The United States has issued visa sanctions against executives of several Colombian shipping companies allegedly linked to the illegal transportation of migrants across the Colombia-Panama border, a senior American official said Monday.
The announcement was tied to a meeting of Western Hemisphere officials in Guatemala focused on both supporting migrants and increasing law enforcement in the region under an agreement known as the Los Angeles Declaration.
The sanctions target ferry operators who “mercilessly transport” migrants hoping to cross from Colombia to Panama through a dangerous jungle known as the Darien Gap, fueling “a humanitarian and ecological crisis,” the senior official said.
The Darien Gap has been a major transit route for migrants from around the world seeking humanitarian entry into the United States or illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Panamanian government statistics, more than half a million migrants passed through the Darien Gap in 2023.
Despite an agreement reached in 2023 between the United States, Colombia and Panama to crack down on jungle crossings, they have remained high this year, with 37,000 cases in March.
Source: Terra
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