Six Venezuelans drowned while trying to cross the Darien jungle

At least six Venezuelans, three Vietnamese and one Colombian were among the ten migrants who drowned last July when a river flooded in a Caribbean area of ​​Panama, near the border with Colombia, the Panamanian Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on Friday.

«The Guna Yala Ombudsman’s Office today began handing over the bodies of migrants who drowned in Carreto. Of the 10 victims, 8 have been identified by relatives. Forensic test results are expected to confirm the identity of 2. They are 6 Venezuelans, 3 Vietnamese and 1 Colombian“, the Panamanian Prosecutor’s Office reported through X.

Eight of the ten deceased migrants have already been identified by their families, while the identity of the remaining two is still pending. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office began handing over the bodies rescued on July 27 from a difficult-to-access area after several days of work.

The bodies of these migrants were found on July 24although according to press reports the incident could have occurred a week earlier since the authorities are considering the theory that they were buried near a town by criminal groups to cover up their situation.

The migrants died due to a river flood at a point on the “Carreto route” in the Panamanian Caribbean, which is more expensive since it shortens the crossing by Darien junglethe common border with Colombia, which is used as a migratory route to reach North America.

Six Venezuelans drowned while trying to cross the Darien jungle

Along that route, passers-by pay up to $550 to take a boat from Capurganá, Colombia, to the community of Carreto, and then walk for two to four days through the jungle to reach the indigenous community of Canaán Membrillo, according to information from 2023 from the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which was providing services in Darién until its operating permit was renewed this year.

Authorities arrested last Wednesday some 13 “Panamanian citizens” accused of belonging to an organization that traffics irregular migrants, especially of Chinese nationality, through a “VIP” routewhich begins in the Colombian Gulf of Urabá and includes the towns of Necoclí, Capitana, Carreto, Caledomoa, Canaán Membrillo or Zapallal, already in Panama, according to the media.

Since the new administration of President Mulino began on July 1, Several measures have been taken to try to reduce the flow of migrants. through the dangerous Darien jungle, which has already been crossed by more than 216,000 migrants so far this year, most of them Venezuelan, while in all of 2023 there were more than 520,000, an unprecedented figure, according to official data from Panama.

Among these measures, since July 3, Panama has progressively fenced off with “perimeter barriers” (barbed wire fences) some 4.7 kilometers in Darien, where there were at least five unauthorized crossings or trails, to “channel” the flow of migrants through a “humanitarian corridor.”