In two separate cases in recent weeks, Colombian law enforcement officials arrested two US citizens who are being charged with alleged sexual crimes against minors.

Police arrested a US citizen in Floresta who will be charged for the alleged sexual exploitation of minors. (Credit: Policía Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá)

In late February, the Metropolitan Police of Valle de Aburrá arrested a 48-year-old U.S. citizen referred to as “El Quimico” in the town of Bello, Antioquia, following an investigation named “Operation Arcángel” that was supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and led to the arrest of several other foreign nationals accused of similar crimes.

The foreigner has entered Colombia dozens of times and most recently flew into Bogotá before traveling to Medellín, where he allegedly lured, drugged, and sexually assaulted girls between the ages of 12 and 17, according to public statements by Colonel Juan Pablo Cubides of the National Police.

When he was apprehended, authorities say they recovered 13 mobile phones, a laptop, and marijuana, among other drugs.

He will be prosecuted for the alleged crimes of commercial sexual exploitation and child pornography, per authorities.

Just days later, on March 1, a 40-year-old US citizen was arrested in Floresta, Aniquotia, by the same police force. Dominick Divencenzo (above photo) will also face charges of  sexually exploiting minors.

“It was possible to establish, through the investigation, that this person had entered the country nine times and since 2021 resided in Medellín,” said the police agency in a public release. “He contacted his victims through social networks, and some were referred by other minors, who he paid between 250,000 to 300,000 (Colombian pesos) for sexual encounters [and] on some occasions he gave them cell phones as a form of payment.”

The investigation unit of DHS also supported this investigation.

To combat such heinous acts, Medellín has been increasing its public campaign to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors, including a recent curfew established in certain areas of the city for anyone under 18.

Following the high-profile arrests, authorities have warned those who rent properties that they can be fined or even face property forfeiture if they are found to be facilitators of sexual crimes in private properties.

Following the incidents, Manuel Villa Mejía, secretary of security for Medellín, posted on his X account about recent raids in the city:

“With the objective of guaranteeing the safety of our citizens, last night, we again carried out a mega-operation in the center of the city, with the active participation of more than 300 agents of the police, army, the Secretariat of Mobility, Migration Colombia and other municipal agencies. During the intervention, among other measures, 13 establishments were closed, including bars, nightclubs, hotels and residences that did not comply with the regulations. With authority and order, we are building the road to tranquility.”

Dominican low-cost airline Arajet is increasing its the number of flights it operates between its home country and Colombia. Specifically, it will add seats and frequencies between Colombia’s three largest travel markets — Bogotá, Medellín, and Cartagena — and Santo Domingo.

With a ramp-up plan that begins this month, the Santo Domingo-based carrier announced that it will be increasing its Medellín-to-Santo Domingo flights to 2,590 seats per week by the end of April, a 29% jump from its current 1,838 seats. The route will include five weekly flights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

Seats on its Bogotá-to-Santo Domingo route will increase by 21%, from 1,504 per week to 1,899 per week across five flights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

As for Cartagena, it will see a 12% increase to more than 1,587 seats. This will also include five weekly flights to Santo Domingo on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in April.

“Arajet is committed to supporting initiatives that promote the growth of the tourism sector, which is why today we announce that we are increasing flights to these cities to continue betting on connectivity as an important factor for the development of the tourism industry,” said Manuel Luna, chief communications and external affairs officer of Arajet, during public comments at the Anato 2024 tourism fair.

(Photo credit: Arajet)

This week’s main headline this week, as we stand, should be the February inflation reading on Thursday — which is expected to drop to 7.73% from 8.35% in January.

There will be a number of things to look out for within the various sectors such, as the impact of El Niño on energy prices and transport costs related to fuel. Overall, however, the expectation is for a headline number that will allow Banco de la República to take affirmative action when they next sit down. Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla is asking for a 1% cut (down to 11.75%), but given strict orthodox conservative nature of the committee, he may have to settle for less.

The other major macro number that will be released by from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) is the export data for January. While 2023 was a disappointment for overseas sales, hopefully 2024 will go better.

Ecopetrol’s latest results (released last week) — and the company’s offshore gas update previous to that — have brought the sector into the headlines once again.

While oil production in 2023 hit an eight-year high (on the watch of anti-fossil-fuel President Gustavo Petro), the reality is that Colombia needs to realize that it isn’t Saudi Arabia or even Venezuela. The oil boom is now behind us, and while there is still oil to be found, companies are now comparatively scratching around. The oil field auctions under the administration of former President Iván Duque told us as much, with only lukewarm interest in the offering.

When it comes to gas, there is a lot of talk about — in terms of both possible discoveries and reserves, Ecopetrol dialed back somewhat on its Orca-Norte field information. And, again, there are no guarantees. Adding to the issues are the damage to the pipeline, reported by Natugas, that is to be used to import cheap gas from Venezuela.

Ecopetrol has been a dividend cash cow for many years, which has helped the Colombian government, but those days are surely coming to an end. While the company has offshore interests in multiple locations around South and Central America, the reality is that the political minefield of Venezuela — with its need for overseas help — may represent the final frontier for the Colombian oil industry.

In politics, the Senate will try once again try and discuss the pension reform. Hopefully this time there will be a quorum. The opposition’s attempt to derail the process will only result in two things: (1) reforms being imposed by decree, which is utterly unsatisfactory, and (2) continued questions regarding the Colombian political class — and their being fit for purpose.

Ecopetrol headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia (Credit: Dvalencia)

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A Canadian hockey blogger named Travis Ridgen contacted Finance Colombia after claiming to have been in an altercation with Jesse Gilbert Wiseman, the 50 year old Canadian suspect wanted in Colombia for the brutal murder and abuse of the corpse of 20 year old victim Laura Lopera in Medellín.

According to the witness,

“I saw Jesse Wiseman (you have a blue alert out for him) on VIA Rail Train 2 vancouver to winnipeg on February 21st in Winnipeg, MB Canada. He’s wanted for the murder of a 20-year-old women (sic) Laura Lopera in Colombia earlier this month and fled the country, and you have a blue notice out for him. He punched me in the head on the train and was kicked off the train and taken in by Winnipeg police but released yesterday. He was heading to Toronto. I have video of him on the train.”

Finance Colombia immediately turned over all dialogue and the witness’ personal contact information to the Colombian National Police and the Canadian Embassy in Bogotá.

“Yeah he was travelling vancouver to Toronto, Feb 19-23 but got kicked off in Winnipeg on Feb 21 after he punched me. The staff said he wouldn’t be let back on a train for at least a month after this. The police put him in the drunk tank for the night and is now released. They wouldn’t give me any other information outside of this and he was def not mentally stable from having dinner with him…Other passengers said he spent most of the trip in his train cabin and was acting weird. It’s also odd cause these tickets are $2000 a piece so why would you get kicked off the train and punch somebody. Doesn’t make sense.” 

Wiseman is wanted in Colombia for the murder on February 10 of Laura Lopera in the downtown Medellín neighborhood known as “Boston.” According to Colombian prosecutors, Lopera’s body was found stuffed inside of a suitcase. Wiseman had already left the country on a flight to Guatemala before authorities began to pursue him. From Guatemala he was said to have flown to Turkiye, and now has reportedly turned up in his home country of Canada.

The witness submitted the above video, claiming that he ended up in an altercation with the suspect. The killing has caused outrage in the country and drawn comparisons to last year’s murder of Valentina Trespalacios, whose dismembered body was discovered in Bogotá in similarly grisly circumstances. US Citizen John Poulos is facing 50 years for the murder and dismemberment of Trespalacios, who was also found in a suitcase in Bogotá.

Finance Colombia is reporting on the claims made by the witness in this instance and welcomes any corrections, amplifications or clarifications.

We are delighted to inform that Vostock Capital team has prepared a report called Desalination projects Latin America. The report includes all Latin America projects for desalination plants.  The report was prepared prior to the 6^th International Conference and Exhibition Desalination Latin America (13-14 March, 2024 – Santiago, Chile), which will bring together heads of all desalination operators from Latin America to discuss project development in modern economic realities. Request the full list of investment projects

Among the projects listed in the report: 

• ENAPAC (Chile – USD $ 1,5 Bn): The project will be located in Caldera and will have a desalination plant with a maximum capacity of 2,630 liters per second, which will be supplied with solar energy and will also have a water reservoir with a capacity of 600,000 cubic meters, from where the water will be distributed to the different industrial users of the Atacama Region that require it.
• SANTO DOMINGO MINE (Chile – USD $1 B): Desalination plant located in the sector of the concentrator plant. Its desalination rate is 1,865 m³/day and will provide desalinated water for smaller processes, the higher consumption will be by seawater directly (without desalinating). Expected to begin operations in 2023.
• COLLAHUASI MINE (Chile – USD $ 500 M): The Collahuasi reverse osmosis desalination plant will have an initial flow of 525 l/s that will increase to 1,050 l/s to extend the useful life of the mine by 20 years and will raise the processing capacity to 210,000 t/d compared to 170,000 t/d current. ACCIONA has been awarded the design and construction of a seawater desalination plant, the agreement also contemplates the operation and maintenance of the plant by ACCIONA for two years, extendable for another three. Meanwhile, the water supply system that will be executed by Techint contemplates the fitting out of the 195 km long aqueduct along a route parallel to the existing mineral pipeline.
• LOS CALATOS (Peru – USD $ 650 M): The desalination plant is part of a mining project which covers an area of 275km², has been designated a project of national interest by the Peruvian government. Seawater is planned to be used for metallurgical processing purposes.

Request the full list of investment projects

Catalina Velasco
Marketing Manager
[email protected]

Get for free the full list of desalination projects on construction and modernization in Latin America

This article, produced by the Venezuelan Investigative Unit, was originally published by InSight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America.

The principal crossing point from Venezuela into Colombia, the frontier city of Cúcuta, has seen rising levels of violence as it struggles to confront the growing strength of Venezuelan criminal groups.

Photo: A Colombian police officer on patrol in Cúcuta. (Credit: National Police of Colombia)

In a report published February 25 by the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal), Cúcuta ranks 43rd of the 50 most violent cities in the world. The report states that the city’s homicide rate was 33.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, with a total of 369 homicides in 2023.

Fenalco, president of the Board of Directors for the National Merchants Federation (Fenalco) in Norte de Santander, told a local newspaper, that from 2022 to 2023, kidnapping grew 92%, extortion 110%, armed robbery 115%, and murder 62% in the department of Norte de Santander.

In response to the rise in violence, Mayor Jorge Acevedo ordered the militarization of the city in early February, launching the Liberty and Order security strategy.

A few days earlier, he had denounced several Venezuelan criminal groups for threatening him.

“I leave at the disposal of [the Prosecutor’s Office] and [the Police of Cúcuta] this threat sent to me by the gangs ‘AK 47 and Tren de Aragua,’” he wrote in a post on X.

According to local authorities, the rise in violence and criminality is closely linked to the four criminal organizations that originated in Venezuela: the AK 47, Los Porras, Los Lobos, Carlos Pecueca, and Tren de Aragua.

InSight Crime Analysis

The regular flow of migrants and range of illegal economies on the border make Cúcuta the perfect launching point for Venezuelan criminal groups to expand across the border.

The arrival of Venezuelan groups in Cúcuta, specifically Tren de Aragua, coincided with the 2018 increase in migrants fleeing Venezuela, when some 3.4 million citizens crossed into Colombia. By January 2019, according to Colombian government figures, 1.2 million were living in different cities in Colombia, including Cúcuta.

Criminals camouflaged themselves among the migrant population settling along the Colombian-Venezuelan border. This initially led to clashes with Colombian guerrilla groups, such as the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), with whom they competed for control of the irregular border crossings, known as “trochas,” as well as other criminal economies that proliferate along the borders.

However, Venezuelan organizations resisted attacks by the ELN and Colombian security forces, and gangs such as the Aragua Train and the AK 47 managed to hold on to territory and expand their influence in the Cúcuta.

When InSight Crime visited Cúcuta in 2023, journalists, public officials, and security forces described how the AK 47 had gained control of important neighborhoods in the city, controlling criminal activities like extortion and micro trafficking.

Recently, the Venezuelan groups have begun to recruit Colombians to their ranks, a sign that they can offer better opportunities to criminals than the local groups.

“In Norte de Santander, on the Colombian territory side, organized crime gangs are structured and made up of individuals of both nationalities,” a social leader in Cúcuta told InSight Crime.

Tren de Aragua, whose reach extends across South America, is the most powerful of the Venezuelan gangs in Cúcuta. In addition to controlling certain impoverished neighborhoods, the group also currently controls part of Cúcuta prison, in a replica of the pranato model the group employed in Venezuela to run jails. This requires a certain level of power over Colombian criminal groups and influence over corrupt security forces, and is further evidence of Tren de Aragua’s criminal reach in the border city.

This criminal foothold in Cúcuta served as a springboard for Tren de Aragua to extend its tentacles into other areas of Colombia and beyond, following migrants as they traveled down through South America, as far as Chile.

Based on Tren de Aragua’s success in spreading throughout the region, it is possible that other Venezuelan groups may follow in their footsteps, again using Cúcuta as the launch point for their transnational expansion.

This article, produced by the Venezuelan Investigative Unit, was originally published by InSight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America.

Colombian fintech Plataform recently completed a funding round of $3 million USD from investors Skandia Planeación Financiera S.A., Progresión Sociedad Comisionista de Bolsa, and others.

The main objective of this funding round, according to the Bogotá-based startup, is to help consolidate Plataform’s services primary services offering of bank factoring, private factoring, confirming, and crowd factoring, including a stated goal of helping to finance more than $1 billion USD for companies across Colombia and the wider region.

“With this investment we seek to position ourselves as the number-one alternative financing option for companies,” said Felipe Tascón, CEO of Plataform, when announcing the round. “Having the backing of these two large companies takes us to another level in the market and allows us to reach the entire business fabric, both SMEs and large chains and surfaces.”

Plataform was founded in 2022 by Tascón and Mario Márquez as an alternative financing model.

“The resources obtained in this transaction demonstrate that investors are seeing a great opportunity in companies that develop alternative financing models,” said Márquez, who serves as COO. “The promotion of electronic invoicing, together with the growth of factoring in Colombia, will allow us to accelerate access to financing for the business base, helping the growth and development of the economy.”

The company’s core platform has been in the market for three months and has already helped a range of companies obtain immediate liquidity without affecting their debt capacity. They can draw on their working capital whenever they wish, negotiate high and low denomination invoices, meet obligations such as salaries and leases, and purchase raw materials, among others. 

Overall, Colombia ranks third in Latin America by volume of venture capital investment into the fintech sector, according to the Finnovista Fintech Radar report. The nation’s sector saw some $1.6 billion USD invested in 2021, although this number fell to $1.2 billion in 2022.

Photo (L-R): Santiago García, president Skandia Colombia; Felipe Tascón, co-founder and CEO of Plataform; David Buenfil, CEO of Latam Skandia; and Mario Márquez, co-founder and COO of Plataform. (Credit: Plataform)

On Thursday, Banco de la República will meet to discuss the Colombian economy — and then leave the room having done nothing about overnight rates, which is the very job they are largely tasked to do.

Banco de la República, the central bank of Colombia, in Bogotá. (Photo credit: Camilo Sanchez)

This is because Colombia’s central bank, for reasons I cannot detect, only moves rates at eight of their 12 annual meetings.

Should this be taken as a criticism of the seven committee members? Let me remove any ambiguity: It is.

At a time when inflation has begun to ease quite noticeably and the government is being attacked for not loosening the purse strings to kick start an economy that has been choked off by high interest rates, the central bank could simply cut rates by 50 basis points (to 12.25%) and send a huge message to the markets and investors. Private federations such as ANDI and Asobancaria, have been asking for cuts for six months — so it goes beyond politics.

This complaint has been a bugaboo of mine for years and isn’t about to go away. Inflation was down almost 1% (to 8.35%) between December and January, and it is now 5% lower than a year ago. With all this positive news, the committee needs to act.

In other news …

January unemployment data is also out and all eyes should be focused on job creation, which has been slowing over recent months.

On the gas front, Ecopetrol released an update on their offshore field at Orca-Norte 1, reporting the presence of gas and two more potential finds. (Although there were reports the initial excitement had been scaled back somewhat.) Ecopetrol have a number of offshore fields, but the word “potential” is relevant here as Colombia is desperate to replenish is gas reserves and supply. This becomes even more important when Natugas Limited are reporting that the pipeline that was to be used to import cheap gas from Venezuela is damaged and needs a lot of repair work.

Spectator Index reported that Colombian GDP/Head has risen even faster (159%) than the US over the past 20 years. Sadly the nation’s $15,915 per USD capita remains the lowest of any of the main Latin American countries. This echos the OECD report that, despite Colombians being the first to wake up every day, they remain the less productive.

It isn’t about the hours you work, it’s what you do with them — a fact lost on many companies that think, by pushing workers to stay late or work weekends, for the same pay, they get more efficiency. The labor minister reiterated his call last week to get the working week down to 42 hours before the July 2026 deadline agreed by Congress.

Finally, for those that visit Bogotá and lament the shocking traffic situation, it’s time to beware. According to OIAC, Colombia has one of the lowest car ownership levels per capita on the planet. That level is 111/1000 versus Argentina (311), Brazil (214) or France (704). So, in Colombia, it seems it’s not the number of cars. It’s the way they are driven and the roads they are driven on.

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Explora I, a cruise ship operated by Explora Journeys, completed an overnight stay in the Colombian coastal city of Santa Marta earlier this month, on February 19 marking the first time that this type of vessel has spent a full night in the Caribbean tourist hotspot.

The ship carried more than 1,000 passengers, including crew, and arrived to Santa Marta from Aruba around 12:30 in the afternoon. The 15-day cruise initially departed from Miami on February 16 and continued on to Cartagena after its stay in Santa Marta.

The first-ever occurrence was praised by Germán Umaña Mendoza, Colombian minister of commerce, industry and tourism, in a statement as “confidence from the cruise lines that arrive at our ports and in particular of this company.”

Domingo Chinea, president of the Regional Port Society of Santa Marta, also celebrated what this means for the city.

“We are pleased to welcome a cruise ship that will experience the city during the day and night, which is positive for the port and for Santa Marta, both nationally and internationally, and confirms the need to work together to have a specialized cruise terminal,” he said in an annoucement. “So far in 2024, we have received seven cruise ships with more than 3,000 cruise passengers, contributing significantly to the economy of the city, the department and the progress of the country.”

According to business promotion agency ProColombia, it helped pave the way for Santa Martas stops by cruise ships operated by Explora Journeys, which is part of the MSC Group, starting in October 2022 during meetings at the 28th Annual Conference of the Florida & Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA).

Explora I cruise ship that traveled to Santa Marta. (Photo: Foto Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Santa Marta)

We just finished week with no standout economic headlines in Colombia — but we nonetheless saw plenty of interesting developments.

To start, in a report this week, Davivienda Corredores reiterated the local experts view that El Niño will disappear in April as we move towards a normalized climate pattern. By August, however, we can expect La Niña to arrive.

Unfortunately, despite the hardship that El Niño brings, it is is the biblical rains of La Niña that traditionally brings greater suffering. There is the human cost of landslides, which in turn block roads and highways to make the time to market both more lengthy and more expensive. This leads to higher inflation. So out of the fire, onto the floor for a few months — and then into the frying pan. Keep an eye on this, and hopefully the authorities are wrong.

Fedesarrollo gave its latest look at the market and expectations for 2024. They are looking for GDP growth of 1.4% (up from their projected 1.3% in January) and a year-end CPI of 5.4%. They are looking for overnight interest rates to close 2024 at 8% (currently 12.85% so much work to do) and the Colombian peso to remain stable, ending the year at 4,071 to $1 USD. That GDP number is slightly higher than the 1.3% the International Monetary Fund estimated a few days ago.

For those still looking at Colombian equities, energy is preferred sector, with ISA Interconexión Eléctrica and Grupo Energía de Bogotá being two of the top three picks.

Fedesarrollo also reported the latest retail confidence (14.5%) and manufacturing confidence (0.2%) figures for January. There was small decline in the former, but a healthy increase in the latter (up from -4.3% in December). In the same report, fourth quarter 2023 exporters reported a marked increase in expectations going forward.

The government, while feeling out their budget plans for 2024, have also given more powers to President Gustavo Petro in terms of some disbursement. Colombian Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla also announced that they were also looking hard at infrastructure projects that aren’t advancing and renegotiating their terms. Such a movie would free up resources currently earmarked for other priorities. It’s complicated and lacking transparency, but be aware of it.

In the same vein, Petro has again implored his own team to travel in economy and to hold virtual meetings where possible in order to save money.

In politics, the labor and pension reforms will be back on the congressional menu next week. I’m not sure what they have all been doing for the month since holidays ended. Not a lot, most probably.

Finally, the Supreme Court again failed to elect a new Attorney General. They will try again in a couple of weeks. The different political parties, all of whom have skeletons in the cupboard, are desperate to have their man or woman in charge.

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