The nation had endured 300 years under the thumb of Spain. Native-born Mexicans were second-class citizens in their own country, doomed to poverty and near-starvation. The time to rise up and cast off the shackles of economic and cultural slavery had come. And on September 16, 1810, the war for freedom from tyranny began—an uprising that ultimately led to Mexico’s independence 11 years later.
But the War of Independence was not the only bloody conflict ever set in Querétaro.
There is another fight for freedom taking place even now in that same state as you read this—a generations-long war in which the enemy is ruining lives and destroying families at a rate that defies accounting.
It is the war for freedom against the slavery of drug abuse.
Powerful Mexican cartels traffic their poisonous wares to other countries and, along the route, cocaine and other hard drugs spill over into Mexican hands in ever-increasing quantities.
Year by year, the war’s casualties mount, and like that day centuries ago, there’s no turning back for Mexico. The choice is simple: Fight for freedom today or forever surrender a nation not to the Spanish lords, but to the drug lords, allowing the people to become slaves to substances that destroy their happiness and steal their freedom.
For more than a quarter century, Narconon Mexico has been a welcome refuge in a nation awash with deadly substances.
A life spent servicing addiction is a life spent hating yourself—knowing your day will consist only of serving your ruthless master, a poison, and being weak, succumbing to self-destructive urges and living out the endless and inevitable cycle of deterioration, depression, shame and regret that comes with addiction. Family? What family? And friends? Those are the people you use when you need a fix. Normal life was that long ago, now faded, memory.
But a powerful ally has come to town: Narconon Mexico, a drug rehabilitation center where addiction is not treated as an incurable disease and where a person trapped in the nightmare of substance abuse can actually take their life back and live again in freedom, on their own terms.
For more than a quarter century, Narconon Mexico has been a welcome refuge in a nation awash with deadly substances.
Narconon Mexico Director Eduardo Espinal has been there since the center first began in 1998. In the ensuing 26 years, he and his team have reached 100 percent of schools in the area with the message of drug education and prevention. They have also trained police officers and firefighters and have hosted scholars and leaders from other communities eager to learn about the Narconon program.
Espinal explained to Freedom why his country needs Narconon now more than ever. “The cartels are heavily pushing this into the Mexican society, to get more and more people into drugs. Every day they work on new substances. Designer drugs are being made so attractive to young people that they get hooked quickly.”
And when one child becomes addicted, the whole family suffers, he explains. “In Mexico, family is everything and drug addiction destroys families. But when we help a father, mother, son or daughter overcome addiction, we not only rehabilitate them, we save the entire family.”
To Eduardo Espinal, reuniting families, rehabilitating hundreds, and educating thousands who then decide to live drug-free lives is “the most important thing about the work that Narconon Mexico does.”
And with the opening of Narconon Mexico’s magnificent new home in Querétaro—where two centuries ago, the seeds of a different freedom from a different slavery were sown—a new chapter has just begun.
On August 17, to the cheers of 152 friends, community leaders and Narconon graduates, the ribbon fell on Narconon Mexico’s new home. Originally a hotel, the facility is a spacious 114,000 square feet and includes a swimming pool and soccer field, as well as volleyball, basketball and tennis courts.
Leaders welcoming Narconon Mexico to its new home included representatives of local community associations and Francisco Boneta, the State Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction of Quintana Roo on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, himself a graduate of Narconon. As a program that actually saves lives, Boneta describes Narconon as “a beacon of hope for those suffering from addiction.”
Reflecting on the new, much expanded facility, Espinal told Freedom, “I hope to give a lot of life, a lot of joy, health and well-being to the people of Mexico who are struggling with addiction.”
Espinal describes what has become a familiar sight over the years: families dropping their loved ones off at the center, saying goodbye, certain they would never see them again, and leaving them for dead. Then the former addict, through the Narconon program, regains their self-respect, takes responsibility and is restored to the person he or she once was. The sight of that transformation—watching a human being liberated from drugs before your eyes and being welcomed back into a family now whole again—is what it’s all about for Espinal.
Narconon Mexico is part of the worldwide network of Narconon drug rehabilitation centers, all drug-free and based on the discoveries and writings of author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. The program includes a detoxification, involving a precise regimen of vitamins, exercise and sauna, then life skills courses to enable the individual to once again stand on his own two feet, a productive member of his community.
A Narconon graduate knows that he or she can make it in the world without props, without white-knuckling it, and without ever needing to return to the treadmill of drugs again.
Just as Mexico’s War of Independence sought freedom for a people under the yoke of an unwanted master, today’s battle against drugs seeks freedom for the individual crippled by the tyranny of addiction and dependency. Mexico won its war for freedom. And the tide is turning on this war as well, individual by individual, seemingly lost soul by seemingly lost soul.
Narconon Mexico’s first-ever graduate, Alfonso Ruiz, arrived to Narconon in a state of utter hopelessness. Thanks to the program, he was restored to the man he once was—and then some. He went on to become an internationally recognized triathlete as well as a phenomenally successful businessman, who today runs five companies.
He credits Narconon.
“Narconon gave me my life back,” he says.
