International
Flood of forlorn Venezuelans brave jungle crossing in Panama
| 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.
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.”
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.
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.
“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.
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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
International
Mexico, Brazil and Colombia left out of Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit
Left-wing governments in Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, were excluded from the “Shield of the Americas” summit convened by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The meeting, held in Miami, Florida, brought together 12 presidents from across the continent to discuss strategies to combat drug cartels and organized crime.
In Mexico’s case, President Claudia Sheinbaum had recently rejected the use of military force as a solution to the drug trafficking problem. She has argued that her administration’s security strategy is producing results and emphasized that force alone is not the answer.
During the summit, Trump said that most narcotics entering the United States come through Mexico and referred to his previous conversations with Sheinbaum on the issue.
“I like the president very much, she’s a very good person,” Trump said. “But I told her: ‘Let me eradicate the cartels.’ And she said, ‘No, no, no, please, president.’ We have to eradicate them. We have to finish them.”
The remarks highlighted ongoing differences between Washington and Mexico over how to confront drug trafficking networks operating across the region.
International
Trump announces 17-nation alliance in the Americas to “destroy” drug cartels
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday the creation of a 17-nation alliance across the Americas aimed at dismantling drug cartels, during a regional summit held at his golf club in Doral.
Speaking to a group of allied leaders at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Trump said the initiative would rely on military force to eliminate powerful criminal networks operating throughout the hemisphere.
“The heart of our agreement is the commitment to use lethal military force to destroy these sinister cartels and terrorist networks. Once and for all, we will put an end to them,” Trump told the assembled heads of state.
The Republican leader argued that large portions of territory in the Western Hemisphere have fallen under the control of transnational gangs and pledged U.S. support to governments seeking to confront them. He even suggested the potential use of highly precise missiles against cartel leaders.
Before making the announcement, Trump greeted the roughly twelve leaders attending the summit, including close allies such as Javier Milei, Daniel Noboa and Nayib Bukele, whom he described as a “great president.”
The meeting forms part of Trump’s broader regional strategy inspired by his reinterpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, which seeks to reinforce Washington’s influence in the Americas, strengthen security cooperation and counter the growing presence of powers such as China.
Trump pointed to recent U.S. actions in the region as examples of his administration’s approach, including the operation that led to the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
The summit also takes place amid escalating international tensions following the conflict launched last week by the United States and Israel against Iran.
International
Trump replaces Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Senator Markwayne Mullin
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday the departure of Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, one of the key architects of the administration’s policy of deporting undocumented immigrants.
Noem, who has been assigned a new role as a “special envoy” to Latin America, will be replaced starting March 31 by Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, the president said in a message posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
According to media reports, Trump made the decision after Noem’s recent hearings in Congress, during which she faced tough questions regarding the awarding of a major public contract.
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