2023-11-05 08:04:54
Only those who sin because they are innocent or those who have nothing to lose dare to cross hell. José Camare, 38 years old, following days of walking through the thick undergrowth and uneven terrain, decides to take a bath in a waterfall. Camare is Venezuelan and decided, together “with a caravan, like the ones that leave every day,” to cross the Darién jungle to reach the United States.
When he goes into the waterfall he breaks his heel. Injured, in the middle of the jungle, with all the dangers that entails, he decides to wait a few days in the open until his leg heals. “It is not an option to return, it never was. After so much effort to leave, it was not logical to return,” he says.
“I got out as best I might, crawling, crawling, climbing with wooden crutches that I made. It took me 13 days. My companions left me alone. I met an 18-year-old boy who helped me. He is the son of the friend who is going to receive us in the United States,” he tells PERFIL. This is his second attempt to cross the jungle that connects Colombia and Panama. The first time he didn’t make it, so this turn he was determined to do everything in his power to continue.
The Darién is a 5-kilometer natural jungle in Central America, with thick vegetation, rivers, hills and ravines, with irregular territories, high humidity and temperatures that usually reach 30° during the day and drop to 19° at night.
Camare left Venezuela a few years ago and went to live in Argentina. He then decided to return to Venezuela, because rumors said that “things had improved.” Although he might verify from his own experience that this was not true.
So there he was, listening to the noises of the jungle, with birds communicating with each other, wild animals watching, and the waterfall falling with force and without fear, which had injured him, without his family, nor his children, who are still in Venezuela, and alone, because the group he was in continued on their way while he waited to recover his leg. “There are many people who go out every day, they all go in groups. There are those who have a little more money to have fewer problems along the way and others who have nothing,” he reveals.
Despite having lost his group, he quickly meets new people.
Growing. The Darién is an increasingly popular migratory route. In the first three months of 2023, 100 thousand migrants crossed the region. In 2022 that number was reached in mid-September. According to the Panama Migration Department, until September 2023 more than 400,000 migrants crossed the Darién: four times more than last year.
“People gave me pills and I took them without looking. Three days passed until I arrived in Bajo Chiquito (Panama) to be seen by a doctor. The skin already looked normal in color, but it had tremendous inflammation, it was doped up with so much medication,” he recalls.
“The journey is much more difficult than one imagines,” he says. The adversities are innumerable. For starters, the lack of food and drinking water is a challenge on a journey that can last up to three weeks. In the area there are pumas, alligators and poisonous frogs. However, the greatest dangers are found in the area’s criminal gangs, who take advantage of the need to demand a tithe worthy of a mafia for traffic in the area. If you can survive the threats of the jungle, the consequences of refusing to pay the price to criminals can be deadly.
“If you have pregnant or elderly people, you should not cross, because it will lead to their death. I saw robberies, I saw deaths. One night I slept next to one, because I mightn’t take it anymore. We set up a tent and covered it. There are some that you can’t see, but you smell them,” José recalls.
The majority of those who cross are men: 200 thousand are men, 100 thousand are women and 90 thousand are boys and girls. Women are especially vulnerable to the journey. Rape and sexual abuse have been reported along the way. In some sections there are those merchants who, with a boat, offer a means of transportation to cross lakes. The price of the trip can exceed $500.
“Some acquaintances told me that they have been able to pass. They work in the United States on their own, with applications, deliveries and transportation. Very few practiced their profession. I have someone to receive me, I have no problem with that. I will enter irregularly. You have to register in an application and cross the border,” says José, whose name is slightly modified to protect his identity.
A family of Haitian women, named Toussaintes, which is made up of three adults – one of them pregnant –, a teenager, a 5-year-old child and a baby, was a victim of opportunists. “We have no documents or money. In the jungle they stole $1,300 from us, with machetes and guns,” says one of the women.
Although migration is mostly from south to north, with the goal of reaching the United States, migrants also travel from the north to the south. A case to exemplify north-south migration is that of Cubans who go to Chile or Brazil. Until September 2023, more than 300 thousand migrants who passed through the Darién jungle come from South America; 39 thousand from Asia; 28 thousand from Africa and 7 thousand from Europe.
The breakdown by country is: 260 thousand from Venezuela, 48 thousand from Ecuador, 38 thousand from Haiti, 15 thousand from China, 13 thousand from Colombia, 4 thousand from Chile, 3 thousand from India, 3 thousand from Brazil, 3 thousand from Afghanistan . The rest are from various countries including Nepal, Somalia, Cuba, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. There are less than one hundred Argentines who have traveled through the area so far this year. As you can see, the route is diverse.
No official data. “These months an average of 1,800 people a day are passing by. We know that there are migrants who die in the jungle, but we do not have knowledge of a specific number,” says Altair Saavedra, medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Darién. Although there is no official data, it is a fact that there are people who die on the road: their own relatives tell it.
Many of the migrants leave without documents, flee their countries or falsify their papers, so that those left along the way sometimes cannot even be identified or traced. Little is known regarding what happened to those who began the journey but did not finish it.
“The nationalities are extremely varied. The vast majority intend to enter the United States, although some people, in the end, stay in Mexico. Unfortunately, trafficking networks are transnational and work in a very articulated manner. It is a business and, throughout the route, migrants have to make large cash payments and inflated prices for basic services such as food, transportation and shelter. The situation in Darién is critical, especially due to the lack of coverage of basic needs such as protection, shelter and safe water,” explains the doctor.
The largest number of diagnoses among Darien migrants who arrive at Doctors Without Borders are diseases of the musculoskeletal system, which can range from sprains to fractures. Many avoid carrying heavy loads or abandon their belongings along the way to avoid injury from overloading. The next most repeated diagnoses are diarrhea, because the water they drink is not suitable, and respiratory diseases due to humidity.
The economic crises in the countries of origin mean that the number of migrants passing through increases each month instead of decreasing, despite the tightening of immigration policies.
Representatives of Doctors Without Borders affirm that “all the migrants who arrive at our care posts say that they were not prepared for the natural difficulties or violence along the way.” “You have to be willing to die or live,” says Venezuelan migrant Simonei.
Shared destiny. Some migrants carry tents that they use to rest along the way, others sleep outdoors. Temporary Immigration Reception Stations are camps organized by the Panamanian government where migrants are registered by the National Immigration Service. Simonei spent several weeks at the Immigration Reception Station because she did not know that to continue her journey she had to pay 40 dollars for the bus that transports the new arrivals from Darién to the province of Chiriquí, near the Panama-Costa border. Delicious.
Those who begin their trip in the department of Antioquia, Colombia, must take a boat to the Caribbean paradise of Capurganá, which can only be accessed by air or sea. They then cross the jungle on foot in a journey that lasts regarding six days, or longer if someone gets hurt along the way. Then take a canoe (paid) to the indigenous community of Bajo Chiquito, and to Panama. Finally, they can board another boat or walk to the Lajas Blancas Immigration Reception Station. This is not the only way to travel. Some migrants who have a little more money take a boat that costs between 400 and 550 dollars to shorten the journey.
“You can’t trust anyone on this route. There are huge stones, mountains, rivers, the sound of animals at night was shocking, you can see death with your eyes. In the group we were regarding sixty people: Indians, Chinese and Africans. It took us five days and five nights on part of the journey, but we only had food for two. We drank water from the rivers. We didn’t know how many countries we had left to cross,” says Mustafa, 27, from Kabul, Afghanistan.
“We had no problems with the group. We met each other along the way. When you travel like this, you run into people with the same destiny. We didn’t know the border was closed. Our friends in the United States told us that it was not a problem to cross here, but it is evident that they did not tell us the truth,” says Mustafá, who managed to reach Mexico in April.
The Darien jungle sees thousands of lives pass by every day. Some leave hell, others try. The courage and strength to be able to overcome the obstacles along the way can only come from those souls who live in their own hell and who try to change the destiny of their lives at any cost. In the end, Darién is a hell that gives way to the paradise of a better life for all those who have nothing to lose.
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