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Flood of forlorn Venezuelans brave jungle crossing in Panama

Photo: Luis Acosta / AFP

| By AFP | Juan José Rodriguez and Luis Acosta |

Wading through knee-deep mud, some limping, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants battle against fatigue with their eye on the prize: hope for a new life in the United States.

With sore feet, injuries and dented spirits several days into their ordeal — still far from halfway — they trudge in single file through the infamous Darien Jungle linking Colombia to Panama.

With a long way still ahead through Central America and Mexico, the group of men, women and children, some babies, already has many horrors to recount.

And it may all have been in vain.

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Last week, the United States announced that Venezuelans arriving by land without travel documents will be returned to Mexico.

For Jesus Arias, 45, sometimes one has to “risk one’s life to have a future.”

“But honestly, I would not advise anyone to come through the jungle. It is very hard,” he told AFP as he and others arrived at an Indigenous settlement in Panama, Canaan Membrillo — one of several border control points in the 575,000-hectare (1,420,900-acre) jungle.

Arias arrived at Canaan Membrillo in a T-shirt and shorts, carried by other men in the group after injuring his knee.

‘We’re going anyway’

He undertook the journey knowing it would be tough because “there is no future in Venezuela. Every day it gets worse.”

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He may have no choice but to go back to the crisis-hit country, which is wracked by violence, insecurity and a lack of essential services. The UN Refugee Agency says 6.8 million refugees and migrants have left Venezuela since 2014.

Under the US decree, only 24,000 Venezuelans who apply under a humanitarian program will be granted entry.

“We’re going anyway,” said Arias. “Even if we are stopped, at some point we will enter.”

The number of Venezuelans making the Darien crossing reached a record high in 2022 — some 133,000 between January and mid-October, according to authorities in Panama.

For the whole of last year, the figure was 2,800.

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Venezuelan Nelida Pantoja, 46, saw “many dead, many mountains, many rivers that carried off many people… It was horrible,” she told AFP at Canaan Membrillo.

But like most of her fellow migrants, she vowed to “keep trying” until she gets into the United States.

Darwin Vidal, 33, said he was struggling to garner the strength for what lay ahead: battling not only rough terrain but also being at the mercy of poisonous snakes and other wild animals, as well as criminal groups.

“I got lost for three days in the jungle with my family. With my children, we were going too slowly. We couldn’t keep up with the group, we fell behind, and got lost” for a scary while, he said.

Rusbelis Serrano, 18, said she thought the worst was over.

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“My mom, my dad, my brothers are waiting for me” in the United States, Serrano told AFP.

“I don’t have much left. I have to keep trying.”

The authorities in Panama say at least 100 people have died crossing the Darien since 2018, about half of them in 2021 — the deadliest year so far.

  • TOPSHOT - Venezuelan migrants arrive at Canaan Membrillo village, the first border control of the Darien Province in Panama, on October 13, 2022. - The clandestine journey through the Darien Gap usually lasts five or six days at the mercy of all kinds of bad weather: snakes, swamps and drug traffickers who use these routes to take cocaine to Central America. (Photo by Luis ACOSTA / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JUAN JOSE RODRIGUEZ

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Central America

El Salvador extends condolences to Turkey following deadly hotel fire

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“El Salvador offers its hopes for the swift recovery of those affected and expresses its deepest sympathy to the families of the deceased due to this tragic event,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Our country reaffirms the strong bonds of friendship shared with the Republic of Turkey, especially during this time of profound sorrow.”

The Turkish government began burying the victims on Wednesday, amid accusations of negligence.

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Other measures could follow, such as the elimination of a federal tax credit for those purchasing electric vehicles, or the cancellation of an exemption that allows California to have stricter automotive standards than the rest of the country.

Upon taking office, Trump stated that he intends to end the “Green New Deal,” an initiative that includes the incentives promoted by Biden to stimulate electric vehicle sales.

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For Kathy Harris, director of the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), which focuses on clean energy vehicles, Trump is seeking to please “the big bosses of the oil industry.”

Harris insists that electric vehicles are better for the environment and allow for fuel savings.

The presidential decree on electric vehicles, like other ones signed since Monday, could lead to legal challenges.

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Student killed, two injured in shooting at Nashville High School

A student was killed and two others were injured in a shooting that occurred this morning at a high school in Nashville, the capital city of Tennessee, in the southern United States, according to the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department.

The shooter, a 17-year-old student armed with a handgun, opened fire in the cafeteria of Antioch High School around 11:00 a.m. local time before taking his own life, police reported during a press conference.

One student was fatally shot. Of the injured, one student sustained a gunshot wound to the arm and is in stable condition at a hospital. Another student suffered a facial injury that was not caused by a gunshot and is receiving treatment, according to ABC News.

The school was placed on lockdown following the shooting. Students were transported by bus to an off-campus reunification site where distraught parents picked them up.

“Antioch High School is on lockdown due to shots fired inside the school building,” the school posted on social media. “Metro police are on the scene. The person responsible for the shooting no longer poses a threat.”

A SWAT team cleared the school, and authorities have launched an ongoing investigation.

Antioch High School serves approximately 2,000 students in grades nine through twelve, according to its website.

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