The  Columbian Clan del Golfo maintains hegemonic control of the Gulf of Urabá and has established a series of governance systems that compete with formal institutions. In other words, a kind of “criminal government” says the Fundación Ideas para la Paz (Fip), a Colombian non-governmental organization.

In the case of Darién, its control has deepened since 2018, with the increase in migration and the end of the clashes between the Clan del Golfo and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The criminal group, according to the report, has managed to regulate the migratory phenomenon by accepting or prohibiting routes, establishing standards of behavior for guides and migrants, and extorting money from the different links in the migration chain.

It is also specified - that this network has diversified its resources in recent years. Although it extracts money from all the legal, informal, and illegal economies present in the territory, drug trafficking, illegal mining and widespread extortion in all economic sectors continue to be its main sources of financing.

However, in the last two years, income from migrant smuggling has become an important source of income for the organization.

Despite the fact that it has become the regulatory actor for this activity, the logistics operators of the routes are not part of the armed group but have no other option than to abide by the rules imposed by the clan, including paying a tax. It is also established that the transit of maritime vessels, after leaving Necoclí, Antioquia, and other border towns, earns them at least $127,000 per month without including the charge for the use of land routes and accommodation.

230,000 migrants
Figures from the Ministry of Security reveal that from January to November 2022, 230,000 migrants passed through the Darién jungle.

The Minister of Security, Juan Pino, during a tour of the area in early December with the United States Ambassador, assured that the National Border Service (Senafront) maintains constant surveillance of the routes used by migrants in order to give them attention and prevent them from being victims of criminal gangs.

According to Pino, many of the migrants arrive in the Darién deceived, since they are assured that it is an easy route and end up paying large amounts to the so-called "coyotes" for transportation and guide service.  Many end up abandoned on the route.