent more than $600 billion in efforts to interdict drugs, and yet today, 90 percent of cocaine sold on the streets of the U.S. comes from across the border with Mexico.
The most accurate measure of the effectiveness of our “war on drugs” is, of course, the price of cocaine on the street. The hard truth is that the street price has steadily fallen over the past 25 years, from $600 to $200 a gram. If all of the blood and treasure we have expended on drug interdiction were effective at all, there would be a supply shortage and the price would have gone up, as has the price of oil and gas.
It seems to me that one of two conclusions can be drawn from this hard truth of our 40 years of experience on the border:
1. Jesús Malverde is a very powerful narco-saint, or
2. All of our military and law enforcement efforts to interdict drugs at the border have been a colossal failure and tragic waste.
Border security is only possible through adequate numbers of work visas for the workers we need for an expanding economy, legalization of the workers and their families, who are contributing so much to our economy and culture, an end to the free trade agreements that have devastated the poor of Mexico, and a new era of fair trade agreements.
Then the Border Patrol can do a lot of good in the desert, stopping the worshippers of Jesús Malverde instead of your landscaper, roofer, and childcare worker.
John M. Fife is a retired Presbyterian pastor who volunteers with Samaritans, No More Deaths, Borderlinks, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
