Panama Sends Its Navy After 'Irregular' Migrants

Less than two weeks after Panama's leader vowed to shutter the perilous Darien Gap, the Panamanian government has taken another step to crack down on the 66-mile jungle route used by migrants to cross over into Central America from Colombia. The country's Ministry of Public Security on Thursday announced that its Senafront border agency has erected barbed wire along at least five portions of the route, reports CNN. The nation's navy is also keeping tabs on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean, with strict instructions to detain anyone with "irregular migrants" in their boats and hand them off to authorities.

Minister of Public Security Frank Abrego says one route will be kept open, but any migrants passing through will have to show a passport or other valid ID, per NBC News, which reports that footage of the barbed wire began circulating in messaging apps on June 27. In those apps, users have been asking if it's still possible to cross the jungle into Panama, and some continue to try—in one clip, "a large crowd of men, women, and children can be seen lining up behind a fence as they take turns crawling into a hole dug under the barrier and into the jungle." Colombia's president has already slammed the move. "The barbed wires in the jungle will bring drowned people into the sea," Gustavo Petro wrote on X. "Migration is stopped by removing economic blockades and improving the economy of the south."

More than half a million migrants crossed the gap heading north last year. So far this year, nearly 200,00 people have done so, with the majority of migrants originating from Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and China. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has made migration via the Darien Gap a key platform of his. As for the United States' part in the barbed wire installation, a spokesperson for the National Security Council tells NBC that Panama has "a right to protect its borders," but that "the US has not provided support to the government of Panama to erect barriers." The US does have a plan to help Panama repatriate migrants, but critics tell El Pais that they don't think that will be very easy. (More Darien Gap stories.)