The United States donated tents, camp cots, and other materials worth half a million dollars this Monday to assist the thousands of migrants arriving in Panama after crossing the inhospitable Darién jungle.
This year, up to March 8, about 82,000 migrants crossed the inhospitable jungle from Colombia, where insecurity has increased and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has denounced an increase in sexual assaults on travelers.
In addition to the tents and camp cots, the U.S. Embassy in Panama delivered sheets and mosquito nets to the Migration Service and the border police (SENAFRONT) of that country, all for a total value of more than $500,000.
“This is another example of the collaboration, of the continuous commitment, that the government of the United States of America has with the people of Panama,” said the embassy’s minister counselor, John Barrett, when delivering the donation at a SENAFRONT base in the city of Metetí, in the province of Darién, about 180 km east of the Panamanian capital.
Barrett lamented the incidents that occurred in the early hours of March 2 in San Vicente, near Metetí, where an argument between two migrant women led to a brawl and the burning of a shelter and some vehicles.
“It is a great shame, but it also recognizes that there is a great challenge, that there is a great burden for the local communities that are on the path […] where the migrants come,” said the U.S. diplomat to journalists.
During the incidents, about 250 migrants clashed with border police. The brawl ended with 45 detainees – 38 Venezuelans, six Colombians, and one Ecuadorian – who remain in preventive detention to be tried for “crimes against collective security” and “against economic heritage,” the judiciary said in a statement.
The Darién jungle, a 266 km long and 575,000-hectare border between Colombia and Panama, has become a corridor for migrants trying to reach the United States from South America, with a record of more than 520,000 travelers in 2023, according to official Panamanian figures.
