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Panama City – In the Darién province, the natural border between Panama and Colombia, at least 4.7 kilometers of five crossings used by migrants are “fenced” with fences by Panamanian border police to “guide” pedestrians through the dangerous jungle. The authorities of the Central American country announced this Wednesday that they are heading to the United States.
“We have carried out intensive operations and actions along the border with Colombia, with more than 4.7 kilometers of fencing, including more than five clandestine crossing points used by organized crime to mobilize migrants, with the aim of channeling the flow of people rather than interrupting it,” Jorge Gobea, director of Panama’s National Border Service (Senafront/Border Police), said in a press conference.
According to images provided by authorities, Senafront agents installed barbed fences (official information calls them “perimeter barriers”) at several locations in the jungle near the Colombian border where the unauthorized steps or trails are located.
In some of these images, you can see the fence near the boulder that separates the two countries amidst the lush nature.
In addition, according to Gobia, they have “more than seven ships conducting coastal blockades and more than 25 patrols constantly walking to try to find those who commit crimes against migrants and to help migrants who are affected by the adverse situation” ” both by the climate and by crossing the Darien River.
Since last July 3, two days after the new government of José Raúl Mulino came to power, the Panamanian authorities have gradually announced the closure of these trails and the installation of “border barriers” to “direct” the flow of migrants, who use them as passages to reach North America in order to create a “humanitarian corridor” to Bajo Chiquito, the first town that the migrants reach after days of walking across the Darien River.
Migrants report that they pay to travel through the jungle in packs of “coyotes,” that at some point they are “abandoned,” and that they often become victims of violent robberies and sexual assaults on the Panamanian side. Panama points out that the main Colombian criminal gang, the “Clan del Golfo,” has colluded with them and profited from it.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro questioned Panama’s decision last week and warned that blocking the measures would only lead to “drowning at sea.”
Reduced immigration flows
The chief of Panama’s border police announced that due to the closure of these five routes, the flow of migrants has decreased compared to the same period last year.
“It’s important (to mention) that the impact that we’re having as a result of these lockdowns and diversions is that we’re currently carrying less than 9,000 migrants compared to the same day last year, so that’s a direct factor in the impact of this movement,” he noted, without providing further details.
The closure of these trails comes at a time when record numbers of migrants are coming through the jungle, overwhelmed by Panamanian authorities, who are providing them with aid and food at a shelter in Darien so they can keep going I traveled to Costa Rica on a bus paid for by the migrants.
According to official Panamanian data, more than 208,000 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, have crossed the Darien River so far this year, while the number of migrants for the whole of 2023 exceeded 520,000, an unprecedented number.
The Darien Jungle covers 575,000 hectares and is a national park, the only cut-off point on the Pan-American Highway that connects the entire continent.
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