Download report in Spanish (35 MB)
A new report on the impact of drug trafficking on Indigenous Peoples in Peru warns that the country faces a defining decision: confront the rapid expansion of organized crime in the Amazon, or risk allowing new systems of criminal power to take root across vast regions of the country.
The Amazonian Crossroads: Urgent Decisions or the Consolidation of Criminal Power in Peru, produced by AIDESEP, ORAU, Instituto del Bien Común, ProPurús, Amazon Watch, and Ricardo Soberón, finds that drug trafficking, illegal gold mining, land trafficking, and other illicit economies are no longer operating as isolated activities. Instead, they increasingly function as interconnected systems reshaping territories, local economies, and governance across the Peruvian Amazon.
The report identifies growing pressure from transnational criminal networks linked to shifting trafficking routes, weakened institutions, and intensifying regional dynamics. Indigenous territories have become among the most contested spaces: 274 Indigenous communities have been identified as affected by illicit economies, while over 12,000 hectares of coca cultivation are now present inside Indigenous territories.
Researchers identify several critical hotspots, including the Ucayali–Huánuco corridor, the Putumayo and tri-border region with Brazil and Colombia, Condorcanqui near Ecuador, and the southern Amazon corridor connecting Madre de Dios, Puno, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Yet, amid escalating violence and pressure, Indigenous communities continue developing some of the strongest responses to criminal expansion through territorial monitoring, Indigenous guards, and community governance systems. The report argues that strengthening Indigenous territorial governance will be essential to protecting the Amazon and preventing further criminal consolidation.
As Peru prepares for a new administration in 2026, the report presents a stark warning: the decisions made now could determine whether the country regains control over these territories – or faces a deeper crisis of criminal governance in the Amazon.
