Panama President-Elect Jose Raul Mulino Reiterates Promise To Shut Down Darien Gap Migration Crossing, Deport Migrants

Panama President-Elect Jose Raul Mulino pledged as a candidate that he would try and do the near-impossible task of shutting down one of the busiest and most dangerous migration routes on Earth, the Darien Gap. This might affect the migration crisis that is happening in the Americas as more and more people try to head to the US-Mexico border to try and get inside the United States.

The Darien Gap is a treacherous stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama that connects Central America to South America. It is filled with muddy terrain, dangerous animals, and roving bands of criminal gangs and rebels. However, over 500,000 people still crossed it last year in an effort to head to the United States.

This would now be a seismic shift in Panama's migration policy as during this current administration, the country just simply bused them from the edge of the Darien Gap where they emerged to the north and helped them along the way to the US. Experts are saying whether Mulino would do this or not remains to be seen as the Panamanian government has very little presence in the sparsely populated jungle.

"Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border," said Mulino after his election win was formalized, according to the Associated Press. He added that he would try to end "the Darien odyssey that does not have a reason to exist."

The Darien Gap migrant route became very popular in recent years with the help of organized crime in Colombia, with human traffickers helping migrants of many nationalities cross the dangerous jungle-filled isthmus. However, human rights organizations and NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders have repeatedly reported a rising number of sexual assaults happening in the area.

Policing the Darien Gap Might Prove Difficult for Panama's Incoming Jose Raul Mulino Administration

Promising to shut down the Darien Gap to stop migrants is one thing; keeping that promise is another, as several groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), have repeatedly warned that closing the Darien may be impossible. The rights group also warned that this could force migrants to choose even more dangerous routes, such as taking dangerous migrant boats from Colombia to Panama.

The dangerous and muddy jungle terrain of the Darien has had a history of being impossible to tame, as efforts to build a super highway that connects North and South America through the jungle were halted by the Darien. Despite the inhospitable terrain, Newsweek reports that migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and even Africa and Asia, have traversed the "Gap" in hopes of reaching the US.

Jose Raul Mulino Pledges To Deport Migrants Caught Crossing the Darien Gap Into Panama

As to what might happen to the migrants caught crossing the Darien Gap once Jose Raul Mulino takes over as president, they will get deported, according to AA.

"We will begin, with international help, a repatriation process with full respect for the human rights of all the people who are there," Mulino stated during a press conference. "So those from there [referring to people in South American nations] and those who would like to come know that whoever arrives here will return to their country of origin. Our Darien is not a transit route, no sir, that is our border."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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