When environmental prosecutor Carlos Chirre and his team arrived at the port after destroying 15 illegal dredges in the Colorado River (Madre de Dios), they did not find justice, but a mob. About 80 people armed with sticks cornered them, burned their boats and threatened to kill them. “This is how the people interdict,” one of the women leading the riot shouted.
This scene, documented in an extensive report by Mongabay Latamillustrates a harsh reality: the Peruvian State has lost control of the territory. The gold rush doesn’t stop. As they warn in AP Newsillegal mining is spilling over into new areas of the Peruvian jungle, such as the province of Tambopata and virgin corners of Madre de Dios, leaving in its wake devastated jungles and rivers converted into toxic mudflats.
Nobody is safe. The historic Panguana scientific station—with more than 60 years operating in Huánuco— has been surrounded by backhoes that operate day and night. Death threats against scientific personnel forced the area to be evacuated. Researcher Eric Cosio warns about the magnitude of this enemy: the degree of logistical sophistication of these miners far exceeds that of drug trafficking. They operate in broad daylight, extracting gold on a medium scale and in full view of everyone.
The great legal trap. The tributaries are public and intangible goods, but the State itself is the one that has facilitated their invasion. According to the researchthere are at least 215 current mining concessions that cross five of the main basins in the region. The legal trick is perverse: although the concession title does not authorize the extraction of the mineral without having previously obtained environmental permits, in practice it is enough to have that paper in hand to install dredgers and deceive the indigenous communities, stating that the State has granted them that right.
But the definitive shield of impunity has a name: the Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo). As detailed Wiredthis temporary registration (whose validity Congress has extended until 2026) grants criminal immunity to registered miners. As long as they appear “in the process of formalization,” they can be removing the river bed and using mercury—acts prohibited by law—without being able to be prosecuted as illegal miners.
Political complicity. Here comes the factor that clearly explains the situation: Luis Otsuka, current regional governor of Madre de Dios and former mining leader, owns a concession called K-1 that overlaps the Tres Islas native community. Although the Judiciary ordered the annulment of these concessions to protect the indigenous territory, it was the Otsuka regional government itself that, years later, reactivated them.
The imminent future. In the Loreto region, where mining is just beginning to emerge strongly, the health tragedy is already underway. According to research by the Amazon Scientific Innovation Center (Cincia), 79% of the residents evaluated in the Nanay River basin already have mercury levels in their bodies higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Claudia Vega, Cincia researcher, issues a terrifying warning: Because communities in Loreto eat fish daily, an expansion of mining would bring them closer to suffering levels of mass poisoning comparable to the historic Minamata disaster in Japan.
At a global level, the crisis also takes its toll on the climate. The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru emphasizes that the paralysis of the measurement tower in Panguana directly commits to the international AndesFlux project. Without this key station in central Peru, the world loses vital long-term data to understand how rainfall forms and how the carbon cycle works across South America.
From the river to the blood. According to Deutsche Wellepollution punishes indigenous peoples with greater cruelty. Julio Cusurichi, leader of the indigenous organization AIDESEP, denounces that studies in Madre de Dios already show mercury levels well above what is allowed in pregnant women, causing children to be born with severe neurological problems and malformations.
This bioaccumulation is lethal. As Claudia Vega (Cincia) explainsmercury thrown into the waters is transformed into methylmercury and enters the food chain through carnivorous fish. But not only that: the burning of gold amalgam releases vapors that travel for kilometers, poisoning the air of urban areas and forests that do not even have direct mining activity.
Behind this ecocide there is a thirsty international market. The German media points out that there is a multimillion-dollar traffic of mercury from Mexico to the Amazon. Furthermore, it exposes a global vacuum: the Minamata Convention—designed to stop this toxic substance—does not completely prohibit its trade, allowing it under certain exceptions for artisanal mining, a loophole that is ruthlessly exploited by mafias.
Behind this ecocide there is a thirsty international market. The German media points out that there is a multimillion-dollar traffic of mercury from Mexico to the Amazon. Furthermore, it exposes a global vacuum: the Minamata Convention—designed to stop this toxic substance—does not completely prohibit its trade, allowing it under certain exceptions for artisanal mining, a loophole that is ruthlessly exploited by mafias.
A perpetual damage. Mercury is not a problem that time can erase. “Mercury, since it is an element, we do not destroy it,” remember Claudia Vega. It doesn’t go away; it simply travels, filters down, and is passed down to the next generations.
The gold that today leaves the Peruvian Amazon for global markets is stained by something denser than mud and mercury: it is stained by deliberate legal loopholes. The State has created a bureaucratic monster where being registered in a registry or having a concession on paper is worth more than the health of a native community or the natural channel of a river. As long as the laws continue to protect the destroyer rather than the destroyed, the Amazon will continue to lose the battle.
Image | Marco Milon
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings