In the mountainous jungles that separate Colombia from Panama, “Special Envoy” followed migrants for the most perilous stage of their odyssey to the United States: crossing the Darién Gap. After several days of walking in extremely difficult conditions, the food reserves are almost exhausted. So we have to hurry. More than ever, the weak and the laggards are left to their fate.
In the mountainous jungles between Colombia and Panama, men, women and children who have nothing more to lose, except their lives, go through a green hell at the cost of intense suffering. At the end, perhaps, the Eldorado, the American dream. Coming from Venezuela, Haiti, African countries or even Afghanistan, they face many other dangers here than the jungle and its snakes: extremely rugged terrain, an area infested with looters, the sight of the corpses of those who died of exhaustion…and the betrayals of those who are ready to advance leaving the wounded behind.
A team of “Special Envoy” accompanied migrants in their crossing of the Darién Gap, 100 kilometers from a particularly dangerous passage. At the end of the journey, after exhausting days of walking in the mountains, the journalists discovered two injured people, a Haitian and a Cameroonian. Both sprained each other. The Haitian woman has been immobilized in this place infested with bandits for five days. Journalists will realize that she spent a total of sixteen days in the jungle. And she’s pregnant… It’s a miracle she’s still alive.
This woman was abandoned by the group traveling with her and by her husband, who continued without her. Since then, other groups have passed in front of his tent, without helping him. “His traveling companions are criminals, indignant Eddy, a Haitian migrant. Her husband left her to die here. He left her here, pregnant, but she’s still alive. It breaks my heart.”
A persuasive rescue
Eddy manages to motivate the other migrants to build a makeshift stretcher, out of rucksack straps salvaged from the trash and duct tape from the crew’s filming equipment. The mother-to-be regains hope, but after a few tens of meters, the men stop: the woman is too heavy. They then try to install her in a hammock to carry her hanging from a tree trunk. But once again, the load proves to be too heavy on this rough terrain. The volunteers lower their arms.
Eventually, the reporters and their guides persuade the woman to walk on her legs, despite the pain. They will carry the backpack of a migrant who, in exchange, will be able to support the pregnant woman. This time, it’s the right one: she will be saved.
Excerpt from “Panama: we went through green hell”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on April 6, 2023.
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