The Indeterminacy of Transit Through Latin America as Seen from the Colombia-Panama Border

In 2021, the end of COVID-19-related border closures and other factors created a massive flow of migrants across South America, ending in Necoclí, Colombia, where more than ten thousand migrants, mostly of Haitian origin, were waiting to cross into Central America. Necoclí is a tourist town in the region of Urabá, located on the northwestern tip of Colombia, near the border with Panama. We argue that the border regime in Necoclí produced a state of indeterminacy that blocked migrants’ transit but also enabled local actors to develop effective responses to the massive influx of people. In this sense, we build on debates that conceive human movement as an active force that can catch state power off guard and that responds to both global and local contexts. We see the agency of migrants and locals alike as a central aspect of the migration regimes on this border.