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From Our Own Correspondent

Mexico's clergy and the cartels

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Young Mexicans preparing to join the priesthood don't only have to struggle with matters of mortal sin or individual guilt. They are also often sent to serve communities where the country's drug-trafficking networks are highly active - and extremely violent. Will Grant spoke to some of the men who must run the deadly risks of ministering in 'cartel land'. The regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has driven events across the Middle East in recent decades - with the two powers backing opposing sides in the conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Recently, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties, but as Sebastian Usher explains, even as some red lines shift, the limits on public debate at home are still very much in force. The Chaco region of Paraguay was once called 'the green hell' for its spiky, almost impenetrable scrubland. It's now opening up to the outside world, thanks to a new highway called the Bi-oceanic Corridor. Some communities living in the Chaco - like the Mennonite groups whose dairy farms now dot the landscape, and the Ayoreo indigenous people of the area - welcome the new opportunities for their produce, but worry about whether newcomers will change their way of life. Jane Chambers heard their concerns. Deal or no deal? Not a game-show question, but a repetitive refrain in the long saga of diplomacy in the Balkans. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borell recently trumpeted 'we have a deal' after a round of talks between Serbia and Kosovo. Guy De Launey found the devil lay in the detail... or, rather, the lack of it. And on the beaches of Jersey, Christine Finn recently received some lessons in frugality - including advice on the best uses for foraged seaweed, and how to benefit from a cut-price, one-clawed lobster. Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Polly Hope Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.0

Today, the red lines on public debate in Saudi Arabia

0:09.0

and how they're shifting as relations thore with Iran.

0:13.0

We're in a part of Paraguay,

0:15.0

which is once called the Green Hell for its spiky scrubland

0:19.0

and is now being found by menonites, grain vegetables.

0:23.0

In the Balkans, the devil is not in the detail,

0:26.0

but the dearth of detail after recent talks

0:29.0

between Serbia and Kosovo.

0:31.0

So, is it deal or no deal?

0:34.0

And some ways to live modestly on a wealthy island.

0:38.0

On Jersey, there are still armfuls of nourishing seaweed

0:42.0

as well as the odd cut price one Claude lobster

0:45.0

to be found on the beaches.

0:47.0

But first to Mexico, and matters of life and death.

0:51.0

The true number of Mexicans kidnapped and all too often killed

0:55.0

by the country's drug cartels is unknown.

0:58.0

The statistics are hotly contested and often incomplete.

1:02.0

More than 100,000 people are officially registered as missing,

1:07.0

and last year there were over 31,000 recorded homicides,

1:11.0

though it's likely many murders are never counted at all.

1:15.0

The number of people traumatized by the violence

...

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