Migration to the United States through the dangerous jungle passage known as the Darién Gap has stopped, at least temporarily, after the arrest of two boat captains working for companies that play an essential role in transporting migrants through the jungle.
Shipping companies suspended migrant crossings from two northern Colombian cities, Necoclí and Turbo, to the entrance to the Darién forest, according to Necoclí’s mayor, leaving about 3,000 migrants stranded in those communities.
Colombian law enforcement action in the region is sure to be closely watched by US officials: The Biden administration has been pushing Colombia for months to do more to stop people from using the Darién as a route to the United States.
The boat route is the main thoroughfare in the Darién Gap, a strip of land connecting South and North America that was once rarely crossed but has emerged in recent years as one of the hemisphere’s most important and busiest migration routes.
Nearly a million people have crossed the Darién since 2021, according to authorities at the end of the route in Panama, helping to fuel a migration crisis in the United States.
The Colombian Navy last week seized two boats belonging to the two companies, Katamaranes and Caribe, which were transporting a total of 151 migrants from Necoclí to the jungle, according to Colombian prosecutors.
Officials determined the migrants were being transported illegally, arrested the two captains and took control of both boats.
The arrests mark a major shift in strategy by Colombian authorities, who for months have allowed boat operators to openly ferry migrants from Necoclí through Urabá Bay to the towns of Acandí and Capurganá, where people enter the jungle.
In an interview Wednesday, Necoclí Mayor Guillermo Cardona said the boat companies, which operate large fleets and have several captains, had stopped operations in recent days “as a form of protest” against the arrests.
Boat operators have become key players in a multi-million dollar migration business that has been allowed to flourish in northern Colombia.
In September, the New York Times reported that this business was run by local political and financial leaders, including Katamaranes’ manager, who at the time was a mayoral candidate in Necoclí. (The manager did not win and was not among those arrested.)
US officials have privately asked Colombian officials since at least October to investigate the boat operators.
In a recent interview, Colombia’s attorney general, Hugo Tovar, said his office is working “hand in hand” with the United States on the issue of human trafficking through Colombia and Darién. Two US agencies, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were providing training and sharing information to help with the investigations, he added.
Necoclí is a coastal town with limited resources and infrastructure, and in recent years has been overwhelmed by immigrants.
It is unclear how long the boat companies will be out of business. Migrants have been arriving at a rate of hundreds a day in recent months, and if the protest continues, the number of people trapped in tents on the city’s beaches is likely to swell quickly, straining water and sewage services beyond breaking point. their.
This could put pressure on the Colombian government to facilitate future arrests of boat operators, as the government has limited capacity to provide assistance to large numbers of people who could become stuck at its northern border.
Still, Mr. Tovar said, his office remained committed to investigating human trafficking, calling it “a hemispheric issue.”
Mr Cardona, the mayor, said he was calling on the national government for help with the hundreds of migrants who now have nowhere to go. “This is an SOS,” he said.
Migration through the Darién has emerged as a huge challenge for the Biden administration, particularly ahead of the 2024 presidential race.
President Biden and his almost certain Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, are scheduled to make appearances Thursday in various parts of Texas near the southern border.
In 2021, just over 130,000 people crossed the Darién Jungle on their way to the United States. In 2022, nearly 250,000 did. Last year, more than 500,000 people crossed the Darién, contributing to a record number of arrivals at the US border.
Mr. Biden has sought to stem that flow by expanding legal pathways to immigration and stepping up deportation efforts at the border.
But these measures had only limited effect.
As of Feb. 28, Panamanian authorities said more than 72,000 people had hiked through the Darién this year — a 35 percent increase over the number of people who crossed in the first two months of last year.
The largest number of migrants came from Venezuela, where activists’ hopes that the authoritarian government would allow democratic elections this year have faded in recent months. The second most came from Ecuador, where a dire security situation has worsened this year. The next three major countries of origin are Haiti, Colombia and China.
