The roar of the helicopters over the Saldaña River not only announced a military operation, it in the same way marked the beginning of an urgent intervention to stop years of environmental degradation in the rural area of Chaparral, department of Tolima, product of illicit mining extraction.
At 2:20 pm, on April 17, 2026, troops of the Anti-Drug Trafficking Command and Transnational command executed an aerial assault on the Las Cruces and Los Angeles hamlets, an area where soldiers of the Fifth Division of the Army are operating, as part of Operation Aquila, framed in the Ayacucho Plus Campaign Plan. The objective is to weaken the illegal activities of the residual armed structure Ismael Ruiz. However, what they found on the ground showed an even deeper problem, an ecosystem seriously damaged by the illicit exploitation of gold.
Nine mining production units operated clandestinely. Heavy machinery, the indiscriminate use of fuels and the constant removal of land had transformed the natural landscape into an environment of progressive deterioration.
During the military operation, the members of the Military Forces destroyed 6 yellow machines, disabled 3 more and demolished 9 sorting machines, in addition to intervening more than 16,500 gallons of DIESEL, but beyond the results of the military operation, the real blow was evident on the ground: altered water sources, eroded soils and pollution that directly threatens the biodiversity of the region.
The Saldaña River, a vital axis for the communities and ecosystems of southern Tolima, had clear signs of loss. The sedimentation, the possible presence of toxic waste and the intervention of its channels reflect an uncontrolled exploitation that puts at risk not only the environmental balance, but in the same way the food security and health of the nearby villages.
According to technical estimates, the recovery of these areas could take more than ten years, depending on the implementation of restoration measures. A time that shows the magnitude of the damage caused by these illicit activities.
In parallel, the operation means a significant financial blow to this criminal structure, with losses close to 2994 million pesos in machinery, and the interruption of an activity that generated more than 15,000 million pesos per month as a result of the illicit extraction of approximately 27,000 grams of gold.
