Gauchos in South America arose in present day Uruguay

South American gaucho communities arose for the first time in the territory of the present Eastern Republic of Uruguay The gaucho is originally from the Banda Oriental. Although the word "gaucho" or "gaucho" has been used in different circumstances with different meanings, with reference to both the inhabitants of rural areas in southern America, and a type of culture, in the early times it was used to designate a type of inhabitant of the Eastern Sierras of the Eastern Band of Uruguay. During the second half of the 18th century, the people who inhabited the wild and misnamed "no man's land" were called the "gauchos" the borders between the Spanish and Portuguese domains. These people, families and communities inhabited the vast Country Guenoa, an area of ​​prairies, mountain ranges, marshes and sandbanks, which had been, fortunately for its ancestral inhabitants, relatively free (although not entirely or much less) from the genocidal greed of empires Spanish and Portuguese The "gauchos" and their predecessors the "gauderios" and "changadores" managed to subsist, sharing with Guenoas and other native peoples, the natural resources of the area, and more especially, the abundant wild cattle that had been widely reproduced in the grasslands of the Banda Oriental. The herds allowed them to stock up on derived products such as meat, leather and tallow, and also, by circumventing the control of the Spanish patrols, they could sell the troops to the Portuguese. Originally the words vagabonds or bagamundos, changadores, outlaws, and later, gauderíos, were used for this social group "cimarrón" of the Uruguayan and eastern prairies. The name "gaucho" has only just begun to be used regularly in recent decades of the eighteenth century, naming a certain independent and rebellious rural type, which does not obey or accept the social and work routines imposed by the authorities. The word itself appears for the first time in a document written in 1771, referring to certain "criminals" who were hiding in the Sierra at a certain distance from Maldonado, probably in the Sierra Roche region, perhaps in the Sierra de los Rocha itself or its adjacencies. This is a communication from the Commander of Maldonado, Don Pablo Carbonell to Vértiz, dated October 23, 1771. It goes like this: “Very dear sir; With news that some gahuchos had been allowed to see the Sierra, send the militia lieutenants, Jph Picolomini and dn Clemente Puebla, to the Sierra with a party of 34 men among these some soldiers of the battalion in order to make a discovery in the expressed Sierra, to see if they could find the thugs, and at the same time see if he could pick up any cattle; and having practiced… ”In that same year a similar reference from Santo Domingo de Soriano (March 31, 1771) speaks of“ mountaineering gangsters ”to refer to similar characters without using the word gaucho. This denomination only appeared three years later in a written document referring to three men caught in the Puntas del Bequeló (about 40 km southeast of the current site of the city of Mercedes). Although we do not know exactly the geographical area referred to in the Maldonado report to which we referred previously, we think that the "Sierra" mentioned should be somewhere in the "Serranías del Este", which extend through the current departments of Maldonado or Rocha. Since they were smugglers, who sought shelter outside the reach of the imperial authorities in the border areas and needed free passage to the lands controlled by Portugal, it is likely that their shelters were located in the easternmost mountain areas, in the vicinity of the “Narrows” that allowed to facilitate the passage to Brazil. Another route used for the contraband of cattle went to Brazil near the tips of the Yaguarón (present department of Cerro Largo). Further south, the passage of cattle was more difficult due to the presence of the Merin Lagoon and the Yaguarón River, which were obstacles to tackling. Fernando Assunçao in his classic book "El Gaucho" interprets these events in an analogous way. According to this author, the gaucho formation process was "a continuous transformation" and that in this process it is inclined to locate the birth of the gaucho in "lands that today are our country (Uruguay) and the most adjacent border areas of Rio Grande do Sul ”. In particular, Assunçao points out that the old entrerrianos cowboys, the primitive changadores and the gauderios that Concolocorvo saw (in the 1760s) are different from "the gauchos of the Maldonado and Rocha mountain ranges", which, according to this author, would be the first gauchos themselves. Continues at daniloanton.blogspot.com From: Chronicles of Human Peripecia, D. Antón, Piriguazú Edic. Enviar comentarios Historial Guardadas Comunidad

Legal Cannabis in Uruguay

A first step

Uruguay has taken a first step by authorizing the sale of recreational cannabis in pharmacies. A timid step, with a few pharmacies and small packages of 5 and 10 grams, weekly limit purchase and low doses.

There are two varieties: Alpha 1 and Beta 1. One contains 2% Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 7% Cannabidiol (CBD).

The second one has a percentage of THC identical to the previous one, but it has 6% of CBD and is of Sativa variety. .

I clarify for those who do not know that cannabis (also called marihuana) has been cultivated since 5,000 years ago and was considered a sacred plant for a long time, it was even ingested by the Buddha during his fasts.

The demonization of cannabis is an example of the immense prejudices and ignorances of the repressive elites worldwide.

Curiously, this timid passage of Uruguay is considered revolutionary in the rest of the world, demonstrating the uninformed obsession of international political and police bureaucracies.

Predictably, in less than a day the stocks were exhausted.

Although Uruguay has made progress on this issue, there remains a complete lack of information (and a great many prejudices) on a large part of the Uruguayan population, which to some extent thinks that production and consumption should not be legalized.

Personally I am not a smoker of marijuana or tobacco but I registered as a buyer to express my support for this attempt and my total opposition to the biased and cruel prohibitionism.

I also plan to consume cannabis as part of the diet (for example in infusion or other forms which I will see).

I refer to a book I published more than 15 years ago on the subject of drugs (including cannabis) entitled "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents" by Piriguazú Editions that can be requested from dantonster@gmail.com

The Charrua Nation

(Fragment of The Peoples of the Jaguar)

Danilo Anton

The Charrúa nation was the most important in the estuarine region of Paraguazú rivers.
Due to its location at the entrance of the great Uruguayan-Paraná basin it was one of the first nations contacted by Europeans. According to Gaboto's descriptions, Pero Lope de Souza, Schmidl and other chroniclers, they were mainly fishing people, of skilful canoers who lived in villages of a few hundred inhabitants, in the area that stretched along the estuaric and fluvial coast in the present Uruguayan departments of San José, Colonia and Soriano, on the coast of Buenos Aires, in certain islands of the Paraná delta and to the south of the current province of Entre Ríos.
It is difficult to know precise demographic data of the Charrúa population. Some evidence suggests that it was relatively numerous, probably in the order of 20,000 to 30,000 individuals.
Antonio de Herrera in his description pointed out that when the expedition of Juan Diaz de Solis arrived "they discovered many houses of Indians, and people who were watching the ship very carefully, and with signs they offered what they had, putting it on the ground, Juan Diaz de Solís wanted in any case to see that people were this, and to take some man to bring Castile "
In 1530 the Portuguese expedition of Pero Lope de Souza arrived on the coast of the present departments of Colonia and San José finding a village, probably Charrúa, which according to estimates was constituted by a community of canoeing people.
The testimony. 

According to the chronicle of this expedition, when it reached the north coast of the Río de la Plata, four canoes received them,, they were between 16 and 20 meters in length and a little less than one meter wide. In each of them there were forty oarsmen standing. After this canoe, other six canoes followed   In these boats  only the rowers summed about 240 men. Sousa notes that there were many more canoes ashore, estimating the male population of that community at about 600 men. If we add women, children and elderly, we could reach a total of about 2,000 to 2,500 people in that single village.
According to this same chronicle the natives expressed great joy and demonstrated their friendship through gifts and demonstrations of jubilation, swimming quickly near the ships, and sending several huge canoes with about forty rowers each to receive the visitors. "They were so happy that they seemed crazy."
Nevertheless, the expeditionaries, who surely had references of the tragic experience of the Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solís, preferred not to risk landing and continued their journey.
This description is probably the most illustrative of a Charrúa community in "pre-colonial" conditions.
If we imagine that there were twenty or more of Charrúas communities in the estuary and delta, and reducing the average population of each to about a thousand people, the total Charrúa population can be estimated reasonably at between 20,000 and 30,000 people, which would be coherent with the number of warriors that describes in 1536 the adventurer and German chronicler Ulrico Schmidl who accompanied the expedition of Pedro de Mendoza. Schmidl affirmed that in the siege of Buenos Aires there were some 23,000 warriors from four nations: "the Indians came against our seat of Buenos Aires with great power and impetus up to twenty-three thousand men and were altogether four nations; One was called Querandíes, the other Guaraníes, the third Charrúas, the Fourth Chanátimbúes. "
If the Charrúas had been a quarter of that total mentioned by Schmidl, which seems likely, the Charrua warriors involved in the site could had been about 5,000-6,000 warriors, which would effectively correspond to a total population of about 20,000-30,000 people.
Seventy years later, in 1607, when the Charrúas had moved northwest away from the Spanish centers of power, the governor of Asunción, Hernando Arias de Saavedra, still referred to the region of Uruguay as "a very fertile province and of great sum of Indians". Shortly afterwards, in 1610, in the newly established city of Buenos Aires, Governor Marín Negrón sent a letter to the king in which he estimates the Charrúa population in some "four thousand pagan Indians." Although we do not know if that number included the entire population or only the "Indians of arms" as it used to be, we can see a certain decline in population, probably related to the impact of colonization.
From "The Peoples of the Jaguar". D-Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones.
More info in Spánish on daniloanton.blogspot.com

Agricultural plantations in Uruguay and surrounding areas

 D.Anton

There is abundant information about the transhumant nature of the peoples of the coasts of Para Guazú (Guaraní name of the Rio de la Plata) before the European invasion.
In referring to the peoples who inhabited the banks of the great river, the Spanish chroniclers repeatedly pointed out that the nations that lived there did not cultivate, which only fed on fishing and hunting, which knew no population or fixed place, That they were nomadic people.
However, in the continent of maize and tobacco, and in an area of ​​easy communication such as the region of Para Guazú, it is unimaginable that there could be people who did not know agriculture.
The European chroniclers, when referring to the productions of several local communities - for example Chandules-Carians-Guaraníes and Chaná-Timbúes - pointed out repeatedly that these were cultivating villages of abati or maize, pumpkin, manioc and other crops. Given the geographical proximity between the aforementioned towns and the Charrúas and other similar nations (they lived in the same area) and their close relations, which were proved by Ulrico Smidtl himself, chronicler of the expedition of Pedro de Mendoza in 1535-15362, They are sure to have frequent contacts, including trade exchange activities. For this reason, there is no doubt that the Charrúas and Miinuanes habitually consumed agricultural products, either planted by their neighbors and obtained through trade or cultivated by themselves. Although there are no specific descriptions of crops in the Charrúas villages, it should not be forgotten that the first contacts of those who kept chronicles took place within a framework of military aggression that prevented us to ascertain precisely how the economy of these native peoples worked. On the other hand, the very fragmentary Spanish version of the original charrú-minuán culture was limited to coastal camps (where fishing was the central activity). It is very likely, as in several towns of Chaco that outside the coast, agriculture is a complementary activity associated with small farms hidden in the mountains, along the annual transhumant itineraries. This was certainly the case in the case of the ancient Gueno-Minuanes communities who, we believe, inhabited the region known today as "Cerritos de Indios" in the Atlantic-Lacunar region.
At the very least, it is certain that agriculture was a secondary activity in almost all peoples. Although in the case of some communities this could be practically nonexistent, in others it was a habitual practice.
In the last years, in the archaeological studies of the "Cerritos de Indios", corn silicofitolites, beetles, squashes and achiras were found, confirming the existence of agricultural activities before the European invasion.

From Amerrique, Orphans of Paradise, Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones.

Marihuana fake legality

Legalization of cannabis in Uruguay

The legalization of cannabis in Uruguay is having problems for their application. There are many aspects that need to be solved. Whoever produces cannabis and sell it, even if it is very little may end in jail for several months. 

There are judges and some police authorities that interpret the law in their own way. And there are still many prejudices. A lot needs to be done to properly apply President Mujica's initiative. The following article describes the problems arising from the inadequate application of the Cannabis Legalization Law.

http://druglawreform.info/en/publications/systems-overload/item/874-drug-laws-and-prisons-in-uruguay

Drug Laws and Prisons in Uruguay

Systems Overload: Drug Laws and Prisons in Latin America

Uruguay has one of the most advanced drug policies on the continent. In Uruguay, the law does not criminalize drug use or possession of drugs for personal use. In addition, in recent years its national drug policies have prioritized the prosecution of medium and large-scale traffickers rather than focusing resources and energy on small-time dealers who are easily replaced. This country study examines the scope of the legislation, the policies developed and how the normative and policy frameworks find expression in Uruguay’s prison system, with a special focus on the population incarcerated for drug-related offenses.

Much like other Southern Cone countries, Uruguay has historically served as a transit country for controlled substances on their way to Europe. An important change in the use of controlled substances, associated with their availability on the drug market, has taken place over the last fifteen years in southern Latin America, especially in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

As an indirect effect of international interdiction policies, and as a result of other factors that are yet to be well understood, laboratories producing cocaine hydrochloride began to appear in the Southern Cone countries. “Paco”, a substance whose origin can still not be determined with certainty, began to appear in drug markets in these countries.

In Uruguay, the law does not criminalize drug use or possession for personal consumption. In recent years, Uruguayan national drug policies have focused on specific directives, for both police and judicial personnel, aimed at prioritizing the repression of medium and large traffickers, and not at small-scale drug dealers. The impact of these directives in terms of drug policies cannot yet be fully evaluated. Nonetheless, a prison crisis persists in Uruguay in which ever larger numbers of youths, and other vulnerable sectors of society, situated at the lowest levels of the drug-trafficking chain are entering the prison system.

As revealed in the Uruguay chapter of the research study Systems Overload: Drug Laws and Prisons in Latin America, most of the police drug seizure operations confiscate only 10 grams of drugs or less, usually marihuana. In other words, although the policy guidelines recommend focusing operations on middle and large-scale drug traffickers, most of the operations actually deal with cases of possession where quantities of substances are close to the limit defined as possession for use. And in trafficking cases, they usually relate to small-scale dealing. (Consult the study for these and more statistics.)

“The fact that most of the drug seizure operations are to confiscate 10 grams or less, usually of marijuana, is a waste of police and judicial resources,” says Giorgina Garibotto, researcher for the Uruguay chapter. “The country’s recent drug policy objective – to get the police to target middle and large-scale drug traffickers – has yet to be realized in practice.”

The case of cocaine base paste (PBC) is worth a special mention because although specific guidelines exist to prioritize tackling points of sale of this substance, it can be seen that in 258 cases only two grams or less of PBC were confiscated. This brings up the question of whether it is actually the traffickers of this substance who are being detained, or merely the most vulnerable users.

The percentage of the population imprisoned for drug related crimes (11 percent) is still low compared to other crimes and compared to other Latin American countries. However, the justice system and prison systems are plagued by delays in issuing sentences, insufficient use of alternative penalties, and its abuse of preventive detention.

“Those who are put on trial for 10 grams of drugs or less should be candidates for alternative sanctions, and under no circumstances should they be sent to high security prisons,” states Garibotto. “In many cases, the use of alternative penalties is a better option, as imprisonment has a profoundly negative impact on the lives of these young people and their families.”

The prisoners interviewed for this study described some of these negative impacts. For example, in one case a 21-year-old student told how he decided to plant seven cannabis plants in his plant nursery and acknowledged that he committed the crime of selling small amounts of marijuana to some people he knew. This young man explained that one day the house was raided and both he and his father were arrested. Now, he regrets that he has to serve a sentence of 2 years and 4 months for the sale and production of marijuana, and that his father, who was months away from retirement, was given an 8 month sentence for production, causing him to lose his income. The marihuana, plants, and seeds the police found in his house didn’t amount to more than 10 grams (in total).

“This case makes one question whether this young man received a proportionate and appropriate sentence for the crime he committed,” says Garibotto. “Cases like this contribute to overloading the prison system without a clear justification.”

Uruguay has the second highest prison population rate in Latin America, a rate that continues to rise. In 2009 the situation of overcrowding had reached a level of 138 percent occupancy. One of the prisoners interviewed, for example, shares a three-person cell with seven other men. During 2010, the new government increased the Ministry of the Interior’s budget and a significant part of this will go to improving and strengthening the prison system.