New barbed wire wall fails to cut off dangerous route into US used by 500,000 migrants last year

A newly installed barbed wire fence at the Darien Gap has failed to stop migrants crossing the border into Panama from South America en route to the US, according to multiple reports.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino ordered the dangerous jungle crossing blocked after more than 500,000 people traveled through it to the U.S. last year.

Panama’s border police have erected about three miles of barbed wire to block certain paths and direct migrants to a single holding point.

But footage shared online shows that migrants appear to still be using the crossing, simply finding a way through or around the barbed wire.

In a video posted by NBC We see a group of women and children taking turns crawling through a hole under the barrier and into the jungle.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino ordered the dangerous jungle crossing blocked after more than 500,000 people passed through it last year en route to the U.S.

According to the outlet, smugglers have told people that despite the barrier, nothing has changed.

A message from a smuggler reportedly read: ‘The guards have put up a fence along Capurgana, but people are walking past one by one — children, adults, and they are walking along the same road. They have not turned anyone back and are not turning anyone back.

‘Don’t believe the messages anymore, they just want to stop the flow of migrants.’

Experts say it remains to be seen whether President Mulino can curb migration in a sparsely populated area with little government presence.

“Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,” Mulino said after his victory with 34 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election was formalized. He will take over the presidency on July 1.

As he had indicated during his campaign, the 64-year-old lawyer and former security minister said he would try to end “the Darien odyssey that has no right to exist”.

Panama’s border police have erected about three miles of barbed wire to block some paths and direct migrants to a single holding point

The Darien Gap is the only land canal connecting South America, from Colombia, via Panama to the United States.

The narrow isthmus migration route has become exponentially more popular in Colombia in recent years, thanks to the help of organized crime, making it an affordable, if dangerous, overland route for hundreds of thousands of people.

The problem grew as countries like Mexico, under pressure from the US government, imposed visa restrictions on several nationalities, including Venezuelans.

Mulino, who took office on July 1, pledged to stem the rising flow of migrants into his country from Colombia and reached a deal under which the U.S. government would pay for repatriation flights.

Earlier this month, he made it clear whose problem this really is, and downplayed Panama’s role.

“This is a United States problem that we are addressing. People don’t want to live here in Panama, they want to go to the United States,” he said in his first weekly news conference.

If migrants don’t want to go back to their country, “they go (to the US). I can’t arrest them, we can’t forcibly repatriate them.”

More than 500,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in the record year of 2023.

A thriving migrant industry has sprung up in the dense jungle

More than 500,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in a record-breaking 2023. More than 212,000 have crossed so far this year. The National Border Service reported this week that 11,363 migrants have crossed the border since Mulino took office, about 9,000 fewer than the same period last year.

Mulino also said he hopes Venezuela’s presidential elections on July 28 can lead to a reduction in the number of Venezuelan migrants, who make up more than half of those crossing the Darién.

However, Nicolas Maduro has declared himself the winner of the election, despite accusations of fraud by the opposition.