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“Amazon Underworld”: How Criminal Cartels Control the Rainforest

Thanks to its size and abundance of resources, the Amazon forest is at the center of illegal trafficking in South America. From gold mining to coca cultivation: activities that not only fuel deforestation and contaminate the fragile ecosystem, but which expose indigenous peoples to violence and oppression

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The Amazon has become a major source of livelihood for Latin America's criminal economies. From the cargoes of cocaine, gold and wood that travel along the intricate network of rivers, to the makeshift landing strips that facilitate the movement of small smuggling planes at night, the forest is now home to a complex shadow economy that not only fuels global demand for illegal products but also threatens one of the most delicate ecosystems on the planet and the communities that inhabit it.

These are the results of the "Amazon Underworld" report, published at the end of the year by Amazon watch and based on the work of the Amazon underworld journalistic research project created together with the Global initiative against transnational organized crime, which shows how criminal organizations and armed groups in the Amazon have expanded their presence, increased political control and diversified their economies, with devastating impacts on indigenous populations. "Coca production, wild gold mining and illegal logging are some of the main drivers of deforestation and a primary source of contamination and environmental degradation in some of the most pristine areas of the region - reads the report -. The ecosystems on which indigenous peoples depend for their livelihood are destroyed and the communities themselves are often divided and their younger members recruited into illicit activities. Crime phenomena can advance very rapidly, placing the indigenous inhabitants of the forest in a situation of great vulnerability and risk, also leading to the disappearance of local communities".

The Amazon, which extends over seven million square kilometers and embraces nine countries, is able to provide both resources (such as gold, coca and wood) and protection and logistics to cartels and criminal groups. The limited presence of the State, the lack of infrastructure and services and the growing demand for illegal goods has favored the establishment and proliferation of organized crime. According to Amazon Underworld's analysis, armed and drug trafficking groups are active in 70% of municipalities in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela and that all the region's borders are guarded on at least one side by an armed group. "Over the last decade, the Amazon has become one of the most dangerous regions in Latin America, with marginalized communities bearing the brunt of the violence. In Brazil, for example, indigenous people have been systematically subjected to invasions by armed garimpeiros, while in Colombia's nine Amazonian departments, where 43 massacres have been documented since 2020, non-state armed groups terrorize communities rural - we read in the report -. Peru, drug traffickers are recruiting more and more indigenous children to work on coca plantations and guerrillas are forcing entire families to serve as labor in illegal gold mines in Venezuela in 2022.

Among the main illegal businesses in the region is gold mining. It is estimated that in South America it is worth between three and 12 billion dollars a year. Much of this trafficking occurs in the Amazon, where nearly 4,500 clandestine mines were identified in 2020. The areas where this phenomenon is most widespread are southern Venezuela, in particular the state of Bolívar, and the Brazilian states of Pará and Roraima, but these operations also extend to Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. "This criminal economy is one of the main sources of income for Colombian non-state armed groups, involved in illegal mining since the 1990s -explain the researchers -. The activity is also present in the portfolio of the Primeiro commando da capital (CPP, Brazil's largest criminal cartel, ed.), particularly in the states of Roraima and Pará". Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and other smaller groups are also involved in the gold trade through trafficking in mercury, a dangerous heavy metal used in its extraction. The Ejército de liberación nacional, Colombia's largest guerrilla group, provides mining equipment while dissidents from the Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela tax gold production. The corrupt state forces of Brazil and Venezuela are also involved in its extraction. This activity is used to launder the profits of drug trafficking and finance the violence used by criminal groups to control territories and communities. A rapidly growing phenomenon: according to the Brazilian Institute for Space Research, between 2016 and 2022 the illegal extraction of gold from indigenous lands increased eightfold. This has led to an increase in both violence against communities and mercury pollution.

Another illegal trade present in the Amazon is the production and distribution of cocaine. The coca plant, the main raw material for this narcotic, is grown extensively in the region. Although Colombia is the world's largest producer, most of the cultivation in the Amazon rainforest is found in Peru. Due to the growing demand for cocaine in Europe and in the markets of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the Amazon routes are increasingly used by traffickers. Hundreds of rivers and clandestine landing strips, in fact, offer an effective logistical network, since the police do not have the personnel and resources to patrol them. "Criminal organizations use various seaports in Brazil, as well as in Guyana and Suriname, to export the majority of cocaine to Europe and West Africa - continue the authors of the report -. It is estimated that significant quantities pass through Venezuela and are transported by semi-submersible vessels in the open sea, where the drug is then loaded onto ships departing from other countries". A 2023 study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) highlighted the links between corruption, violence and the reinvestment of drug money in other, sometimes legal, industries that cause environmental damage, such as livestock farming and intensive agriculture. The murder of indigenous rights activist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips in June 2022 in Brazil's Javari Valley region brought to light the links between drug trafficking, illegal fishing and poaching.