How a Mennonite farmer became a drug suspect

Franz Kauenhofen was once a pious member of his Mennonite community in this tropical stretch of southern Mexico. “From that time onward he had friendships with dangerous people,” said one community member who grew up with Kauenhofen and went to church with him. “Owning a ‘touch’ is the greatest sin a person can commit, in the eyes of the ministers,” said Heinrich Wiebe, a 63-year-old church member in Las Flores. “I was told you had the guts to do some work,” said El Carpintero, who invited Kauenhofen to clear a landing strip so planes packed with cocaine could refuel. More than two decades after Kauenhofen’s family helped found Las Flores, Mennonites there are once again looking for a new place to call home.