After years of receiving thousands of migrants daily traveling from the south towards the United States, the dangerous Darien jungle crossing at the Panama-Colombia border can now be considered closed, said Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday.

“For all practical purposes, the Darien border is closed… We no longer have a migration problem coming from Colombia,” Mulino stated during his weekly conference, announcing that the migrant flow through this crossing had dropped by 97% in March compared to the same period in 2024.

Only 194 migrants have crossed the Darien from south to north this month, according to official data.

The more restrictive migration policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, since taking office on January 20, have impacted the situation, along with Panama’s increased control over the migration flow, according to experts and authorities.

Several weeks ago, the Panamanian government announced the closure of two of the three shelters located in the Bajo Chiquito and Lajas Blancas areas in the Darien, which had been set up to accommodate migrants due to the low number of people they were receiving.

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Panama has been heavily criticized by human rights groups for detaining migrants without their passports or cell phones, and under harsh conditions in these camps.

Regarding the flow of migrants traveling from north to south, many of whom are returning due to the impossibility of reaching the United States, “it has grown a little, but it has grown,” said Mulino. Most migrants continue their journey back to their countries of origin.

The majority of migrants in both cases are Venezuelan, according to the president.

The National Assembly (Parliament) of Nicaragua approved a law on Thursday that grants the country’s co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the authority to appoint the head of the Supreme Court of Justice for a six-year term, as well as the members of the National Council of Administration and Judicial Career.

The Organic Law of the Judicial System of the Republic of Nicaragua, proposed by Ortega and Murillo, was approved unanimously and swiftly by the Sandinista-controlled legislature during a session held in Managua.

This law, which repeals the Organic Law of the Judiciary, subordinates the justice system to the Presidency of the Republic, currently held by Ortega and Murillo, according to the text.

The new law establishes the figure of the judicial body rather than a state power and reduces the number of magistrates from 16 to 10.

The Government of Nicaragua accused Costa Rica on Thursday of responding to “foreign interests” within the Central American Integration System (SICA), whose pro tempore presidency is held by San José.

The government led by Daniel Ortega, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo, issued a second message directed at Costa Rica in less than 24 hours. They contrasted the “courage” shown by past Costa Rican governments—key supporters of the Sandinista guerrilla during the armed uprising against dictator Anastasio Somoza—with the current one, which reflects “questionable submissions to foreign interests” outside Central America.

“We compare and counterbalance the historical stances and positions from Central American battles for sovereignty and dignity of our territories with the confrontational attitude, unfortunately, more aligned with foreign interests than with those of our own people,” the statement read.

“We have known and denounced these confrontations as breaches of the protocols, regulations, and diplomatic standards that belong to Central Americans, because we have designed and worked on them together, approved them together. Additionally, the pseudo-European and pro-imperialist rhetoric of recent Costa Rican administrations in SICA and other international organizations,” Managua continued.