They denounce complicity of businessmen in greater case of illegal wood of Peru

Businessmen involved in the Yacu Kallpa case, the largest shipment of illegal timber from the Peruvian Amazon detected in the country's history, boasted the illicit origin of the merchandise that They intended to export to the United States in 2015, according to the British NGO Global Witness.

Lima, Nov 9 (EFE) .- Businessmen involved in the Yacu Kallpa case, the largest shipment of illegal timber in the Peruvian Amazon detected in the history of the country, boasted illicit origin of the merchandise that they intended to export to the United States in 2015, according to the British NGO Global Witness, denounced today.

The British organization broadcast a series of recordings in Lima made with hidden camera where three of the eleven businessmen recognize that the documents that proved the legal origin of the more than 1,200 cubic meters of wood shipped on the ship Yacu Kallpa were probably false.

Among the testimonies compiled by Global Witness are those of managers of Sico Maderas, Corporacion Industrial Forestal and Inversiones WCA, which were owners of 1,317 wooden packages within the Yacu Kallpa cargo.

In the recordings, they claim that they bought the wood with documents that allegedly certify the legal origin, although they claim to be widely aware of the facility that exists to falsify them due to corruption within the timber sector and the regional authorities of Peru.

loading departed in November 2015 from Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, bound for Houston (United States) despite the attempts of a prosecutor to prevent it, and then it was He was arrested in Mexico, where finally the local authorities allowed the wood to be landed in January 2016.

On board the ship, which traveled throughout the Amazon River to leaving the Atlantic Ocean and crossing the Caribbean, there were 43 wooden containers of the tropical species Cumala, Capirona and Marupa, of which 96% had been illegally logged in the jungle Peruvian, as determined by the Forestry Resources Oversight Agency (Osinfor) of Peru.

The investigation of the Yacu Kallpa case involves up to a hundred people so far, but none of them are the businessmen appointed by Global Witness, who are responsible for collecting the wood and then export it.

The British organization requested that the Office of the Prosecutor of Peru continue to investigate the case and focus on the companies that normally export the largest quantities of timber from Peru, such as Inversiones La Oroza, Inversiones WCA and Corporación Industrial Forestry.

According to the Peruvian portal Ojo Público, the Yacu Kallpa made at least another fourteen trips from the port of Iquitos to the Mexican port of Tampico before the controversial cargo detected in November 2015.

The Yacu Kallpa, which during its last trip changed from Peruvian to Panamanian flag, was seized by the Government of Mexico to turn it into a school ship after its owner, the shipping company Yacu Taski, declared bankruptcy and left it abandoned.