From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Masses of Migrants Overwhelm Panama’s Darién Gap   
   By Santiago Pérez, June 26, 2023, WSJ   
   CANAÁN, Panama—When thunder claps in this dense jungle, indigenous people   
   living along the banks of once-pristine rivers now brace for floods that wash   
   up mountains of sodden garbage and at times, the bodies of dead migrants.   
      
   The roadless Darién Gap was for centuries an almost impenetrable and pristine   
   strip of land connecting what is now Panama and Colombia, inhabited by the   
   indigenous Emberá and Wounaan people. Now, tens of thousands of migrants trek   
   through each year on    
   their way to the U.S., contaminating the local environment and deluging the   
   small communities along the route.   
      
   Locals encounter decomposing bodies as they bathe or fish. Discarded plastics,   
   tents and clothing clog paths and streams. Water long used by villagers for   
   drinking now carries human excrement that community leaders say makes children   
   sick. In addition,    
   violent confrontations have flared between the communities, migrants and local   
   authorities.   
      
   Crossings of migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador and as far away as Africa   
   or China could hit a record of 400,000 this year, according to United Nations   
   estimates, whereas the indigenous territory has a population of about 10,000.   
   More than half a    
   million migrants have crossed the jungle since 2021, including more than   
   183,000 so far this year, according to Panama’s government.   
      
   Many descend on hamlets of no more than 400 people which have no sanitation or   
   running water, said Leonides Cunampia, the chief of the Emberá-Wounaan   
   semiautonomous territory in the Darién Gap.   
      
   He and migration authorities say that dozens of migrants have been swept away   
   by treacherous currents during their 70-mile trek across the jungle.   
      
   He said he used to spear tapirs, deer and rabbits, but those animals are now   
   hard to find near migrant paths. Instead, “it’s common to find decomposing   
   bodies of migrants who died during the journey.”   
      
   “The situation is worsening,” Cunampia said. “I feel that our culture   
   and way of life are at risk.”   
      
   The life of the Emberá revolves around the rivers, which provide transport,   
   commerce and fishing. Children play on the banks, while parents bathe or brush   
   their teeth, and women wash dishes and clothes. These days, the rivers are   
   laden with canoes with    
   outboard motors ferrying migrants.   
      
   Residents and healthcare workers say the water is becoming unsuitable for   
   consumption, threatening the health of communities. Vomiting, diarrhea and   
   skin infections have increased among indigenous children as migrants relieve   
   themselves in waterways and    
   plastic litter piles up along the banks and in the hamlets which are among the   
   poorest in Panama, they say.   
      
   Some villages are covered with garbage that migrants leave behind, and the   
   migrants don’t make an effort to pick up their trash, said Samira Gozaine,   
   the head of Panama’s migration agency.   
      
   The magnitude of the problem was documented last year by the U.N. in a report   
   that included images of a “cemetery” of rubber boots discarded by migrants   
   as they arrived in the village of Canaán on the banks of the Membrillo River.   
   Unicef showed    
   piles of flashlights, with batteries that can pollute hundreds of gallons of   
   water, camping stoves, gas canisters and waterproof fabrics hanging from trees   
   in tatters.   
      
   “At times we crossed rivers with water up to our chests, so we had no choice   
   but to discard clothes, blankets, mats and towels, which became really   
   heavy,” said María Durán, a Venezuelan hairdresser who arrived in Canaán   
   in early June. Her clothes    
   were wet and mud-stained, her feet covered with blisters from the boots.   
      
   There is an economic benefit to the wave of migration, especially in the small   
   communities that function as an entry point into Panama after migrants cross   
   the jungle.   
      
   In Bajo Chiquito, a hamlet on the banks of the crystalline Tuquesa River, it   
   costs $1.50 to charge a cellphone and $5 a day per person for rudimentary   
   accommodations.   
      
   Ernelio Mezúa set up a shoe and clothing stand in Bajo Chiquito about two   
   months ago. The 20-year-old said most migrants need new shoes after crossing   
   the jungle. “On a good day, you can sell 30 pairs for about $4 each,” he   
   said.   
      
   Along the Tuquesa, four communities share the money from ferrying migrants,   
   rotating their fleets of canoes. Each carries 15 migrants seated in single   
   file and clad in life vests. Community leaders charge a $5 tax per canoe trip.   
      
   “We’ve never seen such an exuberant economy,” said Daniel Bacorizo, an   
   Emberá who started working five months ago punting canoes through shallow   
   waters.   
      
   In Bajo Chiquito, the tax revenue has been used to expand the school and buy   
   construction materials. The traditional thatched “tambo” huts are giving   
   way to brick houses with tin roofs.   
      
   Despite the commerce, the communities remained overwhelmed in many ways.   
   Providing care and medicine for so many migrants is challenging, said Dr.   
   Castalia Ramírez of the Canaán health center.   
      
   “If 100 migrants arrive in the community, 99% of the consultations are for   
   them. Many require immediate attention for diarrhea, gastrointestinal   
   infection or vomiting,” she said. For locals, “medicines run out due to   
   the urgent needs of migrants.”   
      
   Many indigenous households have abandoned plots of land used for cultivation   
   that help sustain the vibrancy of the local ecology. Some teenagers have   
   dropped out of school, lured by the lucrative business of transporting   
   migrants or selling them food and    
   supplies.   
      
   “Easy money can be destructive over the long term. You can see the abandoned   
   crops. Agriculture is part of the culture of the jungle, which is like a   
   market for us where everything is useful,” Cunampia said. “The greater the   
   greed, the greater the    
   pressure on a forest that’s suffocating.”   
      
   Violence has also flared up as migrant flows have surged. Dozens of Emberá   
   have been involved in robberies and sexual assaults against migrants as   
   traditional governance weakens and many young people join criminal gangs,   
   Cunampia, migrant aid workers    
   and Panama government officials say.   
      
      
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