"I think the biggest threat that exists in the Amazon is man." Fatima is from Lugo and has been living in the Peruvian Amazon for four years. His statement sums up well the spirit of the RTVE programme that has revealed one of these threats. Almudena Ariza hosts Españoles en conflicto, a format created by La Cometa TV that seeks to discover through the eyes of Spaniards, how to live in the most complex regions of the world.

Minerals, gold, oil, timber... There are many Amazonian resources that attract mafias. "The most coveted and isolated treasure in the world," Ariza describes. The result is a worrying deforestation, leading to the disappearance of entire indigenous peoples. From Iquitos, capital of the Peruvian Amazon, the largest city in the world without access by road, only by air and water and which they call "the Amazonian Venice", the veteran RTVE reporter has revealed a local network of arms trafficking integrated by police with great repercussion in Peru, where more than 7,000 Spaniards live.

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Almudena Ariza leaves in search of 'Spaniards in conflicts': "When I returned to Madrid they took me out of my element, I was a caged bird"

  • Writing: SARA POLO Madrid

Almudena Ariza leaves in search of 'Spaniards in conflicts': "When I returned to Madrid they took me out of my element, I was a caged bird"

At one point in the episode aired last week, Almudena Ariza interviews two drug traffickers who appear with their faces covered and anonymously. Peluche y acorpán are their nicknames and they have just been released from prison, where they have served time for belonging to a criminal gang. Their main business has been illegal logging, and for that they need weapons. It is his conversation with the Spanish journalist that has revealed a network of police corruption.

Who provides them with weapons?

-The same police. They rent them to you.

The two men explain in great detail that thanks to the complicity with the Peruvian National Police, the mafias illegally traffic 200 million logs a year, and that this production allows them to finance drug trafficking, their other big business. Always with direct involvement of corrupt police. Several print media have taken the investigation of Spaniards in conflicts to their front pages, and it has been widely disseminated on national radio and television networks.

Following the denunciation of the RTVE program, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has ordered an investigation. "Do not have the slightest doubt that facts like these, if proven, will be drastically sanctioned," said Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola.

Peruvian National Police General Jorge Angulo himself has confirmed that these cases happen and that "it is not a new issue," reports El Comercio. "The responsibilities are individual, but when that offender belongs to an institution it becomes an institutional problem," said the police chief, who has confirmed that an investigation will be undertaken, "we warned a long time ago: it is not all, there have been agents, and I have to recognize that. "

"My question is: if they knew, then why didn't they investigate before?" asks Almudena Ariza in conversation with EL MUNDO. "I have received messages from Peruvians thanking me for the report and regretting that such allegations are not made in the media of their country," he says, "it seems that something is going to move and that the documentary, at least, will make the connections between the police and criminal gangs in the Amazon region investigate."

"Peru, according to the latest report by Transparency International, is among the countries with the highest corruption index in Latin America. And the population knows it," explains Ariza, "in Iquitos many recognize that there is collusion of the authorities with criminal networks. It seems that it is an open secret, but not everyone dares to report it." And he concludes: "What has happened is one of those things that give meaning to our craft."

  • Drug trafficking

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