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The United States has issued visa sanctions against executives of several Colombian shipping companies allegedly linked to migrant smuggling across the Colombia-Panama border, a senior US official said Monday in a call with reporters.
The announcement was linked to a meeting of Western Hemisphere officials in Guatemala focused on both support for migrants and increased enforcement in the region under an agreement known as the Los Angeles Declaration.
The sanctions are aimed at ferry operators who “ruthlessly traffic” migrants seeking to cross from Colombia to Panama through a dangerous jungle known as the Darien Gap, fueling “a humanitarian and ecological crisis,” the official said.
The Darien Gap has been a major transit route for migrants from around the world seeking to enter the United States for humanitarian reasons or illegally cross the US-Mexico border.
More than half a million migrants passed through the Darién Gap in 2023, according to Panamanian government statistics.
Despite the agreement reached in 2023 between the United States, Colombia and Panama to stop crossings through the jungle, crossings have remained high this year, with 37 thousand transits in March.
Many migrants take ferries from the Colombian city of Necoclí to the jungle as part of the journey.
Regional meetings on migration in Guatemala will take place this Monday and Tuesday, and countries are expected to announce commitments related to migration efforts at the end of them.
Migration has become one of the main concerns of Americans of voting age in the run-up to the November 5 presidential election, which will pit Democratic President Joe Biden against former Republican President Donald Trump.
