The new government of Panama has begun installing barbed wire to block crossings used by US-bound migrants passing through the Darién Gap trail.
President José Raúl Mulino, who took office on July 1, had promised while campaigning to crack down on US-bound migrant passing through Panama by blocking the Darién Gap, a 30-mile-wide, 100-mile-long jungle trail through the country.
The Gap is the only land bridge between South and Central America and for years has provided a path, however dangerous, for hundreds of thousands of migrants coming up from South America.
Between Janaury and June 20, authorities counted 186,969 migrants moving through the Darién Gap.
As early as June 27, videos of the barbed wire fences began surfacing on messaging platforms. Public Security Minister Frank Abrego confirmed late in June that most of the border passages through the Gap were being blocked.
The operation apparently consists of blocking three unauthorized passes used by illegals: a pass along the Pacific coast, one along the Caribbean coast, and an interior pas.
Officials explained that the goal is to “channel irregular migration” to Bajo Chiquito, a small town that in recent years has become the first stop of migrants crossing through the jungle trail.
Despite Panama’s efforts, videos are circulating that show migrants evading the barbed wire. One of the videos features a large crowd of men, women, and children lining up behind a fence and taking turns crawling into a hole dug under the fence.
As long as the US border continues to be a sieve and the US itself a magnet, the migrants, however inconvenienced, will keep coming.
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