UK teen dies after Colombian tribal ritual
AP April 27, 2014, 9:57 am
A British teenager has died in southwestern Colombia after drinking an hallucinogen during a tribal ritual.
Henry Miller, 19, was found dead on Wednesday by a rural road outside Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo region, local police commander Ricardo Suarez said on Saturday.
In a statement published by the BBC, Miller's family said he took part in a ritual involving a drink made from local plant infusions, and "it is likely that a reaction to this drink was the cause" of his death.
Britain's Foreign Office said on Saturday it was aware of the death of a British national in Colombia on Wednesday.
Miller drank yage, a psychedelic brew produced from various plants native to the Amazon, during a ritual led by a local shaman, Suarez told The Associated Press.
Suarez said such rituals are popular in the Putumayo and Amazon regions of Colombia "for the effects caused by the drink, especially hallucinations".
After Miller's health deteriorated, Suarez said, the shaman sent him to hospital on a motorcycle, along with two local young men.
Miller "died on the way. Everything indicates that the two young men panicked and left him on the side of the road," Suarez said.
Suarez said investigators have identified and questioned the two young men and the shaman, but they have not yet been arrested for any crime. He declined to reveal the names of the three.
Suarez said nationals of Italy, Germany, France and Colombia also participated in the ritual.
Fellow traveller Christopher Dearden told the Daily Mail newspaper Miller had a bad reaction to Yage.
Miller's body was at a Mocoa medical centre on Saturday and had not been formally claimed by his family. The director of the centre, Antonio Avila, said an autopsy was performed on Thursday but he was not authorised to reveal the cause of death.
