2023-12-17 15:00:32
Pope Francis urged the international community this Sunday to offer a “humanitarian response” to the thousands of migrants who are forced to cross the dangerous Darien jungle, between Colombia and Panama, on their march to the United States.
“Today I want to remember the thousands of migrants who try to cross the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama,” said the Argentine pontiff, after praying the Angelus.
“Often these are families with children who venture down dangerous paths, deceived by those who falsely promise them a short and safe route, mistreated and robbed,” continued the Jesuit, who turned 87 this Sunday.
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Next, Francis urged finding a “humanitarian response” and called for “a joint effort by the countries most directly affected and the international community to prevent this tragic reality from going unnoticed.”
The natural border of Darién, which separates Colombia from Panama, measures 266 km long and has an area of 575,000 hectares.
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The Darien Gap has become one of the most dangerous corridors for migrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
In addition to natural obstacles, migrants who have undertaken the journey have reported robberies, kidnappings and rapes.
Hard blow to migrant smuggling network
Precisely, this Saturday, one day before the Pope’s words, it was learned that after months of investigations, a joint operation was carried out between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Dijin of Colombia and the United States Office of National Security, against a drug trafficking network. people in charge of illegally transporting Asian, African and various American countries migrants from Norte de Santander and Nariño to take them to Urabá bound for the jungles of Darién.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the organization would be responsible for moving citizens from Africa, Asia, as well as Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans who entered the country irregularly, from Ipiales and Cúcuta to Necoclí. They also moved migrants from the border area with Venezuela to points bordering Ecuador.
The investigations managed to specify that the transfers were carried out in buses that belonged to members of the illegal group, and with the accompaniment of motorcyclists, also called ‘flies’ who provided security and warned about the presence of the authorities on the road.
The authorities managed to document the responsibility of this group in the illegal trafficking during the last year of 229 migrants, seven of them minors, for which arrest warrants were issued against nine people in six different places in the country and they must answer for the crimes of conspiracy and migrant trafficking.
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