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On July 24, 2025, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) published a report (the report) describing a vast, illegal mercury trade running from Mexico down to Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, where the mercury is used to mine for gold. The report claims that around 200 tons of mercury have been trafficked south in contravention of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. EIA executive director Alexander von Bismarck said in a statement: “[t]he toxic flow of mercury to the illegal gold mines in the Amazon has been presented and accepted as inevitable for too many years; it is time to challenge this status quo that affects Amazonian communities and benefits organized criminals.”