New Delhi, June 3 -- A new report by Amazon Watch has warned that drug trafficking is rapidly advancing across the Peruvian Amazon, exposing Indigenous communities to violence, dispossession and systemic neglect. The report, titled Narcotrafico, highlighted how criminal economies were taking root across the region, laying bare the institutional fragility of the Peruvian state.

At least 274 Indigenous communities and four Indigenous reserves are now directly affected by the illicit coca-cocaine trade, according to the findings. This crisis did not emerge in isolation but rather follows a long legacy of extractive exploitation in the Amazon driven by external market demand, from rubber to oil and now cocaine, researchers noted.

The study...