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In the Rio Santiago district, on the Peruvian border with Ecuador, one town stands out from the rest: La Poza. It is located on the banks of the river that gives its name to the district, in the Amazon region, six hours by boat from the border and a two-day trip from Lima. It is surrounded by mountains, in an area inhabited by 70 communities of the Awajún and Wampis indigenous peoples. Unlike in a community, here, the noise of motorcycle cabs, the presence of settlers, bars that open early in the morning and illegal taps reveal the boom of the gold rush in the Amazon.

It is late February, the heat is oppressive and the midday sun shines on the dusty streets of La Poza. Arriving at the port, outsiders are viewed with suspicion. The first thing you see is a hotel that stores dozens of crates of beer in a garage, a bar where two young women drink beer and an informal tap that sells aguardiente [local alcoholic drink] in addition to fuel. "How much is a gallon of fuel?" we ask the lady manning the tap. Before answering, she offers a shot of liquor.

An OjoPúblico team traveled along the Peruvian side of the Santiago River, from Santa María de Nieva (capital of the province of Condorcanqui, Amazonas region) to the border with Ecuador, and identified the presence of at least 17 illegal dredges that remove the riverbed to extract illegal gold and a workshop where these machines are manufactured.

MEETING POINT. At La Poza, the paths of indigenous people, foreign business men and illegal miners from the Río Santiago district cross.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

The interviews and testimonies collected show how the lucrative gold business attracts criminal actors, divides indigenous communities and threatens those who defend the territory. Each dredge, depending on size and location, can extract between 80 and 120 grams of 24-carat gold per day in the Amazon.

In La Poza, OjoPúblico identified three stores that buy illegal gold on the sly. In one of these, which apparently sells only groceries, an older man sitting on a bench pays up to S/. 280 [USD 77] per gram of gold "It all depends on the quality," he says. In those days, gold in the world reached the historical price of S/ 376 [USD 103] per gram, a third more than the value offered in this store. 

TRADE. Unlike the indigenous communities along the Santiago River, La Poza offers restaurants, motorbike taxis and numerous stores.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

The absence of the police and Armed Forces along the 230 kilometers of the river in Peruvian territory is total. Only the leaders of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation (GTANW), an organization that groups most of the indigenous communities, are trying to exercise control over the river in order to reduce illegal mining.

"We oppose [mining] because there is an increase in environmental contamination. We talk about everything: water, soil, plants, air (...) It also causes social problems, contradictions within the family," says one of the leaders in the area, whose identity is not mentioned because he has been threatened for his opposition to illegal mining.

Video: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo, Jonathan Hurtado and Aaron Wörz 

Edit: Gabriel García Barandiarán and Giuseppe Vicente

One of the main inputs for illegal mining is the fuel used to pump the engines in the dredges. According to the Energy and Mining Investment Supervisory Agency (Osinergmin), only one establishment is authorized to sell fuel in La Poza, but OjoPúblico identified that at least four others are operating.

In this basin, according to information from the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Ingemmet), there are 11 titled mining concessions, one in process and two expired.

The Peruvian government granted 64% of these concessions between 2019 and 2022. One of the concessions, of 300 hectares and overlapping a sector of the Santiago River, is held by Oro Grande Mining S.A.C. OjoPúblico tried to contact the company, however, the address that appears in its Ingemmet file, which corresponds to the district of Surquillo, in Lima, does not exist. 

According to the Consulta RUC platform of the National Superintendence of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat), since July 2023, Oro Grande Mining S.A.C. appears with “official cancellation”. 

OVERLAY. A 300-hectare mining concession overlaps a sector of the Santiago River, which has been plagued by illegal mining for several years.

Source: Screenshot Geocatmin / Ingemmet

Sexual exploitation and nightlife

During the night, the streets of La Poza are still full of people. Electricity only comes from oil-fueled generators that illuminate the stores and restaurants. A young man, son of a hotel owner, invites strangers to visit "La Esquina", a discotheque on the last street of the town center, next to the cemetery. He himself is the one who openly talks about how there are "chibolitas" [young girls] in that place. Other testimonies in the area confirm this situation and point to cases of sexual exploitation of women and girls. 

NO REST. Young women from indigenous communities work until dawn in the bars of La Poza, frequented by illegal miners.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

The discotheque is a pampa roofed with calaminas, with colored plastic tables, each with only two chairs, fenced in with cement blocks. A schoolboy receives a bottle of beer from a tall man in a bividi [tank top]. The young women who serve, approach the visitors from time to time to offer them more beer, drink and dance with them. After each glass they turn the glass upside down. 

"Some young girls [from the Wampis communities] go to La Poza in search of work (...) The owners of the bars are the ones who call them. They invite and look for the girls to use them as a service," denounces a young indigenous leader, who, like other leaders interviewed, we will not identify in this report to ensure his safety. "The miners take advantage, because they say they have money," he explains. Sexual exploitation is on the rise in all the localities near the areas of illegal gold mining.

People interviewed during the trip assured that this situation also affects women of Ecuadorian and Venezuelan nationality. In December 2024, the municipality of Río Santiago identified minors and women working in bars of La Poza, confirms an official of the District Committee for Citizen Security.

The fuel that feeds the dredges and engines of the Santiago River has a single route: it is transported from Jaén (Cajamarca) and Bagua (Amazonas) to Santa María de Nieva, and from there, where the road ends, it is sent by river to the riverside towns.

On Simón Bolívar Avenue –Santa María de Nieva's main road– an optician's store, in addition to glasses for the visually impaired, sells underwater glasses, swimming fins and other diving equipment, although no one here practices diving.  

When the seller is asked what animals or fish can be seen in the murky waters of the Santiago River, he says none. His clients, he admits, are gold prospectors who use the equipment to repair dredges underwater, or to protect themselves from mud splashes during working hours.

Hot zone and an illegal workshop

Early in the morning, on the shore of the community of San Juan, where Awajún and Wampis live, a group of men prepare to use the dredges. One man notices the presence of strangers, shapes a gun with his fingers and points towards the water. 

Empty blue gasoline drums float on the river and form a circle: illegal miners use these points to mark the places where they have found gold, but have had to leave involuntarily due to changes in the water level. These marks help them to know where they have to return to continue extracting gold.

The first 50 kilometers of the river, coming from Santa María de Nieva, is the most disputed area for illegal mining in the region: it concentrates 94% of the dredges identified along this river. Four of the six communities located in this part are dedicated to and openly support illegal mining: San Juan, Belén, Fortaleza and Guayabal.

OVERVIEW. Currently, in the 230 kilometers of the river in Peruvian territory, illegal mining is concentrated in the lower part between La Poza and Santa María de Nieva.

Graphic: OjoPúblico / Jhafet Ruiz Pianchachi

Gold fever also violates the rights of children. In January of this year, the autonomous government of the Wampis denounced that the miners have begun to use children as "human shields", precisely in the communities of Belén, Guayabal and Fortaleza. The minors are deliberately placed very close to the dredges so that the police cannot detonate the rafts.

A video recorded earlier this year around the community of Fortaleza shows how illegal miners have set up a workshop for the manufacture of dredges. The images show several tents, a welding machine, a warehouse with fuel and Internet via satellite connection. Currently, insecurity prevents an outsider from roaming the area or flying a drone overhead. 

MANUFACTURING. Wampis leaders in the community of Fortaleza identified facilities, covered with blue plastic roofs, where dredge rafts are manufactured.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

With the support of the Amazon Conservation Team, OjoPúblico identified –through the analysis of satellite images– that these facilities were built in the last twelve months. With this workshop, illegal miners can quickly replace the dredges destroyed in the rare police raids. The police are aware of this situation, but, despite the fact that the nearest post is only a two-hour boat ride away, they have so far not intervened the illegal workshop.

When the Wampis indigenous leaders founded the autonomous government in 2015, the fight against illegal activities was one of the reasons for organizing. In the community of San Juan, for example, gold has been mined for about a decade. The leaders regularly take photographs of the river landscape with drones, but on several occasions, they have been threatened by illegal miners during their monitoring work.

In January of this year, the autonomous government of the Wampis denounced that the miners have begun to use children as "human shields".

The impacts of illegal gold mining are increasingly evident in the Santiago River watershed. Sandbanks form on the beaches of the Belén community from sediment pumped into the center of the river. 

However, evidence of the growth of illegal mining begins 40 kilometers earlier, in Santa Maria de Nieva, capital of the province of Condorcanqui.

A shining temptation

Jeremías Bailón Maldonado, 41 year old from Ancash, arrived in Nieva several years ago and worked on a dredge on the Santiago River. Most of the owners of these artifacts come from other parts of Peru. They come from Madre de Dios, Huánuco, Piura, or Loreto, report several people and authorities from the region and the police.

The promise of getting rich quick tempted Bailón to invest in illegal mining. Even today, he says, "Illegal mining moves money in the Santiago River. If the people in the community join out of necessity, it's valid." 

Bailón is a mechanic. This helped him in his work with the dredges. To pump the earth, the miners use vehicle engines that must be modified and serviced periodically. 

In his case, he says he used a Nissan engine. Although other dredgers are even equipped with Mercedes engines, he explains. Normally, the engine of a dredge has a power of 50 horsepower. The larger ones, known as tracas, have up to 150 horsepower.

CONVERSION. Jeremías Bailón used to work as an illegal miner in the Santiago River. Today he has a restaurant and rejects illegal gold mining.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

The end of Bailón's career as an illegal miner came with two police operations. The police destroyed his equipment and opened an investigation. According to him, the case is now closed. 

Today, Bailón has a cocoa farm and a restaurant in La Poza. As president of the organization "Frente de Desarrollo de La Poza", he represents the interests of the main commercial center in the district of Santiago.

Ten years ago, when Bailón was an illegal miner, he remembers that he could sell a gram of gold for S/. 90 [USD 25]. Today the price is almost triple. Will the quick money tempt him again, we ask. Bailón laughs. He now has children and a family, and says that this is not worth the risk. During the interview he says that he rejects illegal mining and that the state needs to offer better alternatives so that the inhabitants of the communities can secure a legal economic livelihood.

Sexual violence and HIV increase

Most of the inhabitants of the Wampis and Awajún communities in the Santiago River basin live from cassava, plantain or cacao crops, fish farming and cattle ranching. Few households have round-the-clock electricity and quality water.

If the villagers require medical treatment, they have to invest a lot of money and time. A trip from Soledad, capital of the Wampis nation, to Santa María de Nieva costs S/ 90 [USD 25] and takes five hours. The gold off the coast in front of these communities promises an easy road to quick prosperity.

A community resident, whose identity is withheld to ensure her safety, explains how the miners try to convince the villagers to install dredges on their shores: "The miners organize activities such as sports, pay for parties and say they make our children study. At Christmas, they even came with gifts," says the woman.

But, as in other illegal mining areas in the Amazon, those who get rich from the gold are not the inhabitants of the communities. They receive only a percentage of the profits from the sale of the gold: "around 20%," says Bailón. The rest goes to the dredge owners, who sell the gold collectively to the collectors. 

"The miners organize activities such as sports, pay for parties and say they make our children study. At Christmas, they even came with gifts," says an indigenous woman.

To gain trust, the miners establish relationships with women from the indigenous peoples and form a family, say the leaders, and denounce that there are cases in which the illegal miners do not want to recognize the paternity of their children. 

Santiago Jenner, director of the Rio Santiago district education authority, is concerned about students in the region. According to him, illegal bars have opened in Fortaleza and Belén where a lot of alcohol is consumed. "My students get pregnant very young. Those who come from outside and work in mining take them as wives, and leave when they finish their work. And who is harmed? Us, my people," he complains.

STRATEGY. Community members and indigenous leaders claim that miners seek to get involved with women from the communities, including minors, in order to gain the trust of the locals.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

Local leaders point out that among the social impacts of illegal mining is the increase in HIV cases. According to data from the regional government of Amazonas, the number of people with HIV in the province of Condorcanqui - which includes the districts of Rio Santiago, El Cenepa and Nieva - has increased in the last four years. While in 2020 there were 40 cases, in 2024, 338 cases were registered. That is an increase of 845%. 

According to Roberto Rivera Sánchez, director of the Condorcanqui Health Network, 80% of the new cases correspond to adolescents and young people between 14 and 25 years of age. 

No control

Throughout the entire journey along the Santiago River during the week, the OjoPúblico team did not find any police or military riverboat controlling the river or the border, despite the fact that the military posts Teniente Pinglo, Ampama, Candungos, Cahuide and Subteniente Castro are located along the river.  

On the border line with Ecuador, one hour by boat from the community of Onanga, no sign indicates the border of Peruvian territory. On the other side is the Ecuadorian canton of Tiwintza. The closest post to the border, a few hundred meters from the border line, is the Cahuide military post. 

The grass on the access road from the river to the two barracks protecting the post is well maintained. In the area, a military man confirmed to OjoPúblico that the soldiers do not intervene with dredges or boats. Their task is, explains the young soldier, to take action in case of "invasion". They do not control what people or goods enter or leave Peru.

INACTION. Illegal activity has taken hold in four communities, including San Juan, and despite the fact that the police is informed, they do not act.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

The police could intervene the dredges, but a young officer from the only post on the Santiago River - located in Nieva - points out that they do not carry out controls or interventions in the water either: "We do not have our own chalupa [slim motorboat]. If we need one, we have to ask to the municipality," he says.

Until early March, the police station was located next to Nieva's main dock. From the door, the officers can see how the boats are loaded with fuel drums. "But we don't do anything on our own," says the policeman.

IMPACT. Excessive riverbed erosion caused by illegal mining alters the natural course of the Santiago River.

Photo: Amazon Conservation Team Colombia / Courtesy of MAXAR Technologies.

In the latest operation against illegal mining on the Santiago River, the police received support from the armed forces. On January 25 of this year, they blew up a dredge on the banks of the community of Belén and destroyed a road in El Cenepa that was used to transport illegal mining materials.

When asked about how the Peruvian government seeks to confront illegal mining in Amazonas, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Luis José Montero Cornejo, said that "several interdiction actions are being carried out. In the Nanay area, in the area of the Condor mountain range, in Condorcanqui in Amazonas". And he pointed out that "the only thing left to do [against illegal mining] is interdiction."

Lightning of self-defense against oblivion

In March 2024, the Wampis founded the Charip vigilance group, made up of more than thirty community members from the Villa Gonzalo community. Charip means lightning.

"The miners are contaminating our rivers, that's why we are here," says one of the vigilantes, whose name is withheld for his safety. With a checkpoint located three hours from the border with Ecuador, they control boats suspected of transporting inputs for illegal mining. 

Two years ago, this indigenous organization identified more than 30 dredges in the Santiago River. The Wampis attribute the significant reduction to the control exercised by this group.

One intervention by the group attracted national attention in April last year: the Charip arrested three Peruvian police officers on a boat carrying inputs for illegal mining. OjoPúblico revealed that one of the agents owned a 500-hectare mining concession in the neighboring district of El Cenepa. 

SELF DEFENSE. The Charip guards inspect boats and their cargo coming from Ecuador.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Renato Pajuelo

Indigenous vigilance, without any support from the national and local government, has exposed the Wampis leaders. Currently the situation is tense and several leaders are being threatened by illegal miners. Threats arrive by WhatsApp and Facebook.

On February 27, 2025, at 7:13pm, an indigenous leader received a message from an unknown number. He politely asked who it was, and the response was not a name, but the information that he is "from Pucallpa". Suspecting nothing wrong, the leader asked how he could help. The unknown number urged a meeting with representatives of the Wampis nation before the tone changed: "sooner or later they have to pay". 

Opponents of illegal mining are defamed and accused not only with messages, but also through rumors spread in the communities.

Illegal miners and their accomplices keep an eye on who approaches the communities. Unknown people are quickly identified and, thanks to satellite internet, information about their visit is shared within hours among the communities linked to mining. 

The gold route

Most of the gold illegally extracted from the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon is traded clandestinely. In Tiwintza, the first small town on the Ecuadorian side of the border on the Santiago River, there are also stores that buy gold. In a store that sells cell phones, a man offers USD 68 for one gram of gold, the equivalent of S/ 250. 

Sources contacted by OjoPúblico indicate that gold from the Santiago River leaves the region in two directions. The ore from the part closest to the border is transported to Ecuador. Meanwhile, the gold from the part closest to Nieva continues to Chiclayo, on the Peruvian coast, a city located 16 hours by bus from Nieva.

DIRTY SHINE. A man in a Chiclayo jewelry store shows freshly delivered, unprocessed gold from the department of Amazonas.

Photo: OjoPúblico / Aaron Wörz

In Chiclayo, stores that buy gold are multiplying. The salesman of a jewelry store, interviewed for this report, confirms - while displaying pieces of gold from the Marañon River - that he buys and uses gold from the department of Amazonas for his necklaces and bracelets.

Gold extracted illegally from the Amazon ends up being laundered not only in jewelry stores, but also through intermediaries who collect it and then - with false papers - allow it to be exported and incorporated into the formal market. Between 2014 and 2023, Peru - the main producer and exporter of gold in South America - officially produced 1,233 tons of the mineral, but in that same time it exported 4,083 tons. In other words, 70% of the exported gold had a non-legal origin.