Borders in the Amazon are porous, in remote areas, difficult to access, and often very distant from other important political and economic centres. These areas span thousands of square kilometres and are deeply connected to transnational dynamics: routes, flows of goods and people, business practices, and criminal networks. They play a central role in illegal supply chains of forest products1. This expansion of illicit activity in border areas can have a particularly corrosive effect on communities, where locals are often recruited or coerced into low-level criminal activity2. At the same time, Latin America has become the incubator of cross-border criminal organisations, which are adapting and complexifying their structures, as they expand their illicit activities, beyond drug trafficking.3
In this session, participants delved into how at the borders of the countries of the Amazon basin, both licit and illicit actors interact to commit environmental crimes and cause degradation. Some of the key questions guiding the discussion were: 1) where and why do national boundaries make enforcement harder? 2) how are organised crime groups exploiting these issues? and 3) what can be done about this?
Geographical challenges play a big part in the proliferation of convergent crimes. Borders are regions far removed from large cities, capitals and centres of political power. They have limited to no state presence, where in most countries in the regions their limited resources mean there is little to no access.
There is hope that this gap continues to be bridged by technology. However, the gap is not only geographical, but also social, cultural and political, as urban elites can often view environmental crimes as something from afar. There are multiple intergovernmental efforts to combat transnational organised crime and to protect the Amazon. For example, the Andean Community’s Outcome Action Plan, the Assistance Program against Organised Crime (El PACcTO), or the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). However, there are significant limits to regional governance in the face of environmental crimes that are largely due to differences between the legal systems of each State, threats to environmental authorities, corruption and crimes committed by law enforcement, and a lack of public funding.
In the meantime, criminal networks take advantage of these porous borders, acting in a coordinated and collaborative manner with each other – and in many cases in collusion with the authorities. They have penetrated the social fabric and have consolidated a criminal governance in certain territories along the Amazonian borders, where they are the de facto authorities, controlling local actors such as illegal miners (and ensuring their political support). They commit extortion of miners, indigenous communities, cattle ranchers, and other actors involved in legal and illegal activities. These criminal networks have millions of dollars in resources for their operations and equipment, which include large dredgers, that generate great environmental and social damage, also using substances such as mercury.
There is a convergence of crimes in the territory. Criminal networks that used to work in drug trafficking are now involved in illegal mining. Corruption is widespread among authorities, serving as a catalyser to foster the growth of criminal economies. Also, these criminal organisations are making use of the interconnectivity within parts of the Amazon. Criminal gangs have taken advantage of connectivity in countries such as Ecuador, where tracks and rivers are being transformed into smuggling routes that allow cocaine trafficking to cross borders. Organised crime groups are taking advantage of the same transportation routes and corrupt relationships along those routes to move multiple products (drugs, timber, gold, weapons) in the same or different directions4.
To combat convergent crimes in the Amazon region, it is imperative to strengthen the role of indigenous communities. They are vulnerable actors who also have an important presence in the territory and knowledge about what is being done in each area. It is necessary to think about types of collective protection and not only individual ones. In the same sense, international synergies need to be boosted. To address governance challenges, cooperation between national and international agencies is required, including sharing techniques, doctrine, technological resources, police and intelligence information, regional databases, among others. International synergy between allies is essential to confront transnational criminal networks and must land in integrated operational plans.