Closing the Darién Gap with a barbed-wire fence

Recently, a group of migrants from Venezuela and Ecuador who tried to cross the Darién Gap found a new obstacle in the roadless jungle that separates Colombia from Panama — a barbed-wire fence with sharp edges that stands about 6 feet tall. 

“Be quiet,” said a guide, who recorded a video of the group of about 40 people as they tried to get around the fence. 

In the video, which lasts around 12 minutes, the migrants can be seen walking through a hole in the fence, and then, using a rope to get down a hill covered in dense, tropical foliage as they try to get back to the main trail. 

“Here’s what Panama has paid for,” the local guide says in the video, as he shows a broken segment of the metal fence. 

Last year, more than 520,000 migrants crossed the Darien jungle. The rainforest is hilly and dangerous, with some migrants drowning as they try to wade across its turbulent rivers. But it has become a pedestrian highway of sorts for migrants from South America, Africa and Asia who are trying to reach the United States. 

Panama’s new government is now working with the US to stop traffic along the route. Its latest move to deter migrants has been to build fences along the remote trails that migrants are using to cross the Darien jungle.

“I will not allow Panama to be an open path for thousands of people who enter the country illegally, and are encouraged to do so by smugglers, who are also involved in the drug trade,” Panama’s new president, Jose Raul Mulino said in his inauguration speech on July 1. 

Mulino, a former security minister who is closely aligned with the US government, added that the transit of tens of thousands of people through Panama is putting public finances under strain — polluting the Darien jungle — as migrants widen paths in the rainforest and leave tons of trash behind, including old clothes, diapers, plastic bottles and shoes.

“I understand there are profound reasons for immigration,” Mulino said. “But every country has to solve its own problems. Panama did not elect me to turn my back on this issue.”

In a statement published last week, Panama’s border police explained that the fences have been placed along different trails, so that migrants only use one jungle route into Panama, which leads toward a village known as Cañas Blancas. 

Officials say this will enable them to have more control over who is entering their country, and provide migrants with services.

But villagers on the Colombian side of the border have protested the fence. And they’re suspicious about Panama’s motives. 

Emigdio Pertuz is a spokesperson for the Colombian village of Capurgana, one of the most-common starting points for treks across the Darien jungle. He said he’s worried that more migrants will get stuck in his village.

“Panama is not going to go through the trouble of closing most of the routes to just let everybody in,” Pertuz said in a phone interview. “They might impose daily quotas, or say that only those with children can go through.” 

According to Pertuz, the border crossing that Panama has left open to migrants is harder to reach than those that have been fenced off.

“We’re going to get more accidents,” he said. “And more injured migrants. And we don’t have the capacity to treat them here.”

Panama has also announced it will boost patrols along sea routes. And said it will put some migrants on planes back to their home countries.

These removal flights will be paid for by the US government under a new deal made by both nations.

But experts believe that neither the border fence nor the flights will be effective. 

Bram Ebus, a consultant for the International Crisis Group, said that the numbers of migrants trekking across the Darién Gap, has been almost doubling every year since 2021, despite campaigns by Panama to discourage migrants from making the journey, and even as the number of violent crimes against migrants on the Darien route grows. 

“Many of these migrants don’t have identity cards or passports, so they’re obligated to take informal pathways,” Ebus said. “The message from law enforcement, that they want to be more on top of this, will push people into the more clandestine areas where there is less control. And also into sea routes that are used by drug traffickers.”

Currently, there are about 1,000 migrants crossing the Darién Gap every day. 

So, Panama and the United States would need to pay for dozens of charter flights each month if they wanted to remove a significant percentage of people, said Thomas Cartwright, an expert on deportation flights. 

“You’re probably talking about 115 to 130 people per plane, if it’s reasonably full,” he explained. “And then, you have the situation of whether people are going to receive them. So, will Venezuela receive Venezuelans? Will Cuba take Cubans back?”

Currently, Cuba only takes one deportation flight from the US per month. And Venezuela takes none, meaning that at least for migrants from those countries, the chances of getting sent back from Panama are slim. 

In the Colombian town of Necocli, which is the first stop on the way to Panama, some migrants said they are still heading north, despite new obstacles.

Oscar Andres Martinez, a Venezuelan construction worker, looked for a boat that would take him toward the Darien Jungle.

“I know of people who have been crossing,” Martinez said. “If one path shuts down, we’ll find others, the important thing is to keep working for our goal.”