Criminal organizations linked to cocaine production and trafficking have expanded their actions in the Amazon region known as 'Three Borders', which encompasses border areas between Brazil, Colombia and Peru, according to the NGO International Crisis Group.
Based in Brussels, the organization today released the report "A problem of three borders: restricting the criminal borders of the Amazon", in which it highlighted that there are a variety of criminal organizations "exploiting the weak state reach, the abundance of natural resources and the poverty of local communities to grow, diversify and create new cross-border enterprises" in these areas of the largest tropical forest on the planet.
According to the International Crisis Group, the increase in cocaine production in Peru and the spread of other schemes, such as gold exploration and illegal logging, has attracted and brought several criminal organizations into contact.
"Encouraged by government authorities' irregular control over this vast area, Brazilian criminal groups have established partnerships with Colombian guerrilla factions and Peruvian drug trafficking organizations. They explore a range of illegal enterprises, from growing coca and processing it into cocaine to logging, gold dredging and fishing in protected areas", he highlighted.
According to the NGO, the growing influence of criminal groups on this triple border in South America has caused a high number of murders, many of them linked to disputes over territory or the punishment of local populations who dare to resist the invasion of their lands by these organizations.
"In this part of the Amazon, the new illegal overlord is the Brazilian group Comando Vermelho (CV), which has gained the upper hand in battles with two other major criminal groups: the local group Os Crías and Primeiro Comando da Capital, an immensely powerful group originally from São Paulo, but now operates throughout Brazil", he stated.
"Police authorities believe that the Red Command may be in collusion with the Colombian guerrilla group Carolina Ramírez, which separated from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), now demobilized," he added.
Peru, in turn, became the engine of cocaine production in the region, causing serious environmental damage along the border.
The report highlights that coca plantations, which are grown in deforested forests, have grown in the Peruvian border province of Mariscal Ramón Castilla, often financed by Colombian or Brazilian investors, and the coca leaf ends up processed in laboratories that dump contaminants into the soil and water.
"Illegal groups often reinvest profits from drug trafficking in other environmentally damaging activities, such as illegal logging, dredging and fishing, which allows them to launder their income and generate even more. Indigenous communities have sought to defend their territories from incursions by criminal groups, but many claim to have received no support from the State or security forces", said the NGO.
The region where Brazil, Colombia and Peru meet is particularly far from populated areas, in a forested area, and the study assessed that authorities from the three countries need to develop a joint response to combat the expansion of criminal groups.
"It is essential to standardize legislation on environmental crimes between countries and use technological tools, such as satellite images, to detect illegal activities, including the operation of coca plantations and illicit dredging projects [of rivers to extract gold].
The organization also urged judicial and police bodies in Brazil, Colombia and Peru to organize cross-border projects to enforce laws against money laundering and trafficking in narcotics, wood, gold and mercury, to listen to the local population and to carry out social and economic measures to prevent residents of border areas from being co-opted by crime.
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