Military operations against illegal mining, including aerial bombing, mark a new strategy in crime fight

On Monday, air force jets carried out three bombing raids on illegal mines in Buenos Aires parish of Imbabura Province. Dozens of trucks and earth moving tractors were destroyed as were structures and mining equipment and supplies. Those in the area were warned minutes before the raids by drone leaflet drops to evacuate and no casualties were reported.

Soldiers patrol the remains of an illegal gold mine in Buenos Aires, in Imbabura Province, early in the week.

Also beginning Monday, army personnel carried out six raids on smaller illegal mining camps, destroying equipment and seizing explosives, firearms, and chemicals. Two of those raids were conducted in Azuay Province, at the former Río Blanco site in Molleturo and near Pucará.

According to the armed forces command, the raids are part of a new strategy against illegal gold and silver mining in the country. “These actions were part of a coordinated campaign to curtail illegal mining in Ecuador,” the command said in a statement. “The campaign includes not only the initial operations to close the mines and destroy and confiscate equipment, but follow-up missions to ensure that the mines remain closed.”

Mining industry experts say the follow-up strategy is essential for reducing illegal mining. “In the past, there were military missions that closed mines and destroyed equipment but then the soldiers left and the miners returned,” says former deputy minister of mines, Fernando Benalcázar. “Assuming the government is committed to the new strategy of maintaining a presence near the mining sites, this is an approach that can be successful.”

Benalcázar says Buenos Aires is a case in point of past failures. “In 2019, a thousand troops destroyed illegal mining operations there and evicted more 2,500 people who supported the mines. There was an entire city at that time with tiendas, nightclubs and brothels, and this was dismantled,” he said. “Then, after a month, all the soldiers left and no one remained to monitor new activity. The miners came back, brought in new equipment, reopened the mines and reestablished a community of 500 people.”

On a smaller scale, says Benalcázar, maintaining government presence near illegal mining site has proven successful in Azuay Province. “A military monitoring station was established last year in Camilo Ponce Enríquez and new mining activity has not returned. More important, murders in that canton have dropped 95%.”

Another announced change in strategy — following the money of illegally mined gold and silver — sounds good in principle, says Stevie Gamboa, lawyer specializing in mining. “It remains to be seen if this will actually happen due to the sophistication of criminal mining gangs and their interaction with legal mining interests,” he says. “The concessioned miners make millions of dollars processing and selling gold from the illegal mines and they claim they don’t know where it comes from. Financial oversight would reveal the sources.”

Because of influence of legal mining interests, he says, the government has been reluctant to establish financial oversight.

Gamboa and other mining industry experts say corruption within the government, particularly in the Mining and Finance Ministries, make financial reviews of gold and silver transactions, especially sales to foreign interests, difficult to follow. “I think this is major problem and the government doesn’t want to talk about it.”

Gamboa estimates that 60% of all gold and silver sold in Ecuador is illegally mined.

Benalcázar says controlling illegal mining in the Amazon will be much more difficult than in Imbabura, Azuay and other Andean and coastal provinces. “Most of the country’s illegal mining is in Zamora Chinchipe, Morona Santiago and Napo Provinces, and this is much, much harder to confront,” he says. “We saw what happened a few months ago when 11 soldiers were ambushed and killed in the jungle, which explains the reluctance of the government to mount military operations in the region.”

Like Gamboa, Benalcázar believes government corruption is an obstacle to attacking illegal mining, especially in the Amazon provinces. “I have no doubt that large bribes are routinely paid to government officials to look the other way.”