On a small airplane, José Manuyama, a professor, frowns and shakes his head with anguish while  thousands of feet below, five dredges operated by illegal miners excavate the Nanay River Basin, in the Loreto region in the Peruvian Amazon. “They are like enormous leeches in the water,” said Manuyama. The plane has begun its second … Continue reading Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River