The Colombian and Brazilian authorities neutralized a mining company that was affecting water sources and generating serious deterioration to the ecosystem in the Amazon.
Photo: Army
In a coordinated operation between the Military Forces of Colombia and Brazil, a mining establishment located on the Puré River in the border area of the Amazonas department was neutralized. At the site, 16 dredgers were found that were causing serious environmental damage due to the dumping of chemicals and the impact on the fauna and flora of the area.
The troops of the 26th Brigade of the National Army, the Amazon Coast Guard Group of the Navy and the Air Force, were the ones who located the sector where a criminal group would have been cutting down a large wooded area, using backhoes and chainsaws.
According to the authorities, this type of indiscriminate and illegal deforestation was carried out to make way for dredges, which, through the use of chemicals such as cyanide and mercury, searched for gold in the area.
Once the place was located, and after a regional meeting between the two countries, the joint operation was planned to stop this “ecocide.” When the authorities arrived at the site, they found 16 dredges and five backhoes, which were illegally extracting approximately six kilograms of gold per month.
The authorities were emphatic that these types of actions cause irreparable damage to the ecosystem, in an area “important for the generation of oxygen and biodiversity.” For this reason, they are investigating which criminal group or gang this machinery would belong to, since when they arrived at the site, the people in charge of operating the mining establishment fled the sector. An operation is also being carried out in the area to find those allegedly responsible.
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