Sitting on a bluff overlooking the Tambo River, the Valle Esmeralda counter-terrorist base is only accessible by helicopter or a very long hike. It is strategically located to have a bird’s eye view of Vizcatán, the last redoubt of the only militarily active remnants of the Shining Path, the brutal Maoist rebels who terrorized Peru in the 1980s and 90s.
It is a rugged terrain of thickly forested mountains, steep canyons and fast-flowing rivers on the Amazon’s western edge which rises into the dry, treeless Andes. Its landscape and the Mantaro River which snakes away from jungle lowlands and through the mountains make it the ideal route for backcountry cocaine trafficking.
