The LatinNews Podcast is a fortnightly deep dive into key developments from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Real insights from the region’s sharpest minds.
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Season 1 | Episode 83
Illegal gold mining in the Amazon is about far more than what happens at the extraction site. In this episode of The LatinNews Podcast, Richard McColl speaks with Melina Risso, Research Director at the Igarapé Institute in Brazil, about the networks that allow illegally mined gold to enter legitimate markets and move across borders.
They discuss the growing involvement of organised crime and local elites, regulatory gaps across the Amazon, and how stronger controls and new tracing technologies could help keep illicit gold out of global supply chains.
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In this episode we discuss:
• How illegally mined gold enters legitimate markets and global supply chains
• The growing role of organised crime and local elites in the Amazon gold trade
• New efforts to trace gold and strengthen enforcement across the region
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Melina Risso
Melina Risso is Research Director at the Igarapé Institute in Brazil, where her work focuses on public security, organised crime and environmental crime in Brazil and across Latin America. Her research examines the criminal networks and illicit economies operating in the Amazon, including illegal gold mining and the challenges of strengthening governance and enforcement in the region.For this episode, her work provides insight into how illegal gold moves through legitimate markets, the actors involved across the supply chain and the emerging regulatory and technological efforts to improve traceability.
The LatinNews Podcast is hosted by Richard McColl, a foreign correspondent in Colombia. Having first travelled to Colombia in the late 90s, McColl made the move to Bogotá in 2007. He holds a Diploma in Conflict resolution and a PhD in Social and Human Sciences both at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He has worked as a journalist across Latin America.
Political Analyst, Richard McColl