"Maria Full of Grace"

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Here is an x-ray of a mule's stomach. Everyday that passes more and more people are turning to this as a means of some income. The people who do this are good people who are just in a tight situation and need help.

Scene: Blanca and Maria Talk
Blanca finds out that Maria is going to serve as a mule and decides she wants to join. Her family needs all the help they can get and she knows the money is very much needed. Maria tries to convince her otherwise, but Blanca responds by saying, “Do you know how much 5,000 dollars is in pesos? I can buy my family a house.” Blanca and Maria resorted to serving as mules in order to try and withstand the poverty they were living in.

Scene: Lucy Dies
Mules all know the consequences of swallowing drugs and transporting them to another country. They can die, end up arrested, or in customs. Lucy’s death however was horrific because Maria ended up finding her with her stomach cut open. Lucy wasn’t feeling well and most likely one of the pellets burst inside of her. Therefore, in order to get the rest of the drugs out, which is what the drug traffickers only cared about they cut her open. Lucy wasn’t a bad person and she didn’t deserve to die that way, but like many people in her country she needed the money.

“Poverty is Violence”
It was very difficult to get a job in Columbia and the ones who did never had enough to support their family because the wages were too low. As a result, drugs were seen as an easy way to get some cash. This was because when sold in another country, normally the United States it was sold at a good value and so mules were offered a good price for their service. In most developing countries there are those who are poor and those who are wealthy. The government for these countries doesn’t do much to help the people who are suffering economically and so since there are no jobs and no help they resort to other things like transporting drugs as a way out. Poverty is violence, the Governement acting as if everything was okay and not helping the poor communties in their country is the same as the act of violence.