Criminal groups in Ecuador’s Carchi province are using drones to watch migrants and extort them near the main Colombia-Ecuador border crossing, according to a joint report by the two countries’ human rights ombudsmen. Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office released the findings on Monday, October 5, 2026. Of 59 migrants interviewed in July 2026, 23.7% reported extortion, 42.4% discrimination, 32.2% robbery and 13.6% physical attacks.
The teams monitored the Ipiales-Tulcán corridor with technical support from the UN Human Rights Office. The Rumichaca International Bridge connects Ipiales, in Colombia’s Nariño department, to Tulcán, capital of Ecuador’s Carchi province. The report identifies it as the countries’ main land crossing and a route toward Central and North America.
Who Is Affected
Most people crossing here aren’t drug runners or smugglers. They’re workers and families. Work or income prompted 69.5% of those interviewed to move; family reunification accounted for 16.9%, and violence for 13.6%. Most were heading north: 79.7% of recorded movements ran south to north, while 66.1% involved entries into Colombia. Many travelled from Chile, Peru and Ecuador, and 71.2% planned to continue home to Venezuela. Many, especially Venezuelans, wanted to check on relatives after the June 2026 earthquake.
The dangers come from several directions. At bus terminals, recruiters posing as tour operators sell migrants “safe routes” to third countries for as much as US$300, leaving travellers exposed to scams, abandonment and exploitation. The report identified armed civilians as the main alleged attackers, linking them to 75% of reported sexual violence cases and 57.9% of robberies. Victims attributed 21.4% of extortion cases and 20% of discrimination cases to security-force members. Some women and girls, the report says, were pushed into “survival sex” to get food or shelter.
Three-quarters filed no complaint. The figure was 75%.
The Armed Groups and the Gap in Accountability
The report maps Colombian armed groups and Ecuadorian gangs vying for corridors used for drugs, contraband, weapons, human trafficking and migrant smuggling. It says new criminal groups in Tulcán, El Carmelo and Espejo use drones to watch migrants and extort them. But it doesn’t name the groups operating the drones, disclose how much they demand or say whether police have opened cases.
On the Colombian side, the report lists the Coordinadora Nacional, known by the Spanish initials CNEB, a bloc of former FARC guerrilla fronts that split from the Segunda Marquetalia, ex-FARC commanders who rearmed after the 2016 peace deal. It also names Comuneros del Sur, a faction that broke away from the ELN’s central command. President Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative, ended peace talks with both groups in late August and early September.
On Ecuador’s side, the report names Los Choneros and Los Lobos, designated foreign terrorist organisations by Washington in a Federal Register notice dated September 5, 2025. It also cites members or collaborators of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the United States designated a terrorist organisation in February 2025. The report doesn’t attribute the drone surveillance to any of the three.
Aid Retreats as Security Spending Grows
Ipiales’ humanitarian safety net is thinning. The city’s migrant-aid coordination group told the mission it had about 25 international aid organisations in 2024 and about five in 2026. The Catholic Church runs the Pastoral Social shelter in Ipiales, which serves about 70 people a day and struggles to provide food. Children and teenagers accounted for 40% of those it sheltered in the first half of 2026.
The report says donors have shifted money from social projects to border-control technology, including biometric systems, and security strategies. It points to U.S. cooperation announced with Colombia in March 2025 and signed with Ecuador in June 2026. Ecuador’s Frontera Segura (Safe Border) strategy starts with a pilot in Carchi province; the U.S. State Department’s narcotics and law enforcement bureau provides training and equipment, trade site Segurilatam reported. It’s unclear whether the pilot targets groups using drones.
In 2025, after Ecuador announced plans to deport 1,000 prisoners, 410 people crossed into Colombia at Rumichaca without joint protection protocols. The report says the Ecuador border accounts for 49% of irregular migration recorded by Migración Colombia, the national migration agency.
What the Ombudsmen Want
The ombudsmen called for intelligence work against trafficking networks, stronger protection for women and children, and public funding to replace lost aid. They said the border can’t be handled “only from a migration-control or security perspective.”
The report’s figures come from 59 interviews. They aren’t presented as covering the entire migrant population.
Why This Matters:
The findings describe a border where people most exposed to violence are least likely to seek help: three-quarters of those consulted filed no complaint, while some victims pointed to security-force members. International aid organisations in Ipiales fell from about 25 to about five over two years, leaving a Catholic shelter to feed about 70 people a day; children and teenagers made up 40% of those sheltered. The ombudsmen’s warning against managing the border only through migration control or security raises a broader question about public spending. Funding for biometric systems and border technology has grown as social projects lose donor support. Whether governments restore protection funding will shape who is safe at Rumichaca.