By Marina Tricks
The Rio Ucayali is a winding river that forms a part of the Amazon river basin. Its curves snake-like through the heart of the Peruvian Amazon where it is a lifeline – both for the vibrant ecosystem that grows from it and for the Shipibo-Konibo and Xetebo Indigenous communities that live along its edges.
But the riches, depth and inaccessibility of the Ucayali region have made it a central point of exploitation, corruption and criminal groups.
Aerial footage has begun to show how deforestation is accelerating in this part of the Amazon – one of the reasons being the invasion of the region by narco trafficking groups that are levelling the forest in order to set up clandestine coca farms.
One member of the community, who wishes to stay anonymous, explains that there are now at least 50 landing strips in the region that narco groups are using to export the coca.
In 2021, according to the Regional Forestry and Wildlife Management (GERFFS), 31,500 hectares of the forest were cut down as a result of the expansion of narcotrafficking in the region.
“Not only do they grow coca in the region, but these criminal groups also process it to make cocaine. It brings a lot of danger to the region. In Pucallpa [a city on the River Ucayali] many people – Indigenous peoples and Mestizo peoples – have been assassinated,” he shares.
By Marina Tricks