A once remote rainforest is now filled with migrants trying to reach the United States: NPR
Colombian guides and migrants go and ride motorcycles at the beginning of the journey through Darién Gap. To cover the first few miles, migrants can pay to ride on the backs of motorcycles navigating muddy paths. But soon the jungle thickens and they have to start walking.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Colombian guides and migrants go and ride motorcycles at the beginning of the journey through Darién Gap. To cover the first few miles, migrants can pay to ride on the backs of motorcycles navigating muddy paths. But soon the jungle thickens and they have to start walking.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
DARIEN JUNGLE, Colombia – For centuries, jungle-covered mountains, swamps and poisonous snakes have scared people away from Darién Gap, the dense rainforest that separates North and South America. It’s still the only place where the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska all the way to the tip of South America, dissolves into mud.
But thanks to the large number of migrants trying to come to the United States, the Darién gap is no longer a no-man’s land.
In fact, when NPR first reached the region in September, birdsong and monkeys howling could not be heard. The main sound came from dozens of motorcycles. The passengers sitting in the back were migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, India and African countries. But because they lacked American visas, they had to travel overland, first through South and Central America and then Mexico.
Migrants from Haiti are caught on a ravine along the Acandiseco River, Colombia.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Migrants from Haiti are caught on a ravine along the Acandiseco River, Colombia.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
The hardest part is crossing the roadless, 60-kilometer-wide Darién Gap. To cover the first few miles, migrants can pay to ride on the backs of motorcycles navigating muddy paths. But soon the jungle thickens and they have to start walking.
“It’s really hard,” said Gegrand Joseph, 44, a Haitian who had crossed the Darién Gorge five years ago, was deported by the Trump administration and is tackling this piece of jungle a second time to get back to USA. “But there is no alternative.”
Gegrand Joseph (front), a Haitian who walked across the Darién Gap five years ago, was deported by the Trump administration and tackles the same jungle piece once more to get back to the United States
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Gegrand Joseph (front), a Haitian who walked across the Darién Gap five years ago, was deported by the Trump administration and tackles the same jungle piece once more to get back to the United States
Carlos Villalon for NPR
Heavy pedestrian traffic through the rainforest
On foot, it will take a week to reach the first village on the Panamanian side. The migrants carry overcrowded backpacks, babies, pots and jugs of water. Yet they seem fearless. To gain traction on a steep, muddy hillside, they crawl on hands and knees. As progress slows, migrants form a human traffic jam.
So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Darién gap, more than tripling the previous annual record, according to the International Organization for Migration. Many had worked in South America, but lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and reckoned that under the Biden administration they would have a better chance of entering the United States.
Haitian migrants at the beginning of their journey through the Darién Gorge. So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Darién gap, according to the UN Migration Agency.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Haitian migrants at the beginning of their journey through the Darién Gorge. So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Darién gap, according to the UN Migration Agency.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
It’s a lot of traffic for a jungle that is famous for stopping it.
Although Spanish explorers conquered most of Latin America, they avoided the Darién jungle, which they considered a heart of darkness filled with yellow fever and malaria. Recently, U.S. and Latin American governments’ efforts to pave a road through the region and complete the 19,000-mile Pan-American Highway fell apart due to fears of massive deforestation and the presence of guerrillas and drug smugglers on the Colombian side.
Some motorists have also tried
Still, a few motorists have bridged the gap. In 1962, an expedition sponsored by a Chicago car dealership and equipped with machetes, winches and chainsaws attempted to drive three Chevrolet Corvairs from the Panamanian side to Colombia.
A Corvair is stuck in the Darién Gap, its chassis can still be seen rusting in the jungle surrounded by trees and vines.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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A Corvair is stuck in the Darién Gap, its chassis can still be seen rusting in the jungle surrounded by trees and vines.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
In a commercial, the narrator notes that “every mile of progress must be fought for, foot by foot, inch by inch. Again, the caravan must fight its way through the dark and narrow tunnels of the stubborn Darius.”
One of the Corvaires got stuck and its chassis can still be seen rusting in the jungle surrounded by trees and vines. But two of the cars reached all the way to Colombia.
In 1972, a British Army-backed team dragged two Range Rovers through the Darién Gap. Some days the trucks drove just a few hundred yards and it took them 99 days to get through.
Narco, jungle edition
But the wilderness is slowly being cut away. On the Colombian side of the border, I come across a bulldozer that cuts a path through the jungle. It’s illegal, but there are no police in sight. The area is controlled by a drug cartel called the Gulf Clan, which also makes a lot of money on migrants.
Migrants rest along the Acandiseco River after climbing up muddy paths.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Migrants rest along the Acandiseco River after climbing up muddy paths.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
At a jungle campsite, the Gulf clan charges $ 50 per gallon. migrant to stay only one night. In the evenings, cartel members can be heard making orders to locally employed workers who react like obedient soldiers.
All traffic leaves an environmental tax
The next day, about 700 migrants camp and hit the jungle trails on foot, leaving behind plastic bottles, empty lunch boxes and dirty diapers. The migrants relax in the rivers and throw camping equipment and clothes into the water.
Clothing and waste discarded on the side of the Acandiseco River in the Darién Jungle, Colombia.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
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Carlos Villalon for NPR
Clothing and waste discarded on the side of the Acandiseco River in the Darién Jungle, Colombia.
Carlos Villalon for NPR
It’s to ease their burdens, says Justin LeFleuris, a Haitian migrant on his way to the United States As he speaks, a desperate woman digs three pairs of jeans out of her backpack and throws them into a river.
Photographer Carlos Villalón, who is on duty for NPR and has spent years reporting on the Darién gap, is shocked at how it has changed. Two national parks in Darién are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the region is home to indigenous communities such as Kuna, Wounaan and Embera, as well as several endangered species, such as the brown-headed spider monkey.
“It’s sad,” Villalón says of all the waste. “You can not drink water from the river. Two years ago I drank water on the same river you know. It is not a pristine jungle anymore.”
The dangers are numerous
But Claudio Madaune of the Darién Foundation, a Colombian conservation group, says the pollution caused by the migrants is negligible compared to damage caused by illegal ranchers and gold miners who have moved into the area.
He says the worst change is that Darién has become far more dangerous. Armed men often rob, rape and kill migrants. Government officials from Panama and Colombia have discussed setting up a boat service across the Caribbean to transport migrants between the two countries. It would reduce the risks and help protect the rainforest.
Forcing migrants to cross the Darién gap “is completely inhumane,” Madaune said.
But so far nothing has happened. Meanwhile, the once so inconsolable Darién continues to fill up with people.
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