Ecuador destroys 129 illegal mining camps in a national park near Peru

Quito.- A military offensive against illegal mining in Ecuador, including bombings, managed to destroy 129 camps dedicated to this illicit activity in the Podocarpus National Park, one of the largest protected natural areas in the country, located near the border with Peru, announced the Government this Monday.

During nine days of operations in the area, the Armed Forces have also destroyed 94 landmines and 56 crushers (grinders) used by illegal miners to extract gold in this natural reserve. This offensive is carried out at a time when the Government of President Daniel Noboa has intensified its fight against organized crime, within the "war" that it has been waging against these structures for more than two years, which it has classified as "terrorists" and which are mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion under threat of death. Military actions were concentrated in the San Luis, Dos Camas, and La Aida sectors, within the Podocarpus National Park, where these organizations had installed camps, mines, and machinery to sustain their illicit activities.

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Economic impact of three million dollars

They also seized explosives, ammunition, communication radios, satellite internet antennas, electric generators, and various tools used to sustain these illicit activities. According to the Government, the interventions allowed to affect about 130 hectares that had been taken by illegal mining within the National Park, generating an estimated economic impact of approximately three million dollars for the armed groups operating in the area. The Podocarpus National Park is located between the southern provinces of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe, situated in the Andes and the Amazon, respectively, with an area of more than 146,000 hectares, between 900 and 3,600 meters above sea level. It houses between 3,000 and 4,000 species of vascular plants, such as romerillo, cascarilla, pumamaqui, cedar, laurel, among the most representative; and shelters about 63 species of orchids, 25 of which are under some threat category, according to the Ministry of Environment. However, illegal mining in search of gold had been inserted inside, a business to which criminal organizations have devoted themselves by taking advantage of the historical highs that this metal registers internationally, with a highly polluting process that deforests forests and contaminates riverbeds with heavy metals such as mercury.

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