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Kate Adie introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents and writers.

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From Our Own Correspondent: Mexico's Clergy and the Cartels

15/04/2023

Mexico's Clergy and the Cartels

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Mexico's Clergy and the Cartels

The life of a priest comes with considerable risk in communities controlled by cartels.

In Mexico the life of a priest comes with considerable risk, as clergy learn to navigate communities controlled by violent drug cartels.

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

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