New barbed wire wall fails to cut off dangerous route into US used by 500,000 migrants last year

A newly-installed barbed-wire fencing at the Darien Gap has failed to keep migrants from crossing from South America into Panama in their way to the US, according to several reports.

Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino gave the order to block the dangerous jungle crossing after more than 500,000 people passed through it last year in their journey to the US.

Panama’s border police have erected about three miles of barbed wire to block some trails and funnel migrants to a single reception point. 

But footage shared online shows that migrants appear to still be using the crossing by simply finding a way through or around the wire fence.

In one video seen by NBC a crowd of women and children are seen taking turns to crawl into a hole under the barrier and into the jungle.

The outlet reports that smugglers have been telling people that despite the barrier, nothing has changed.

One message from a smuggler reportedly read: 'The guards did put a fence along Capurgana but people are passing one by one — kids, adults and they are passing the same. They have not sent anyone back nor are they sending anyone back.

'Stop believing the news, they only seek to stop the flow of migrants.'

Whether president Mulino is able to reduce migration through a sparsely populated region with little government presence remains to be seen, experts say. 

'Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,' Mulino said after his victory with 34 per cent of the vote in Sunday's election was formalized. He will take over as president on July 1.

As he had suggested during his campaign, the 64-year-old lawyer and former security minister said he would try to end 'the Darien odyssey that does not have a reason to exist'.

The migrant route through the narrow isthmus grew exponentially in popularity in recent years with the help of organized crime in Colombia, making it an affordable, if dangerous, land route for hundreds of thousands.

It grew as countries like Mexico, under pressure from the US Government, imposed visa restrictions on various nationalities including Venezuelans.

Mulino, who took office July 1, promised to halt the rising flow of migrants entering his country from Colombia and reached an agreement for the U.S. government to pay for repatriation flights.

Earlier this month, he made clear whose problem this really is — and minimized Panama’s role.

'This is a United States problem that we are managing. People don’t want to live here in Panama, they want to go to the United States,' he said in his first weekly press conference. 

If migrants don’t want to return to their countries, 'then they’ll go (to the U.S.). I can’t arrest them, we can’t forcibly repatriate them.'

More than 500,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in a record-breaking 2023. So far this year, more than 212,000 migrants have crossed. The National Border Service this week reported that 11,363 migrants had crossed the border since Mulino took office, about 9,000 fewer than the same period last year.

Mulino also said he held out hope that Venezuela’s presidential election July 28 could lead to a decrease in the number of Venezuelan migrants who make up more than half of those crossing the Darien.

However, Nicolas Maduro has declared himself winner of the election despite accusations of fraud by the opposition.