The number of migrants crossing the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama plummeted to just over a dozen per day in February, as fears of stricter US immigration policies under the administration of President Donald Trump have deterred new crossings. Only 408 migrants crossed the Darién Gap in February — a staggering drop from the more than 37,000 who made the journey during the same month last year.

But the slowdown is not just a reduction in numbers; migrants across Central America and Mexico are abandoning their plans to reach the United States and instead heading south, returning to their countries of origin.

SEE ALSO: The Forgotten Human Smuggling Route in the Darién

The vast majority of those returning are Venezuelans, according to Colombia’s Foreign Ministry, which reported that 1,885 migrants arrived in Colombia from Panama between January 15 and February 28. In March, the flow has accelerated, with more than 200 migrants per day traveling by boat from Panama to Colombia, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the number of migrants entering Panama from the north is also rising, with about 3,100 people crossing the Costa Rican border last week, according to Panamanian authorities.

After entering Panama, migrants make their way to the port of Colón, where large boats take them to La Miel, a town close to the border with Colombia. Migrants are charged $230 USD per person for the journey. From there, they transfer to smaller boats to reach Capurganá, Colombia, then travel by motorcycle to Acandí, and finally take another boat to Necoclí — the point where many previously began their journey north across the Darién.

InSight Crime Analysis

The plummeting number of migrants traveling through the Darién could lead to a sharp decline in profits for the AGC, which maintains a monopoly on migrant smuggling operations in the region that were worth tens of millions of dollars a year at their peak.

The group’s primary source of profit came from extorting both formal and informal businesses connected to the migration flow, including hotels, guides, restaurants, stores, and transporters. Additionally, the AGC earned direct profits by facilitating the movement of migrants through its zone of control, placing their earnings between $17.5 million USD and $25 million USD by 2023, according to InSight Crime’s estimates.

SEE ALSO: Colombia’s AGC Squeezes Profits From Control Of Key Migration Choke Point

However, the decline in migrant traffic through the Darién has put a dent in both formal and informal economies, resulting in a reduction of profits for the AGC.

“The economy of that area changed in recent years. An economic bubble was created that, when it burst, would bring a very bleak context,” said a person working for a state entity in the area, who requested to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak. Now, they added, that bubble has burst, hurting many who formerly profited off migrants. The increase in migrants heading south still is not large enough to compensate for the dropoff in northward flows.

“These are very small flows. From a business perspective, which is what these groups always see, it’s not an attractive phenomenon for them,” they said.

The AGC appears to be filling the gaps with other illegal economies. The group is increasing “collaboration” — their term for extortion — with other sectors, such as cattle ranchers, according to a local resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The AGC needs consistent income to sustain an unrelenting war with their main enemy, the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), for control of the department of Chocó, directly south of the Urabá region, which is home to important criminal economies such as illegal gold mining. The drop in migrant flows will likely shift the AGC’s focus back to drug trafficking through the Darién and the Colombian region of Urabá, which remains the group’s most critical stronghold.

This article, written by Henry Shuldiner and Sara Garcia, 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. It has been generously shared with Finance Colombia under a Creative Commons license.

A recent case, together with several past investigations, shows how the music and events industry is being used by organized crime groups to launder money.

In early January, Colombian police captured Pedro Pablo Guzmán, alias “Pelomono,” at a concert in the municipality of Necoclí, Antioquia, in northern Colombia.

Pelomono is an alleged drug trafficker and member of the Gaitanist Self Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC), also known as the Gulf Clan or Urabeños.

To cover up his role within the AGC, Pelomono purportedly used his legal companies and businesses, among which is a company in charge of financing and producing musical events in northern Colombia.

“This guy had several commercial activities as a front: a life of partying, dancing, beach trips, international activities, and high-end vehicles,” a member of the Colombian police’s Criminal Investigation and Interpol Directorate (DIJIN) told InSight Crime on condition of anonymity.

A Large Market

One of the largest revenue-generating markets in the world is the entertainment industry, which includes the music industry’s concerts, events, recording studios, and online music playback platforms. In 2022, Latin America saw a 25.9% growth in revenues from the music industry, according to the most recent report by the International Federation of the Recording Industry (Federación Internacional de la Industria Fonográfica).

The Colombian music scene has also seen significant growth in recent years. Not only has the country exported world-class artists, but in major cities such as Medellín, demand for recording studios has increased by 90%, according to Bloomberg.

But the industry’s profits have also attracted the attention of criminal actors and organizations seeking to launder money from illicit activities, such as drug trafficking.

Several factors make the music industry attractive for money laundering. According to Sergio Reyes Díaz, director of Infolaft Academy, an organization that offers training to anti-money laundering professionals in Latin America, one benefit is that the music industry works with businesses that handle large sums of money, permitting illegal actors to give the appearance of legality to illegal resources.

“We know that the music industry moves a lot of money, and that makes it vulnerable to criminal organizations that may be looking for opportunities to take advantage of its social recognition, infiltrate it, and use it to justify huge amounts of illicit money,” said Reyes.

Another characteristic that facilitates money laundering is that the industry’s supply chain is made up of many actors, some of whom may have internal controls to prevent money laundering, while others may not.

And the more actors involved in the chain, the more complicated it becomes for companies to carry out due diligence and ensure the legitimacy of each of these intermediaries.

“That’s why it’s so important for everyone involved in that industry to implement know-your-customer procedures, so they know who they’re dealing with,” Reyes said.

Front Companies

One of the main ways in which criminal groups launder money is through front companies, or businesses created to give a legal appearance to illegal activities or resources. This strategy is common within the music industry.

Pelomono’s activities appear to be a case in point. According to the Colombian police official, Pelomono used his various businesses — including his music financing and event production company — to launder money.

The AGC has used this same approach to launder assets in the past. At the beginning of 2021, for example, one of the main money laundering schemes for the AGC led by Jhon Fredy Zapata Garzon, alias “Messi,” came to light. Zapata used various strategies to launder drug trafficking proceeds, including financing musical groups and emerging reggaeton and popular music singers through a conglomerate of front companies.

Event Planning

According to Infolaft Academy’s Reyes, over-invoicing is another known-money laundering practice common across industries, whereby businesses report inflated sales in order to launder illegal resources.

In 2012, for example, the partners of the Colombian company Total Conciertos, which organized and produced a series of events, were investigated for allegedly laundering money for Colombian drug traffickers, such as the Calle Serna brothers and Daniel “El Loco” Barrera. According to a complaint that reached the Colombian prosecutor’s office, the producers attempted to launder $30 million through these events, which included concerts by Mexican singer Vicente Fernández.

This same firm was investigated in Spain for allegedly laundering money through Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi’s charity matches. According to the investigations, the strategy behind the scheme was called “Fila Cero” and consisted of allowing people to enter the events for free in order to report higher sales.

This strategy can be seen in cases throughout the region. A network made up of Argentine and Colombian nationals that trafficked cocaine from Paraguay and Bolivia to Argentina and then shipped it to Europe was dismantled in November 2023. The network laundered money through concerts held in theaters they owned. Authorities caught on because the group was paying artists three to four times more than elsewhere, which allowed them to report higher-than-actual legal expenses.

This article, written by Sara Garcia, 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.

Due to a surge in migrants, Panamanian officials met with their Colombian counterparts on August 11 to reach an agreement in which Colombia would allow no more than 650 migrants to cross per day, diminishing to 500 per day in September. But according to Panamá’s Director of Migration Samira Gozaine, Colombia is not complying with the bargain.

Dir de Migración, Samira Gozaine, confirma que Colombia no está cumpliendo con acuerdo migratorio. Asegura que hay cerca de 6 mil 500 migrantes más que los que debería haber. @tvnnoticias pic.twitter.com/j3aWtAC9ku

— Fabio Caballero (@FabioCaballero8) September 6, 2021

“Right now we have 6,500 more people than we should have if the agreement with Colombia was being fulfilled,” said Gozaine, who will be meeting with Colombian officials again on Friday to voice her discontent. “At that meeting we are going to notify our counterparts and the Foreign Ministry that these agreements are not being fulfilled, and we will ascertain with them the situation so that they comply with what they committed to Panamá.”

Directora del SNM @Gozainesamira y el defensor del pueblo, @eleblancg realizan gira a la comunidad de Bajo Chiquito, Darién.Habitantes del lugar expusieron sus inquietudes en torno a la situación de los migrantes en el área, mientras que los extranjeros también fueron escuchados. pic.twitter.com/41uuoyDlRR

— Migración Panamá (@migracionpanama) September 6, 2021

Gozaine said that up to 900 migrants were arriving per day, many unaware of the perils they faced in the lawless Darien wilderness, often victims of human traffickers. Many migrants come from Haiti and Cuba, though Asia and Africa are also well represented in the statistics. In both Panamá and Necoclí, Colombia, locals have expressed their concern at their small towns being overwhelmed by migrants, often poor and in a state of distress.

La #VicepresidenteYCanciller, @mluciaramirez, aterriza #AEstaHora en el aeropuerto de Nicanor, en la frontera colombo panameña, para reunirse con su homóloga, Erika Mouynes, en busca de soluciones a la crisis de migrantes en Necoclí y el Urabá Antioqueño pic.twitter.com/Ldiun19QD8

— Cancillería Colombia (@CancilleriaCol) August 6, 2021

Image courtesy Migración Panamá

“In the last month we went from 19 to 32 municipalities with water shortages due to the dry season. We invite the new municipal administrations and public service companies to activate emergency and contingency plans, as these allow us to respond to this situation and prevent any eventuality in the provision of services,” said Malagón in a statement.

The minister indicated that the ministry is working with the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management to monitor these municipalities. “We have been tracking the departments of Antioquia, Atlántico, Boyacá, Cesar, Córdoba, Cundinamarca, La Guajira, Santander and Tolima. So far we have a consolidated of 32 municipalities with affectations,” he said. The ministry indicated that emergency and contingency plans must take into account vulnerable populations, and threats to the aqueduct, sewer and sanitation systems.

“These plans should identify alternative sources of supply, shock measures such as mobilization of tank trucks, water treatment plants, among others, in addition to verifying that they have financial and human resources to meet any eventuality,” said Jose Luis Acero, the vice minister of water and basic sanitation.

Water treatment facility photo courtesy EPM

She says that Colombia “requires infrastructure” capable of keeping up with the “sustained growth” of tourism in the country in recent years. “With these works we are taking a big step to consolidate Colombia as a world-class tourist destination,” said Gutiérrez.

Of the overall total, about $16 million USD will come from the ministry while some $4.2 million USD will be provided by the various local areas where the projects will be carried out, according to MinCIT.

The lion’s share of the investment, almost $16 million, will be used on revitalization projects in the Caribbean department of Magdalena in and around the popular beach city of Santa Marta. In the city itself, the ministry will fund the completion of the second phase of the Santa Marta theater project and an expansion of the Casa Madame Augustín museum.

The rest of these funds will go toward the restoration of the main plaza in the nearby city of Ciénaga and the development of boating areas in Puebloviejo and Nueva Venecia, two locations within the Santa Marta marshlands.

The second largest investment will be the $2.7 million USD devoted to further developing San Agustin, a top archeological site with mysterious statues that date back before the arrival of Columbus to the Americas. The funding will be primarily go toward a museum that will better highlight the history and cultural treasures of the area.

Additionally, in an attempt to promote nautical tourism, some $2.4 million USD will go to the construction of a pier in the department of Cauca near La Salvajina and a small marina on the Caribbean coast in Necoclí.

Another investment will be made into coffee zone tourism. Funds have been allotted for improvements to the cultural center of Salento, the overlook in Filandia, and various projects in the Caldas city of Chinchiná.

The government is also looking to capitalize on the increasing interest in Colombia from the international birding community. More than half a million dollars will be invested in trails that will help enthusiasts view endemic birds, as well as around 50 related informative signs, in the departments of Risaralda (municipality of Dosquebradas) and Arauca (Tame).

Photo: Enjoying some fresh-roasted Colombian coffee at a farm near Salento, one of the country’s top tourism destinations. (Credit: Jared Wade)

The initiative was kicked off in 2016 in a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and aims to sign up more “unbanked” Colombians for formal financial products and generally educate people about the various services offered by the Bogotá-based bank.

The “route” aspect of the campaign comes from the fact that Banco de Bogotá has been driving a bus around to rural areas of the country to reach people outside the population centers.

READ MORE: Banco de Bogotá to Bring Its ‘Financial Inclusion’ Program to 50 More Municipalities

This second phase of the program, throughout the first quarter of 2018, will focus on the department of Antioquia, where two different vehicles will lead the campaign and help grant the nearly $3.5 million USD (10.3 billion pesos) in micro-loans that will average around $1,700 USD (5 million pesos).

In January, Banco de Bogotá has planned stops in Caucasia (January 11), Tarazá (January 18), and Valdivia (January 25). Then the following month, the buses will visit the following municipalities: Mutatá, Chigorodó, Carepa, Apartadó, Turbo, Necoclí, San Juan de Urabá, and San Pedro de Urabá.

Photo: Banco de Bogota’s “Route of Financial Inclusion” bus campaign. (Credit: Banco de Bogotá)