Category Archives: Panama

Ten people drown in Darién Gap while trying to cross swollen river

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People were probably on their way to US, Panama’s border force says, highlighting perils of jungle

Ten people have drowned in a swollen river while trying to cross a lawless stretch of jungle connecting Colombia with Panama, highlighting the continuing perils of the Darién Gap despite efforts to stop irregular migration through the region.

The 10 people, whose nationality has not yet been identified, were probably on their way to the US when they were swept away by strong currents, Panama’s border force said in a statement. Their bodies were found in a river close to the Indigenous community of Carreto on the Caribbean coast.

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Panama to shut down Darién Gap route in deal that will see US pay to repatriate migrants

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New president José Raúl Mulino has vowed to close the route through which thousands of migrants travel to the US every year

The US will cover the costs of repatriating migrants who enter Panama illegally, under a deal agreed with the Central American country’s new president who has vowed to shut down the treacherous Darién Gap used by people travelling north to the United States.

In his first address as president, José Raúl Mulino promised to seek international assistance to find solutions to what he described as a costly “humanitarian and environmental crisis”.

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Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture – report

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Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.

Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

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Panama elects former security minister José Raúl Mulino as next president

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Mulino, who won 34.3% of vote, pledges to welcome business and investment without forgetting ‘those who are hungry’

José Raúl Mulino, a former security minister, has emerged from a chaotic campaign to become Panama’s next president — and will now have to address a cocktail of social discontent with just a fraction of the seats in parliament.

Amid record turnout, Mulino won 34.3% of the vote, followed by the lawyer Ricardo Lombana on 24.8% and former president Martín Torrijos on 16%.

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Panama to elect new president against backdrop of social unrest and drought

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Country to vote on Sunday after supreme court allows leading presidential contender to remain in the race

Panama’s supreme court has rejected a move to disqualify the candidacy of the leading presidential contender, José Raúl Mulino, two days before the country’s election on Sunday.

The ruling early on Friday removes an element of uncertainty from the vote, but the country remains racked by social discontent, against a backdrop of mass protests, economic slowdown, drought in the Panama Canal and the closure of one of the world’s largest copper mines.

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Panama’s presidential frontrunner vows to ‘close’ Darién Gap

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In announcement three weeks before election, José Raúl Mulino gave no details of how he would stop migrant flow

Panama’s presidential frontrunner has vowed to “close” the Darién Gap, the swampy jungle straddling the border with Colombia that has become an unavoidable ordeal for many US-bound migrants – but experts criticised the idea as unworkable and potentially dangerous.

Presided over by criminal groups and corrupt officials, the Darién Gap is one of the world’s most dangerous and fast-growing border crossings.

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Panama Papers: trial begins of 27 Mossack Fonseca employees

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Law firm’s founders among those to face money laundering charges after leak of 11.5m files in 2016

A criminal trial of 27 employees working for the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers on money laundering charges has commenced in a Panamanian court.

Eight years ago, leaked financial records from the law firm Mossack Fonseca sparked international outrage at the use of offshore companies by wealthy individuals to commit tax fraud and hide assets.

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Boxing great Roberto Durán receiving medical care for heart problem

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  • Four-weight champion suffering from ‘health complication’
  • Durán, 72, being treated in a hospital in native Panama

Boxing great Roberto Durán was receiving medical care for a heart problem, the family of the 72-year-old Panamanian said Saturday.

Durán, who was a champion in four different weight classes, “has suffered a health complication due to an atrioventricular blockade”, his family said in a statement on Durán’s Instagram account.

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Panama orders MSF to stop treating people who crossed Darién Gap

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Loss of Doctors Without Borders services will probably leave void in potentially lifesaving services for migrants

Panama has ordered Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to stop treating people who have crossed the Darién Gap, one of the world’s most dangerous and fastest-growing border crossings.

MSF is one of the largest medical NGOs operating on the dangerous jungle frontier which connects Colombia to Panama and the loss of their services will probably leave a void in potentially lifesaving healthcare services for vulnerable migrants.

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Over 3,000 stranded as boat captain arrests halt Darién Gap migration

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Attempt to stop movement through perilous rainforest leaves people stuck in two remote Caribbean towns

Migration towards the US through a perilous but increasingly well-trodden rainforest border crossing has ground to a halt after the Colombian navy arrested two boat captains for trafficking migrants.

But the attempt to stop movement through the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama has left more than 3,000 people stranded in two remote Caribbean towns, where officials fear the bottleneck could cause a public health emergency.

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‘Deeply alarming’: sevenfold increase in sexual attacks at Darién Gap, says Médecins Sans Frontières

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More than half a million people made treacherous, weeklong trek in 2023, facing horrors including mass rapes by armed bandits

A sevenfold increase in sexual attacks against people crossing the Darién Gap is compounding the misery for people trekking one of the world’s most dangerous and underreported border crossings, said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Complete impunity for armed gangs in the lawless stretch of jungle that links South and Central America meant one person became a victim of sexual violence every three and a half hours in December, the overstretched medical organisation said.

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Record half million people crossed the treacherous Darién Gap in 2023

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Jungle between Colombia and Panama marks the start of the dangerous trek north from South America to the United States

A record 520,000 people crossed the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darién Gap in 2023, more than double the number reported the year before, according to new figures from the government of Panama.

The people who made the journey that marks the start of the dangerous trek north from South America to the United States last year were mostly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China, according to the numbers from Panama’s migration agency.

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‘Historic moment’: Panama activists celebrate ruling against copper mine

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Campaigners take to streets after supreme court ruling that could shut down contentious copper mining project

Environmental activists in Panama have taken to the streets to celebrate a ruling by the country’s supreme court which could shut down a contentious copper mining project and bring an end to weeks of mass protests which have paralysed the country’s major roads and ports.

“Today Panama celebrates a historic moment that we have been waiting for for years. At first there were only a few of us but now we all understand that Panama’s gold is green,” said Serena Vamvas, who has been protesting the mine since 2021 with Foundation My Sea (Fundación Mi Mar).

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Rapists and kidnappers increasingly targeting migrants crossing Darién Gap

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As record numbers make the perilous journey between Colombia and Panama, Médecins Sans Frontières is treating far more survivors of sexual violence, including children

Armed bandits are exploiting the record number of people crossing the Darién Gap – a 100km stretch of jungle connecting Colombia and Panama – to kidnap and rape desperate migrants, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The organisation said it treated 397 survivors of sexual violence this year – many of them children – once they safely reached Panama. There have been reports of “group rapes in tents set up for that purpose in the mountainous rainforest and swampland”.

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Suspected bomb on Panama City flight actually a diaper, police say

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Officials removed passengers on Copa Airlines aircraft bound for Florida and identified diaper as cause after emergency inspection

A Copa Airlines aircraft bound for Tampa, Florida, from Panama City turned back following a suspected bomb threat and the 144 passengers on board were disembarked, but the scare turned out to be a false alarm, authorities said on Friday.

Officials carried out an emergency inspection of the aircraft, and identified a disposable diaper for adults as the object that prompted the scare, the Central American country’s police said on X, formerly Twitter.

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Unicef sounds alarm as record numbers of children cross dangerous Darién Gap

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Children risking lives to migrate across Latin America and Caribbean, with aid groups warning they cannot cope

Record numbers of children are migrating across Latin America and the Caribbean with more than 60,000 children risking life and limb to cross the treacherous Darién Gap jungle pass this year, according to a new Unicef report.

Sounding the alarm over the rising number of youngsters on the move, the UN’s children’s agency said at least 92 migrant children had died or gone missing last year – more than any other year since 2014.

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‘We can’t keep up’: Panama-Colombia border sees record number of migrants

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In August, 50,000 people fleeing northward were met with long lines for medical attention, a lack of water and sleeping spaces

Medical non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attending to injured and sick migrants crossing the Darién Gap are increasingly unable to manage the record number of people taking the perilous journey, according to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the United Nation high commissioner for human rights.

In August 50,000 people took the week-long trek through the dense jungle connecting Colombia and Panama, outstretching the capacity of MSF’s staff at medical treatment posts on the Panamanian border.

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Long delays at Panama Canal after drought hits global shipping route

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Number of vessels able to pass through each day limited because lower availability of water

Commercial ships are facing long queues and delays to travel through the Panama Canal as a lengthy drought in the Central American country has led to a cut in the number of vessels able to pass through one of the world’s most important trading routes.

In a fresh demonstration of the impact of the climate crisis on global business and trade, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which manages the waterway, introduced restrictions on the number of transiting vessels as a result of the drought.

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UN bodies call for urgent action over Panama’s Darién Gap migration route

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UN Refugee Agency and IOM urge steps – including more legal pathways for migrants – to curb humanitarian crisis

International bodies have called for urgent intervention in the Darién Gap to prevent a further escalation of a humanitarian crisis as new figures showed that record numbers of people are risking their lives to cross the lawless 100-mile stretch of rainforest between Panama and Colombia.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also called for the creation of more legal pathways to migrate to the US in order to help reduce irregular migration.

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German travel agency criticized for tour of Panama’s deadly jungle migrant zone

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Travel startup says it doesn’t ‘holiday where people suffer’ but offers trek in Darién Gap known for dangerous migration routes

“We go where no one goes,” is Wandermut’s tagline, but one of the German tour agency’s packages has left people asking whether some places are better left unexplored.

The travel startup’s 10-day Panama Jungle Tour has been criticised across Latin America in recent weeks for offering tour packages in a region which is home to one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.

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