An 80 military squadron from Ecuador’s armed forces suffered an ambush perpetrated by the Criminal Group Border Commands on Friday. The unit carried out an operation against illegal mining in the Alto Punino sector, in a border area with Colombia to the north of the country, between the Amazon provinces of Napo and Orellana. The State Attorney General’s Office confirmed at least 11 military officers were killed at the hands of this group, considered the most powerful of the Colombian department of Putumayo.
The attack was made with heavy artillery: explosives, grenades, and rifles, according to the information provided by military intelligence. Among the deceased are two lieutenants, seven ends, a soldier and a sergeant. All victims belong to the 19 Napo jungle brigade. In the attack he also died of a border command member. Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense promised not to rest until they found those responsible.
After the first proceedings of the body lifting, the Prosecutor’s Office assured that the bodies were taken to the Forensic Center of the city of Lake Agrio, in the province of Sucumbíos, also border with Colombia.
Mining has increased year after year. 90% of the activity is concentrated in the extraction of gold. According to the Ministry of Defense, there is an incidence of illegal mining in 18 of the 24 provinces of Ecuador. Most in concentrated in border areas with Peru and Colombia. El Alto Punino, is one of the mining areas with the greatest interference of armed illegal groups. This area is near the Sumaco Galeras National Park, one of the protected areas in Ecuador. This jungle area, like others from the Ecuadorian Amazon, have become the target of national crime groups and international criminal gangs.
The Association of Guares of Ecuador denounced last year the presence of criminal groups carrying out mining activities and illegal felling in protected areas. At that time they already warned of the incursion of armed criminals and the kidnapping of rangers at the hands of criminals.
A report from the department against transnational organized crime of the OAS confirms the advance of illegal mining in Ecuador and attributes it to factors such as the informality of the mining sector, the presence of a deposit in remote places – such as natural parks – and the existence of networks dedicated to illicit extraction in the neighbors countries of Colombia and Peru. Illegal gold mining in the country has become a round business. The former Minón Palencia Ministry confirmed in January of this year that illegal mining exported gold for 1.3 billion dollars.
