New Panama President Wants to Shut Down ‘Crucial Migration Gap’

New Panama President Wants to Shut Down ‘Crucial Migration Gap’

Panama President-elect Jose Raul Mulino might help the U.S. immigration problem while saving numerous lives.

“Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,” declared Mulino.

The Darién Gap is a dangerous region on the border of Colombia and Panama. Over 500,000 migrants used it last year on their way to America, and around 147,000 crossed it in 2024 so far.

But now Mulino vows to deport the U.S.-bound migrants who cross the Gap.

“Those who are down there (in South America) and those who would like to come, need to know that whoever arrives here is going to be sent back to their country of origin,” said Mulino.

Mulino admitted that you don’t stop illegal immigration only through physical routes:

“Because when we start to deport people here in an immediate deportation plan, the interest for sneaking through Panama will decrease,” he said. By the time the fourth plane loaded with migrants takes off, “I assure you they are going to say that going through Panama is not attractive because they are deporting you.”

The Darién Gap is a jungle with no road but is home to around 8,000 people in five tribes.

Armed bandits and gangs target the area, kidnapping and raping those desperate to find a better life. Colombian organized crime charges people as well.

The people crossing the Gap established a path, cutting down the time to cross. It went from a week to two to three days.

That does not mean it has become safer. There is no government around the border, and who knows if Colombia will help Panama.

From The Guardian in 2023:

The organisation [Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)] said it treated 397 survivors of sexual violence this year – many of them children – once they safely reached Panama. There have been reports of “group rapes in tents set up for that purpose in the mountainous rainforest and swampland”.

The number far exceeds the 172 recorded in 2022, and the charity says it is the latest example of how the suffering of migrants in the Darién is becoming normalised. MSF is urging the Panama and Colombian authorities to deploy an effective security presence in the jungle to protect migrants.

Among the harrowing testimonies given to MSF, migrants described being taken to tents and raped by groups of armed men in front of other migrants.

“I saw many people raped. I saw them left naked and beaten,” one Venezuelan woman told MSF. “One, two or three of them grab you and rape you, and then the next one comes and rapes you again, and if you scream, they beat you.”

In some cases, people who tried to defend the victims were beaten or killed, including a young boy who was shot in the head.

Unfortunately, people could find other ways to get around the Darién Gap, possibly swimming in the ocean.

As I said before, it could be hard to do do anything without Colombia’s help.

I’d like to see how Mulino plans to tackle the problem. Lord knows we need the help. It’s bad enough the Biden administration gives these people hope.

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