Murder, drought and peyote: the deadly struggle for Mexico's water

Latin America's water wars: How the twin menaces of mining and agribusiness threaten a sacred way of life Photographs by Nicola ZolinEvery year, members of Mexico's Indigenous Wixárika people make an arduous 800km (500-mile) pilgrimage from San Andrés Cohamiata in the highlands of Jalisco to the semi-arid desert of San Luis Potosí. Their destination is Wirikuta, a sacred gathering place where, according to their beliefs, the world was created from a drop of water.Once gathered, the pilgrims await a special night on which peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus at the heart of the Wixárika people's spiritual rituals, is blessed and distributed. But for the past five years a shadow has loomed over the ceremony: drought. Continue reading...