Medellín authorities seized 2,794 kilograms of beef and pork considered unfit for human consumption during a July 23 operation in the Prado neighborhood, where four people were arrested in flagrante as authorities investigated an alleged clandestine meat-processing operation.

The operation was carried out jointly by the Alcaldía de Medellín, the Policía Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá, the Fiscalía General de la Nación and INVIMA. Authorities conducted two search-and-seizure procedures at the property, which investigators said was being used for the unauthorized slaughter and processing of pork and beef.

According to information released following the operation, the meat had an estimated commercial value of more than more than $108 million COP. Authorities said the property did not have the required authorization to operate and that the meat was being handled and stored under conditions that did not comply with Colombia’s applicable sanitary requirements. Technical inspections determined that the seized products were not suitable for human consumption.

The investigation also raised concerns about where the meat was being sold. Authorities said the products were allegedly being commercialized in the Plaza Botero area and surrounding parts of central Medellín, one of the city’s busiest areas for pedestrians, visitors and informal and formal commerce.

The four people captured during the operation were placed at the disposal of the Fiscalía General de la Nación and face investigation for the Colombian criminal offense of corruption involving food, medical products or prophylactic materials. Their capture and the seizure of the meat do not, by themselves, establish a final judicial finding of guilt.

The case highlights the public-health risks associated with unauthorized meat processing, particularly where products enter commercial channels without the traceability, sanitary controls and operating permits required by Colombian regulations.

The operation also forms part of a broader pattern of enforcement against illicit or non-compliant meat activity in Antioquia. In May, the Policía Nacional reported the seizure of approximately 9,000 kilograms of meat products and the capture of one person in Donmatías, where authorities were investigating alleged violations involving food products and illegal animal slaughter. That case was separate from the Medellín investigation.

As of August, no additional publicly reported development that materially changes the July 23 account could be independently verified in the sources reviewed for this article. The four July detainees are still being placed at the disposal of the Fiscalía while the investigation proceeds.

For consumers, the operation underscores the importance of traceability and sanitary controls in the meat supply chain. For authorities, the investigation will need to establish the full scope of the alleged operation, including how the meat was processed, stored and distributed and whether additional individuals or businesses were involved.

Headline photo: Some of the meat seized by the Medellin authorities. (Photo provided by Medellín’s mayor’s office)

Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (Financial Superintendency of Colombia, or SFC) has published for public comment a draft external circular that would give banks, insurers and other supervised financial institutions temporary instructions to assist consumers affected by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country on August 10, 2026. The comment period, open since August 12, closes at 11:59 p.m. on August 14, 2026, giving industry and the public a two-business-day window to respond, according to the draft text and the SFC’s own consultation record.

The earthquake, with an epicenter in the municipality of San José del Palmar in Chocó department and a depth of 96 kilometers, triggered 991 additional seismic events within a 900-kilometer radius, according to figures cited in the SFC’s draft circular, including 115 in the magnitude 5.0-to-5.9 range, 18 between magnitude 6.0 and 6.9, and three exceeding magnitude 7.0. The national government declared a state of national disaster the following day, August 11, through Decree 1171, covering Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Chocó, Quindío, Cundinamarca, Risaralda, Huila, Valle del Cauca, Tolima, Putumayo, Norte de Santander and other affected territories for an initial 12 months, renewable for an equal term, as Finance Colombia reported at the time.

Death toll still climbing

As of the evening of August 12, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella cited a balance from the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, or UNGRD) showing a toll that had continued to climb since the quake struck two days earlier.

“We have 25,872 affected families, 53,816 people, sadly 265 dead, 3,494 injured, and the number of missing has risen alarmingly to 496.”— Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella, citing the UNGRD balance, August 12, 2026

The same balance reported 11,347 homes destroyed and 53,526 damaged, 140 buildings collapsed, and 1,819 schools and 631 community centers affected. Earlier counts from the same day had put the toll lower, underscoring that the figures remained provisional; international search-and-rescue teams, coordinated by UNGRD, were still arriving as of August 13 to assist Colombian personnel, and officials have cautioned the toll is likely to keep rising.

Colombia’s disaster management law, Ley 1523 de 2012, activates a special legal regime once a national disaster is declared, including articles 86 and 87, which allow affected debtors to seek refinancing of existing obligations. The SFC’s draft circular says it is exercising its instruction authority under the Estatuto Orgánico del Sistema Financiero (Organic Statute of the Financial System) and Decree 2555 of 2010 to translate that legal framework into binding instructions for the institutions it supervises.

Refinancing terms for affected borrowers

Under the draft measures, lending institutions would be required to adopt refinancing programs for borrowers affected by the disaster, subject to conditions drawn directly from the 2012 law: refinancing would apply only to obligations contracted before August 10, 2026, with payments due on or after that date; the new loan term could not exceed double the remaining term or 20 years, whichever is shorter; refinanced terms could not be more burdensome than the original ones; and borrowers would have to apply while the disaster declaration remains in force. No interest or late fees would accrue between the disaster declaration and the completion of the renegotiation, a period the draft caps at 90 days. Lenders could also offer additional voluntary relief, such as grace periods or special interest rates, provided the terms are no more burdensome for the consumer and the measures are not applied as a blanket restructuring practice rather than case-by-case review.

Credits refinanced under the program would keep the risk rating they carried before the disaster was declared, with credit-bureau reporting frozen for up to 12 months after the refinancing is completed, and the draft specifies the refinancing would not count as a modification or restructuring for prudential reporting purposes. Lenders would also be permitted to use alternative data sources to assess a borrower’s future repayment capacity, accounting for the likely economic recovery of the borrower’s sector.

Insurers, fund managers and severance withdrawals

Insurance companies would be required to establish expedited claims and payment channels for policyholders in affected areas, prioritize payment of healthcare providers’ invoices tied to the disaster, and adopt policies to facilitate premium payments, including for policies unrelated to credit operations. Trust companies and brokerage firms would be asked to evaluate mechanisms to speed redemptions from open-end investment funds without a minimum holding period, and to consider waiving early-redemption penalties for funds that carry one, for consumers affected by the disaster. Severance-fund administrators would be instructed to expedite housing-related severance withdrawals for affected members, within the bounds of Colombia’s existing severance-withdrawal rules.

The draft also directs supervised entities more broadly to maintain continuity of financial services where security conditions allow, disclose any changes to branch hours or closures, strengthen digital channels, and activate business-continuity plans in affected zones; to clearly publicize the terms of any relief programs; and to set up priority service channels for complaints and claims tied to the disaster. The SFC said it would establish its own priority contact channel to help affected consumers navigate complaints against supervised entities.

In its internal cost-benefit review, the SFC’s research and analysis unit found no reason to delay the proposal, concluding that reduced default risk, faster insurance payouts and improved liquidity access for affected consumers would outweigh the compliance costs institutions face in adapting systems, training staff and expanding service channels. The regulator said the draft requires no new budget appropriations and can be implemented with existing staff and technology. It also said a competition-impact questionnaire it completed under Colombia’s competition-advocacy rules returned entirely negative responses, meaning no referral to the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (Superintendency of Industry and Commerce) was required.

A two-day window, and a toll still being counted

The SFC set the unusually short two-business-day comment window under an exception in Colombian regulatory procedure that allows shortened public consultation periods when a rule responds to urgent, unforeseeable circumstances. The regulator said the scale of the disaster and the need for a prompt, uniform response from the financial sector justified the shortened timeline. Comments can be submitted using a standard form referencing filing number 2026182440, by email to normativa@superfinanciera.gov.co or in writing to the SFC’s deputy director of regulation. If adopted, the circular would take effect upon publication and would remain in force for as long as the national disaster declaration stands, though any relief already granted to consumers would continue on its own terms after the circular expires.

Colombia has also drawn $1.3 billion USD in international pledges since the earthquake struck. The comment window closes before search-and-rescue operations are expected to conclude, and the casualty figures the SFC cites as justification for the rule are themselves preliminary and likely to keep changing.

Above photo – Damage in Pereira, Colombia (Photo: Vance Campbell)

The city of Medellín will welcome an evening of blues, jazz and soul on Friday, September 4, as the Centro Colombo Americano Medellín and Teatro El Tesoro present Noche de Blues, Jazz y Soul en El Tesoro. Scheduled for 7:00 p.m., the performance will bring together US vocalists Jillian Harrison-Jones and Sandy Lomax with the Big Band de Medellín for an evening centered on music’s ability to connect people across cultures and generations.

The concert will feature enduring classics including Misty, How High the Moon and Green Dolphin Street, alongside other selections from the blues, jazz and soul repertoire. The organizers describe the evening as a celebration of music’s ability to elevate the human spirit, inspire audiences and create connections across generations.

The principal artist, Jillian Harrison-Jones, is a US vocalist, choir director, educator and cultural ambassador whose career has taken her to audiences across the United States and internationally. Known for her expressive interpretation and ability to connect with audiences, Harrison-Jones combines performance with a broader commitment to music education and cultural exchange.

She will be joined by guest artist Sandy Lomax, an internationally active US jazz vocalist whose career has taken her from clubs and concert halls in Indiana to audiences throughout Europe and the United States. Lomax is recognized for her warm and expressive vocal style and ability to move naturally between jazz, blues and contemporary styles. Her career has also included work as an actress and producer.

The Colombian component of the collaboration comes from the Big Band de Medellín, an ensemble with a history dating back to 1988. Founded by Dr. Ricardo Uribe together with musicians Luis Uribe Espitia, Juancho Vargas and Jaime Uribe, the group has performed at important venues in Medellín, including the Teatro Metropolitano. Its repertoire encompasses classic big-band jazz from the 1940s and 1950s, contemporary arrangements, Latin jazz and Colombian music adapted for the ensemble.

The Centro Colombo Americano Medellín is a binational nonprofit organization dedicated to educational and cultural exchange between Colombia and the United States. Through English-language education, arts programming and cultural initiatives, the organization provides a platform for Colombians and Americans to engage through shared educational and artistic experiences.

The performance will take place at Teatro El Tesoro, located within the El Tesoro complex in Medellín. Ticket prices range from $67,500 COP for upper balcony seating to $108,000 COP for central seating, with side seating priced at $94,500 COP and balcony seating at $81,000 COP.

Members of the Colombo Americano Medellín community can receive a 10% discount on tickets by using the code COLOMBOTESORO at checkout.

The event will take place on Friday, September 4, at 7:00 p.m. at Teatro El Tesoro in Medellín.

Tickets are available through Tuboleta.

Jazz performers Jillian Harrison-Jones and Sandy Lomax

Headline photo: Noches de Blues y Soul poster.

The concert will feature classics including Misty, How High the Moon and Green Dolphin Street, alongside other selections from the blues and soul repertoire.

Jillian Harrison-Jones will serve as the principal artist. The US vocalist, choir director, educator and cultural ambassador has performed and worked with audiences in the United States and internationally. Sandy Lomax, a US jazz vocalist, will join her as a guest artist. Lomax has performed in venues across the United States and Europe and has also worked as an actress and producer.

The Big Band de Medellín will serve as the guest orchestra. Founded in 1988 by Dr. Ricardo Uribe and musicians Luis Uribe Espitia, Juancho Vargas and Jaime Uribe, the ensemble has performed at major venues in Medellín, including the Teatro Metropolitano. Its repertoire includes big-band jazz from the 1940s and 1950s, contemporary arrangements, Latin jazz and Colombian music.

The concert will take place at Teatro El Tesoro in Medellín at 7 p.m.

Date: September 4, 2026
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: Teatro El Tesoro, Medellín

Ticket prices are $108,000 COP for central seating, $94,500 COP for side seating, $81,000 COP for balcony seating and $67,500 COP for upper balcony seating.

Members of the Colombo Americano de Medellín community can receive a 10% discount by using the code COLOMBOTESORO when purchasing tickets.

Tickets are available through Tuboleta.

Organized by CGS Events, the conference is positioned as a dedicated meeting point for mineral exploration and development in Colombia, providing updates on exploration projects, field activities, government policy, and the future of the country’s mining sector.

With Colombia’s mineral resources attracting growing international attention, CGS Colombia 2026 will examine the opportunities and challenges shaping the industry, including exploration strategies, regulatory developments, investment trends, and the advancement of gold and copper projects across the country.

The two-day event will feature discussions, networking opportunities, and insights from companies and professionals involved in Colombia’s exploration ecosystem. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with project developers, technical specialists, investors, and stakeholders working across the mining value chain.

Dates: November 10–11, 2026
Venue: InterContinental Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

For more information and registration details, visit the official event page.

Denarius Metals Corp. (Cboe CA: DMET) (OTCQX: DNRSF) has reported the first assay results from its 2026 surface in-fill diamond drilling program at the Las Brisas target on its wholly owned Zancudo gold-silver project in Colombia, located in the Cauca Belt about 30 kilometers southwest of Medellin.

The results cover the final assays for the first four drill holes, totaling roughly 660 meters, completed from the first purpose-built surface drill platform. The holes confirmed the high-grade gold and silver mineralization previously modeled on the Manto Antiguo and Santa Catalina structures.

Highlight intercepts included 7.43 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 15 g/t silver over 1.20 meters from 93.8 to 95.0 meters in hole ZM-195 on the Santa Catalina structure, including 28.70 g/t gold and 38 g/t silver over 0.30 meters. Hole ZM-197, on the Manto Antiguo structure, returned 8.36 g/t gold and 1,670 g/t silver over 1.0 meter from 160.3 to 161.3 meters, including 27.83 g/t gold and 5,564 g/t silver over 0.30 meters.

Key Drilling Results at Las Brisas

Notes: Intervals are core lengths; true widths are estimated at 80% to 90% of the reported lengths. Gold-equivalent (AuEq) grades were calculated using prices of $3,200 USD per ounce of gold and $40.00 USD per ounce of silver. “Unknown” denotes a new structure that does not correlate with any known structure or vein. Hole MT-196 returned no results above the 4 g/t AuEq cut-off, and hole MT-198 was aborted at shallow depth due to excessive deviation.

The Las Brisas target is an unexploited block within the Manto Antiguo structure that was preserved by past mining. The in-fill program is designed on 50-by-50-meter drill centers from eight platforms (IF-5 to IF-12) to better delineate and confirm the consistency of two ore shoots outlined by earlier drilling on the Manto Antiguo and Santa Catalina structures. The Manto Antiguo ore shoot, controlled by the intersection of the two structures, typically shows wider and higher-grade intercepts.

“This early progress at the Las Brisas Target reinforces our confidence in the continuity and quality of the known ore deposits at Zancudo.” – Serafino Iacono, Executive Chairman, Denarius Metals

Drilling at Las Brisas began in late April 2026 with a single rig and comprises about 6,000 meters across 29 diamond drill holes. The reported results cover the first four holes, about 660 meters, drilled from the first platform (IF-7). All holes completed to date on Manto Antiguo, totaling about 560 meters, intersected the structure at the estimated depth, with a maximum grade of 27.83 g/t gold and 5,564 g/t silver over 0.30 meters in ZM-197. On Santa Catalina, holes totaling about 660 meters intersected the structure at depth, with a maximum grade of 28.70 g/t gold and 38 g/t silver over 0.30 meters in ZM-195.

“This early progress at the Las Brisas Target reinforces our confidence in the continuity and quality of the known ore deposits at Zancudo,” said Serafino Iacono, executive chairman of Denarius Metals. “The 2026 in-fill drilling program has been designed taking into account the successful results achieved in our 2024 in-fill drilling campaign and underscores the potential and prospectivity of delineating new zones and expanding existing ones near planned mining infrastructures. We look forward to providing further updates through the course of this year’s drilling campaign.”

Structures and Geology

The Manto Antiguo structure, historically the main structure mined, is interpreted as a west-northwest to east-southeast trending brecciated manto that merges into the footwall of the Santa Catalina structure. 

The northerly-trending Santa Catalina structure, which dips steeply to the east near surface and gently at depth, is interpreted as a mineralized master fault and the feeder of mineralization for the entire vein system. The typically narrow Manto Antiguo structure shows a breccia texture with incipient quartz-sulphide banding and milled wall-rock clasts, with mineralization consisting of pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, and galena.

2026 Program and Processing Plant

The 2026 drill program totals a planned 15,000 meters across several targets within the Zancudo project, including Las Brisas, El Castano, the Independencia mine, and brownfield areas. The company said the program is intended to provide data for resource modeling, mine planning, and stope design as it ramps up mining at Zancudo in 2026 and 2027 to feed the project’s new 1,000-ton-per-day flotation processing plant, which is under construction and expected to be operating later this year.

The resource evaluation work was completed by Scott E. Wilson, CPG, president of Resource Development Associates and an independent qualified person under Canada’s NI 43-101, who inspected the Zancudo project on June 2-3, 2026. Core samples were prepared and assayed for gold by Actlabs at its laboratory in the Rionegro free-trade zone in Antioquia, Colombia, with multi-element analysis completed at its laboratory in Ancaster, Ontario.

Denarius Metals is a Canadian junior mining company focused on precious metals and polymetallic projects in Colombia and Spain, and trades on Cboe Canada as “DMET” and on the OTCQX Market in the United States as “DNRSF.” 

At Zancudo, its 100%-owned high-grade gold-silver deposit that includes the historic Independencia mine, the company is producing in an early-production phase while completing the processing plant, which it expects to begin producing high-grade gold-silver concentrates in the third quarter of 2026. 

In Spain, Denarius holds a 21.8% interest in and operates the Aguablanca nickel-copper project, recognized by the European Union as a Strategic Project, and owns 100% of the Lomero polymetallic project and the Toral zinc-lead-silver project.

Headline image description: The diagram showcases the target location of Denarius Metals in their Las Brisas mine site, and what they projected to have discovered there. Photo provided by Denarius Metals.

The exhibition is the 16th edition of the shopping center’s annual floral event, presented this year as World of Flowers 2026 under the slogan “When love unites, peace blossoms.” It runs alongside the Feria de las Flores (Festival of the Flowers), the city’s flower festival held across July and August, and draws on the region’s silletero (flower-bearer) tradition of carrying flower arrangements on wooden back-frames.

Each edition is organized around a theme, and the 2026 centerpiece is peace. “The floral dove symbolizes the peace we long for throughout the world. With it, we want to convey a message of empathy and hope at a time when the world is facing so many conflicts,” María Fernanda Bertel, general manager of Centro Comercial Santa Fé Medellín, told the Spanish news agency EFE.

“The floral dove symbolizes the peace we long for throughout the world.” — María Fernanda Bertel, general manager, Centro Comercial Santa Fé Medellín

For 46 days, the 1,000-square-meter plaza holds a floral carpet of 27,000 plants carrying more than 220,000 flowers grown in eastern Antioquia. The arrangement combines petunias in fuchsia, purple, white, and red with marigolds ranging from orange to yellow.

“The species we have chosen adapt well to our square and to our infrastructure, which features retractable roofs that open in the morning and afternoon, providing the lighting conditions these flowers require,” Bertel said.

The dove is built on a metal frame and covered with white leaves made from biodegradable materials designed to resemble flowers, attached one by one to a sculpture measuring 10.5 meters high and 16.8 meters wide. According to Bertel, more than 200 people worked on World of Flowers 2026, from initial design through installation, and a team of eight gardeners maintains the display, monitoring watering and condition throughout the run.

The shopping center staged its first flower carpet in 2011. In 2025 the initiative marked its 15th anniversary and drew 3.1 million visitors to installations placed throughout the property, with a hot-air balloon as that year’s main attraction.

Colombia’s financial system handled 6,078 million operations in the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest operations report from the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (Financial Superintendency of Colombia), the country’s banking and securities regulator.

Credit institutions and specialized electronic deposit and payment companies, known by their Spanish acronym SEDPE, accounted for those 6,078 million operations. Of that total, 3,568 million were monetary operations worth $3,153 trillion COP, and 2,509 million were non-monetary, such as balance inquiries.

“84.6% of all operations were carried out through non-presential channels, accounting for 69.9% of the value transacted.” — Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, first-quarter 2026 operations report

Separately, low-value payment system administrators, or EASPBV, together with the Banco de la República (Colombia’s central bank), processed 963 million monetary operations worth $1,081 trillion COP.

The Financial Superintendency of Colombia estimated that 66% of monetary interactions came from mobile applications. Stock photo by Kevin Schneider via Pixabay.

Non-presential channels — those that do not require a visit to a branch or physical point — continued to account for the bulk of activity, handling 84.6% of all operations and 69.9% of the value transacted. The remaining 15.4% of operations went through in-person channels. For the quarter, internet and bank offices were the channels through which the largest amounts of money moved.

Among in-person channels, the largest share of operations was concentrated in three departments: Bogotá at 33%, Antioquia at 25%, and Valle del Cauca at 13%.

For monetary operations, mobile applications were the most-used channel at 66%, followed by point-of-sale terminals at 13%. For non-monetary operations, mobile applications accounted for 81% and internet for 16%, while interactive voice response systems, virtual assistants, and telephone call centers were the least used.

Measured by the volume of payments tied to economic activity, professional, scientific, and technical activities led with 27% of the total. They were followed by wholesale and retail trade, including motor vehicle and motorcycle repair, at 19%; financial and insurance activities at 12%; information and communications at 11%; and electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply at 10%.

Headline image: Stock photo by Rupixen via Pixabay.

Colombia’s hotel industry entered 2026 with occupancy, real revenue, and formal employment all falling at once, a convergence that the country’s main lodging trade group says threatens the financial and labor sustainability of hotels nationwide. 

The Colombian Hotel and Tourism Association (Asociación Hotelera y Turística de Colombia, Cotelco) issued the alert based on the first-quarter results of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, DANE) and its Encuesta Mensual de Alojamiento (Monthly Lodging Survey, EMA).

“The results of the Monthly Lodging Survey show that the sector is facing a moment of high pressure: we have lower real income, an occupancy rate that cannot recover the levels of previous years, and a reduction in formal employment,” said José Andrés Duarte, president of Cotelco. “The hotel industry remains an engine of economic and regional development, but it needs conditions that allow companies to sustain their operations and keep generating jobs.”

Occupancy at its lowest in five years

The national occupancy rate stood at 48.4% between January and April 2026, the lowest reading for that period in five years. The figure confirms a downward trend: the indicator reached 52.6% in 2022, 52.1% in 2023, 49.5% in 2024, and 49.3% in 2025. The gap against 2022 amounts to 4.2 percentage points; against 2023, the drop was 3.6 points, while the declines relative to 2024 and 2025 moderated to 1.0 and 0.9 points, respectively. Cotelco sees the recent readings as an apparent stabilization around 49%, though still below the levels recorded during the post-pandemic recovery.

Revenue has not recovered since 2024

Even with this stabilization, however, real revenue in the lodging subsector fell 5.1% between January and April 2026 against the same period of 2025. Comparing January-April 2024 with the same months of 2026, the sector has accumulated a real reduction of 6.9% in billings, a sign that hotels have not fully rebuilt their income levels. For the single month of April 2026, real hotel revenue fell 5.7% year-on-year, according to the EMA.

The contraction was far from uniform across the twelve regions the survey tracks. Antioquia posted the deepest fall, with real revenue down 14.8%, followed by the Central region at -12% and Cartagena at -8.9%. At the other end, only the Pacific region and the Santanderes grew, rising 3.3% and 3.4%, respectively.

While wages have gone up in the hotel sector, headcounts of employed people in the sector have gone down. Photo by Rodrigo Salomón Cañas from Pixabay.

Formal employment keeps shrinking

Because of falling revenue, the personnel employed in the subsector fell 4.1% between January and April 2026 against the same period of 2025, a decline Cotelco attributes to staffing adjustments amid weaker tourism activity. Since 2024, formal employment in the subsector has accumulated a contraction of 5.1%. In April alone, national hotel headcount fell 5.4% year-on-year, with the sharpest cuts in San Andrés and Providencia (12.1%), the Pacific region (6.5%), and Antioquia (6.2%).

The employment cuts coincided with sharp wage increases. Hotel salaries rose 10.9% in April year-on-year, and real wages in the sector accumulated growth of 10.3% between January and April, even as revenue fell and staffing shrank. 

The increases were driven largely by the 23% rise in Colombia’s minimum wage that took effect at the start of the year, with the steepest gains in the Amazon region (21.9%), the Coffee Axis (13.7%), the Pacific (13.3%), and the Caribbean Coast (13.0%). The combination of softer demand and rising operating and labor costs, Cotelco warns, is squeezing the finances of establishments that must sustain daily operations with fewer resources.

Occupancy leaders and the Bogotá exception

San Andrés and Providencia recorded the country’s highest occupancy in April, at 62.6%, up from 58.5% a year earlier. Cartagena remained the second-highest at 59.8%, slightly below the 60% of the prior year. Bogotá registered 55.0% occupancy, with a distinct profile: unlike most regions, where leisure is the main reason for travel, business trips contributed 30.1 percentage points to the capital’s total. Nationally, leisure remained the predominant motive, contributing 25.6 points to the 46.3% total occupancy recorded in April, down from 46.7% in the same month of 2025. Room rates rose only modestly on an annual basis, with single accommodation up 1.8% and double up 2.6%, though both fell month-on-month against March.

“The sector is facing a moment of high pressure: we have lower real income, an occupancy rate that cannot recover the levels of previous years, and a reduction in formal employment.” — Jose Andres Duarte, president of Cotelco

Travel agencies diverge from hotels

While hotels contracted, travel agencies showed relative resilience. The DANE Encuesta Mensual de Agencias de Viaje (Monthly Travel Agency Survey, EMAV) reported that agencies’ nominal revenue grew 2.1% in April, even as their headcount fell 2.8% — the lowest reading since the series began — and average nominal wages rose 11.4%. 

Commissions drove the positive result, contributing 1.7 points to the 2.1% total, while the online sales channel edged up to 37.1% of bookings from 36.3%, and the traditional channel slipped to 62.9% from 63.7%. Because hotel figures are stated in real terms and agency figures in nominal terms, the two are not directly comparable, but the divergence points to a shift in how tourism spending is distributed along the value chain.

Cotelco’s requests to the government

The trade group is calling for technical roundtables with the national government to stimulate tourism demand, strengthen formality, and improve operating conditions. Cotelco has also reiterated the urgency of updating the national tourism registry and tightening control over informal supply, which it says undermines the sustainability of destinations, formal employment, and the safety of residents and visitors. The market closed in 2025 with roughly 12,957 hotels and 297,487 rooms.

The current weakness marks a reversal from the sector’s recent peaks. Finance Colombia has previously reported that Colombia hit record-high hotel occupancy and that March occupancy once reached its best level in 11 years, even as domestic tourism approached pre-pandemic levels. The latest DANE readings suggest that rising visitor numbers are no longer translating into stronger results for the formal lodging sector.

According to a first-quarter report released by DANE, hotel occupancy has fallen as tourism revenue slows its growth. Photo by Manuela Jaeger from Pixabay.

The Contraloría Distrital de Medellín (Medellín District Comptroller’s Office) has opened a preliminary inquiry into whether a change of contractors on the final works of the Hidroituango hydroelectric project caused a presumed fiscal loss of $108.585 billion COP — 108,585,346,005.76 pesos, or roughly $33 million USD at mid-July exchange rates — to Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), the city-owned utility that operates the plant. The review centers on generating units 5, 6, 7, and 8, the final stage of the megaproject.

The matter reached Medellín’s comptroller from the department’s own auditors. Since February, the Contraloría General de Antioquia (Antioquia Comptroller’s Office) had been conducting a special audit of the contractor change. In June it reported that the Sociedad Hidroituango, the project’s owner, suffered no patrimonial harm from the decision, but that it had identified a presumed breach of the principio de planeación (planning principle) in the contracting process led by EPM. Because EPM does not fall under the departmental comptroller’s jurisdiction, the finding of more than 100 billion pesos was transferred to the Medellín district comptroller, which must now formally open a fiscal-responsibility investigation.

“The new contractor presented values in its proposal that are higher than the values EPM had in its official budget. That difference is what generates the patrimonial detriment.” — Paula Ortega, Comptroller of Medellín

Medellín Comptroller Paula Ortega said the possible harm did not arise from a direct increase in the contract’s value. “The new contractor presented values in its proposal that are higher than the values EPM had in its official budget. That difference is what generates the patrimonial detriment,” she told La FM. Ortega stressed that the process is only at the preliminary-inquiry stage, which could run about six months, and that no fiscally responsible parties have been named so far.

The office will need to reconstruct the contracting process and determine whether the decision to change contractors rested on sufficient technical, legal, and financial grounds, or whether it damaged EPM’s assets. Fiscal-responsibility proceedings move through several stages and can extend for up to two years, meaning a decision on the merits may not come until around 2028.

The decision under review was made between 2022 and 2023, when Daniel Quintero served as mayor of Medellín and chaired EPM’s board of directors. Quintero’s administration defended the change at the time, arguing that the firms then executing the project were under investigation over the 2018 Hidroituango contingency, which followed the collapse of the plant’s auxiliary diversion tunnel. On that basis, EPM awarded the completion of the works on turbines 5 through 8 to the Ituango PC-SC Consortium — made up of the Chinese firms Yellow River Co. and Power China International Group, alongside Colombian firm Schrader Camargo — which Finance Colombia reported was the sole bidder for the works. Quintero has rejected the comptroller’s finding. Finance Colombia has also reported on the earlier stages of the dispute, including the breakdown of mediation between EPM and its original consortium, the utility’s re-bidding of the Hidroituango works, and the broader turmoil at the utility under Quintero.

The inquiry adds to other oversight fronts surrounding Hidroituango and EPM, including an inspection of the company by the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios (Residential Public Utilities Superintendency) and judicial proceedings that already involve dozens of people over alleged irregularities during the previous administration. The Medellín district comptroller will ultimately decide whether the presumed detriment is confirmed and who, if anyone, must answer for it.

Above photo: Construction workers labor to complete the Hidroituango hydroelectric project (photo © Loren Moss)