Photo credit: KSTP
The Darien Gap is a stretch of almost impenetrable rain forest along the Colombia border. It became a migratory lately as over 1.2 million people from around the world traveled north toward the United States.
AP reports that the travelers brought an economic boom to areas that are hours or days from towns or mobile phone signals. Migrants paid for boat rides, clothing, meals and water after difficult and often deadly treks.
With the new found wealth, many residents of the Indigenous lands abandoned their plantain and rice crops to carry migrants down the winding rivers.
However, with the coming of President Donald Trump and his policies, the money vanished because access to asylum in the US was slashed and migration through the Darien Gap virtually disappeared.
People who were living off the migration are now facing reality of the times.
Around 2021, migration through the Darien Gap soared as people were fleeing economic crises, war and repressive regimes.
Criminal groups became rich by controlling the migratory routes and extorting vulnerable people. The mass movement also injected cash into historically underdeveloped regions.
The director of the migration, remittances and development program at the inter-American dialogue Manuel Orozco said, “It became a business opportunity for a lot of people. It’s like you’ve discovered a gold mine, but once it dries up… you either leave the area and go to the city or stay living in poverty.”
While some residents saved their cash, many more were left reeling from the abrupt drop in migration.
A community leader Cholino de Gracia, said, The worst part is that some people struggle to eat, because without any income and no supermarkets here, what can people buy?”
Pedro Chami was a farmer who became a boat pilot ferrying migrants. Now he sits outside his home carving wooden pans. He hopes to try his luck sifting through river sand for flecks of gold.
At the height of the migration, Panamanian authorities estimated that between 2,500 and 3,000 people crossed the Darien Gap daily. But now, they estimate around 10 crossings weekly.
However, some migrants, mainly Venezuelans, have started to travel south along Panama’s Caribbean coast in a “reverse flow” back home.
