Today, the border area in the heart of the Amazon rainforest is a lawless land. The struggle for control leads to deadly clashes, sometimes with recruited child soldiers, says Julia de Moraes Almeida, a lawyer at Amazon Underworld.
When the FARC guerrillas in Colombia laid down their arms in 2016, it was the start of a new war. Breakaway groups changed direction, expanding across the border to Ecuador and Peru. In Ecuador, criminal gangs like Los Choneros have broken into neighboring countries.
Ideal for cocaine
The journalist network, together with the conservation association Amazon Watch, has mapped crime in the region.
There is a lot of drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking and smuggling of weapons and fuel, she says.
The jungle makes the area ideal for growing coca bushes, from which cocaine is made.
Elsewhere, illegal gold mining is the main activity. In Ecuador, the Interior Ministry has estimated the value at $1.3 billion annually. Some former drug traffickers have switched to gold.
The penalties are low, the risk of getting caught is minimal – they are not investigated as organized crime – and the profits are extremely high, says an anonymous Peruvian official in the report .
Gold and cocaine flow via rivers to Brazil, or along smuggling routes to the Pacific Ocean where they are transported further. The widespread crime is also a threat to the environment.
We see deforestation to make way for coca plantations, mercury pollutes the rivers and the groups that map environmental crimes are largely unable to move in these areas, says Julia de Moraes Almeida.
Must stop
Elsewhere in the Amazon, rainforest is used for cattle ranching. Between August 2023 and July 2024, 91 percent of all deforestation in the Amazon was illegal, according to a study . The cartels have also ventured into the illegal trade in rare animals and plants.
Almeida is concerned that decision-makers will choose militarization with more violence in the region as a solution, and would rather see cooperation and dialogue as the way forward.
We can't just say that organized crime is the problem. We're talking about an incredibly profitable economy. So to preserve the Amazon and address the violence, we have to stop the demand.
The end customer for both gold and cocaine is usually found in completely different places in the world, such as the USA, Asia and Europe.
Organized crime exists because there is a market, she says.
Amazon Underworld is a journalist network that works to map transnational crime in the Amazon region.
The network consists of six media organizations and has released several reports with different focuses.
The organization collaborates with partners, such as journalists and researchers, in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Source: Amazon Underworld
