QCOSTARICA — Costa Rica’s president, Rodrigo Chaves, told AFP in an interview on Friday that it would be hard to block U.S.-bound migrants from crossing the Darien Gap, the lawless swampy jungle that connects Panama to Colombia.
Chaves was commenting on a proposal made by the frontrunner in Panama’s presidential election, Jose Raul Mulino.
“It’s a policy that will be difficult to carry out, precisely because of the desire of these people to leave their countries,” said Chaves, who received Mulino last week in San Jose.
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“There are countries in South America where life is of such poor quality that their citizens are willing to spend days in a jungle,” added Chaves.
“On the other hand, there are countries that are magnets for migrants that do not have a constant and clear migration policy. One day they receive them, other days they close the border,” he added.
Last year, some 520,000 people, the majority Venezuelans, braved the so-called Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, where they faced perilous river crossings and violent criminal gangs that extort, kidnap and abuse them.
The Darién jungle is 266 km long and has a surface area of 575,000 hectares and has become a corridor for migrants from South America seeking to reach the United States in recent years. This year more than 133,000 have already crossed, according to official figures.
“There are countries in South America where life is of such poor quality that its citizens are willing to spend days in a jungle […]. On the other hand, there are magnet countries that attract migrants that do not have a constant and clear migration policy. One day they receive them, other days they close the border,” commented Chaves.
With Costa Rica halfway, Chaves called for the “fair treatment” of migrants and “helping them in a humanitarian way to continue their journey, because there is no clarity on what closing the Darién” means in practical terms.
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Chaves also spoke about the “enormous challenge” facing the new president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, whom he described as his “friend.”
“Guatemala is a very sad story […], where the democratic power of the people has been kept subjugated for many years with great corruption,” said the president, who recalled that he accompanied Arévalo with other heads of state on the complicated day of his assumption.
Regarding neighboring Nicaragua, governed for the last 17 years by President Daniel Ortega, Chaves expressed that he maintains a “relationship of respect.” However, “I would like to see a more prosperous, more democratic Nicaragua,” he said.
Leading the polls for the May 5 elections in Panama, Mulino launched his proposal to close the Darién to migrants, without giving details of how he would do it if he won the presidency.
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During a campaign stop in Panama City on April 16, Mulino told reporters: “We’re going to close the Darien and we’re going to repatriate all these people,” without saying exactly how he would do it.
“I hope and trust that the United Nations (Refugee Agency) will help us,” he added, pledging to respect migrants’ human rights.
Along with other international groups and nongovernmental organizations, the UN agency has personnel in the jungle helping migrants.
Mulino, who served as security minister during Ricardo Martinelli’s 2009-2014 presidency, replaced Martinelli after Panama’s electoral tribunal last month annulled the candidacy of Martinelli, a month after he lost his last bid to avoid a prison sentence for money laundering and took asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy.
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