The most coveted trophy: Europeans and Asians embrace illegal jaguar hunting in Bolivia

“It is the season of fires and an incredible beast is coming out and killing all the horses,” said Jorge Néstor Noya, head of an illegal hunting network based in Argentina, to describe the jaguar in a WhatsApp audio to his accomplices. He was trying to convince the Spanish businessman Luis Villalba, one of his international clients, to go into the Bolivian jungle and hunt the largest feline in America. This imposing animal, which can reach two meters in length and weigh more than 130 kilos, has long been venerated as a symbol of strength and even considered a deity by ancient cultures. For these reasons it has become the most highly appreciated hunting trophy, and has led Europeans and Asians to look for it in the heart of South America. Meanwhile, investigations into these crimes are hampered by a lack of personnel and poor training of Bolivian authorities. In fact, the prosecutor in charge of pursuing these crimes has been in the job for not quite three months yet, and prior to this he was leading an anti-drug trafficking unit.

“Since 2015, Bolivia has been the mecca of jaguar hunting. It is the place where the most relevant cases and the largest networks have been found. They come to America with the mentality of ‘I need this one for my collection,’” says Lisa Corti, representative of the activist collective Llanto del Jaguar. In Bolivia, about 60 jaguars are poached each year, the largest number in all of Latin America, according to a 2022 report by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Globally, 50% of the historical distribution of this animal has been lost and there are currently about 64,000 specimens, almost all concentrated in the Amazon and the Pantanal.

The rarer they are, the more coveted. Using this logic, Noya, a veterinarian by trade, promoted hunting packages of up to €48,000 on the websites Online Hunting and African Hunting; he also attracted clients in person at hunting events in Spain and the United States. In the Argentine price list, which offered up to 15 types of species, the jaguar was not only the most expensive, but the difference in prices was tremendous. The hunt for one specimen cost €10,000, while the second most expensive, the ocelot, had a price tag of €1,700.

Thousands of tusks trafficked

“It presented itself as a legal company that hunted animals lawfully and, once contact was made, it would include protected fauna,” explains the lawyer Rodrigo Herrera, one of the plaintiffs in the case that was opened by the Bolivian prosecutor’s office at the end of January. Herrera also faced up to a Chinese mafia that, between 2013 and 2018, exported hundreds of thousands of jaguar fangs to Asia. The leaders of the organization were a couple who were caught with 185 of the feline’s teeth and several other body parts, such as claws and limbs.

“In China, fangs are used as amulets or necklaces because they are believed to offer protection against evil spirits. Other parts are also used in traditional medicine. They think that they were not obtained by killing the animals, but by collecting them from bodies that died of natural causes,” says park ranger and one of the crime investigators, Marcos Uzquiano. Through radio advertisements in municipalities in the Bolivian Amazon, such as San Borja or Rurrenabaque, $250 were offered for each hunted jaguar. In Asia, however, they were being sold for up to $2,500. “The ranchers accept it because the felines, due to the fires and deforestation in the Amazon and the Chiquitanía, have no other option than to leave the heart of the forest and attack the cattle,” explains Uzquiano.

In fact, another one of the main reasons why the jaguar is threatened is the loss of its habitat: up to 2015, deforestation of natural spaces reached 5.7 million hectares in Bolivia, according to the WWF organization. “Of all the seizures made since 2010 onwards, more than 50% are related to China in some way,” says lawyer Herrera. The growing presence of Chinese migrants in Bolivia is due to the close diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have led to contracts for infrastructure projects such as roads and civil works. Before the case of the trafficking couple, between 2014 and 2016, the Bolivian police seized 337 jaguar parts in 16 packages, 14 of them sent by Chinese citizens working in Bolivia.

The case of the Chinese couple ended with a four-year sentence for the man, who remains at large since his indictment, and three years for his partner, who completed her sentence in 2021. However, the trafficking of the feline has not stopped: in April 2024, two women were caught selling nine jaguar fangs in the city of Trinidad. Until 2020, there were 20 open cases related to jaguar poaching. Now, these cases are joined by the case involving Noya, who is under house arrest in Argentina, where he is also under investigation, and the Spaniard Villalba, who allegedly shot dead at least four jaguars and whose whereabouts are unknown. The latter is said to have entered and left the country through La Paz in 2018, and then concealed his trail inland with non-commercial flights.

Judicial ineffectiveness

Both men are accused of three crimes: biocide, destruction and deterioration of national wealth, and illegal wildlife trafficking. However, the Bolivian Penal Code does not add up the sentences cumulatively, but instead imposes the highest (eight years in this case), although a proportional aggravating factor can be added. The prosecutor assigned to the case, Miguel González, has not yet received a response from the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) on whether the house that appears in Noya’s photos with the jaguar carcasses is private or public so that they can proceed with a search.

“Unfortunately, the State is too weak in its institutional capacity to enforce the law. In addition, public personnel are very poorly trained,” complains the lawyer Herrera. Activist Corti illustrates this lack of knowledge with an anecdote about the judges in the Chinese mafia case, who initially kept the confiscated skins and tusks, when by law they should have been handed over to the Noel Kempff Natural History Museum. That legal process had 12 suspended hearings.

González himself admits that, since he took up the post of environmental prosecutor in December, he is still familiarizing himself with the procedures. Previously, he led the fight against drug trafficking as director of the Special Force to Fight Crime (FELCC). “There is no clear institutional route for these cases, nor defined deadlines as in other areas. We have spent more than 40 working days without a response. I have to go and beg the institutions,” says González. He maintains that he works jointly with Argentina and that he has also asked the Attorney General of Spain to take a statement from Villalba.

Government incompetence is compounded by anarchy and impunity in the jungle and border areas with Brazil. Uzquiano points out that drug trafficking operates without restrictions in these regions: “San Matías is the air bridge for drugs that enter through Peru and leave through Beni bound for Brazil. I am very afraid that the investigation will be interfered with by this context. The residents themselves are afraid to report; they know the risk. It is one thing to report from afar and another to be there.”

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