{
  "id": 16815674,
  "title": "New report maps widespread criminal presence across six Amazonian countries",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/27/new-report-maps-widespread-criminal-presence-across-six-amazonian",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-27T22:47:42.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mongabay",
    "slug": "mongabay",
    "url": "https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/new-report-maps-widespread-criminal-presence-across-six-amazonian-countries/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent report has revealed the pervasive criminal presence across six Amazonian nations, including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The research indicates that illicit actors operate in roughly 59% of the 1,310 municipalities surveyed, with Colombia experiencing the highest rate at 98%. Venezuela follows with 82%, while Brazil and Ecuador each report 59% and Peru 34% of affected municipalities. Ecuador and Peru also face challenges with lower percentages, at 31% and 59% respectively.\n\nThe report highlights the interconnected nature of criminal operations, with transnational groups like Brazil's Comando Vermelho now present in nearly 500 municipalities, including in Bolivia and Peru. Eight armed groups are active in 99 Colombian Amazon municipalities. Approximately 78% of the country's rural population, or nearly 10 million people, are exposed to the influence of at least one non-state armed group, according to the report.\n\nBram Ebus, the founder of Amazon Underworld and a consultant for International Crisis Group, expressed concern over how organized crime exploits local communities. These groups often extort them, employ them as human shields to protect illicit activities, and obstruct state interventions, leaving communities vulnerable to violent repression by state forces.\n\nThe report also notes a shift in the most lucrative criminal industry within the Amazon, with gold production now surpassing cocaine. This change has exacerbated environmental destruction through deforestation and mercury contamination, as rival groups vie for territorial control. Local populations, particularly Indigenous communities, bear the brunt of the escalating violence resulting from these disputes.",
  "summary": "New mapping by Amazon Underworld finds that criminal networks or armed groups operate in nearly three-fifths of Amazon municipalities across the six countries surveyed, which include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Of the 1,310 municipalities examined, researchers found illicit actors in 768 of them, or 59%. Colombia had the highest proportion of affected […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}