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The Darien Gap: 100 kilometers of very dangerous jungle that separates Colombia from Panama. Men, women and children risk it, however, in the hope of a better life in the United States, at the end of a very long journey. After three days of walking, halfway through, the migrants will face the most perilous passage, in the rivers. A team of “Special Envoy” made this crossing with them.
It is a cartel of Colombian drug traffickers who “organize” this long walk in the mountainous jungles, which they charge 350 dollars to each migrant. With hundreds of them, “Special Envoy” took the start of a marathon of all dangers, and followed their incredible journey to the Darién Gap to the end. The “Darién plug” is an area of forest on the border between Colombia and Panama, an extremely perilous passage of 100 kilometers. Many have already lost their lives there.
On the third day of walking, the migrants tackle the most exhausting part of the journey, in the rivers. It is also the most dangerous, and it has many macabre discoveries in store: many corpses of other migrants, victims of a bad fall or dead from exhaustion.
On a long stick stuck in the ground, a skull – that of a woman whom Augustin, the guide of the “Special Envoy” team had met: “She was exhausted. During the night, she fell asleep, and went into cardiac arrest. She died of exhaustion.” To reach the end of this journey, he explains, it is absolutely necessary to know when to stop: for example, to walk for two days, and rest for the third. Some groups force people to move on, sometimes at the risk of dying.
The kingdom of bandits and the place of all betrayals
The men of the Colombian cartel, who provided a semblance of security, disappeared once they crossed the geographical border between Colombia and Panama. So it is the bandits who now make the law. On a bank, the naked body of a woman, probably raped. In the river, that of a father thrown from the top of the cliff, according to witnesses.
A little further on, the “Special Envoy” team came across two Congolese women with leg injuries. The husband of one of them found that they did not walk fast enough. He took his baby, and left them. They have neither food nor water, and you mustn’t drink the water from the river: it’s contaminated by all these decomposing bodies. Exhausted migrants will therefore have to bear the thirst, while waiting to find springs in the forest, or a small purer tributary.
Excerpt from “Panama: we went through green hell”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on April 6, 2023.
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