JAVARI VALLEY, Brazil/Colombia/Peru — When teenager Isaías was offered work in the coca fields along the Javari River, he saw an opportunity to change his life. To endure the rigors of the rainforest and a heavy workload, the pay was double what he could get in the nearby towns of Santa Rosa, Islandia, Atalaia or Tabatinga — all part of the tri-border area between Peru, Colombia and Brazil in the Amazon. Isaías would be paid 500 Peruvian soles in advance, about $135, or the equivalent in Colombian pesos or Brazilian reais. At least, that was the story Isaías told his mother in August 2023, months after the last time he contacted his family. Since then, Isaías’s mother has seen him on only one occasion. He looked slender and solemn, as if he would rather not see her again. They crossed paths by chance when he was getting off a motorcycle carrying packages in the port of Tabatinga, in Brazil, bordering the Colombian town of Leticia. Between these towns and the opposite bank of the Amazon River lies the island of Santa Rosa, in Peruvian territory, making this site the confluence of three countries and two rivers: the Amazon and the Javari. Isaías greeted his mother, gave her 100 soles (about $27), a half smile, and said “I’m going home soon” — a promise never fulfilled. The teenager’s last known whereabouts are believed to be somewhere in the rainforest between the Amazon and Javari, on the Peruvian side of the border,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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