How Latin America is Burying Its Future
It’s a curious blend of naivety and theatre when Western media suddenly “discover” that illegal gold mining is taking place in Peru — as if it were breaking news. The reality is quite different. For years, entire regions of the Andes and the Amazon have been transformed into mercury-poisoned moonscapes. This is no romantic gold rush of campesinos panning in the river. It’s an industrial-scale looting operation under the barrel of a gun, run by criminal syndicates using excavators, generators, satellite phones, and Kalashnikovs. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, when I visited Madre de Dios in 2012.
In regions like Pataz, the state has either retreated or become part of the problem. What remains are economic free zones for cartels, mercenaries, and unscrupulous brokers. Illegal gold has become a strategic asset of organized crime — more profitable than cocaine, easier to launder, harder to trace.
The criminals adapted. The states didn’t.
It used to be said that where the state withdraws, a power vacuum forms. Today we know: a market forms. And this market is lucrative. In Brazil, gangs made more money from gold than cocaine in 2022. In Colombia, the Gulf Cartel took over tunnels belonging to a Chinese-owned mine. In Peru, mass graves are being found near abandoned shafts — literally, not metaphorically.
Why? The cocaine market has stagnated. Costs are up, margins are down, and risks remain. Gold, on the other hand, is universal — it shines in all currencies, can be legally exported, turned into jewellery, hidden in balance sheets. The combination of drug, gold, and land extraction is giving rise to new economies of violence that don’t operate in the jungle anymore, but in global supply chains.
When the state becomes an accomplice
The real scandal is not that illegal mines exist — it’s how normalized and systemic they’ve become. In Venezuela, the Maduro regime openly cooperates with gold mafias in the Orinoco region. In Bolivia, a state company was founded to buy gold from informal miners in order to bolster foreign reserves — claiming, naively, that it only works with “small cooperatives.”
In Peru, the government declared a state of emergency in Pataz — a symbolic gesture in uniform. The resources it devotes to fighting illegal mining are less than a quarter of what’s spent on drug enforcement, despite gold being the bigger earner for gangs.
Formalisation? Yes — but the real kind.
Of course formalisation is part of the answer. But those who demand it without also offering legal security, access to finance, and protection from extortion are simply delivering small-scale miners into the hands of the next cartel. Between declared intent and practical implementation lies a deep trench — sometimes filled with bodies.
Because the resource war is not about the resource. It’s about control over territory and information. And states that cannot trace the origin of their gold or fend off criminal networks inevitably become part of the shadow economy.
Regulated mining: the lesser evil — by a long shot
Critics will point out: large mining companies have caused environmental damage too. They’ve faced social conflict, and many carry scars of past mistakes. True.
But the difference between a legal, regulated mine — subject to oversight and environmental standards — and a criminal extraction site run with mercury and AK-47s is the difference between a heart surgery and a chainsaw mugging.
Both involve cutting — but only one has a method, a purpose, and a chance of healing.
The romanticised idea that informal mining is somehow more natural or less harmful is dangerously wrong. In reality, illegal mines cause more destruction per gram of gold than any regulated operator — ecologically, socially, politically, and economically.
When the Green Deal dances on blood veins
The West speaks of green transformation, clean energy, responsible supply chains. Meanwhile, illegally mined gold flows into jewellery, reserve holdings, and investment products — complete with stamps and certificates. Look closely and you’ll see: the market is blind — deliberately.
If sustainability is more than a slogan, gold must become traceable — like fish or cocoa. And anyone importing gold from Peru, Colombia, or Venezuela without proof of origin should face legal consequences.
The cost of ignorance is rising.
As long as we treat gold as just another commodity, others will continue forging power from it — through blood, poison, and lawlessness.
“When the state surrenders and the West looks away, the excavator rules — guarded by the machete.”
Latin America’s future isn’t buried deep in the earth — it depends on who controls the depth.