Rapes, robberies and death: the weight in backpacks of migrants to the US

The border between Panama and Costa Rica is porous, almost non-existent, a relief for migrants on their way to the United States who, however, already carry the weight of trauma on their backs from the recent trip through the Darien jungle, with rapes , robberies and death.

In some areas of the international town of Paso Canoas it is difficult to tell if you are in Panama or Costa Rica. Without passport control or barriers, the migrants arrive on buses to the Panamanian side and after walking a few meters they can board another vehicle that will take them north to Nicaragua.

But the ease of passage does not seem to relax anyone, who after a few weeks of traveling on their way to the United States have already been mistreated over and over again, victims of mafias, restrictive government policies, or thugs.

In this attempt to hinder the advance of migrants, there is no barrier like the Darien jungle, that natural border between Colombia and Panama.

“That experience in the Darien is horrible. There they steal, kill, kidnap, rape. I am a rape victim. I don’t wish that on anyone”, explains a 50-year-old Colombian woman, sitting in the bus station on the Costa Rican side.

“In the group of 50 people that went with me, they raped four: they raped a 14-year-old girl, one about 22, the other about 38, and me. (The attackers) told us that in five minutes we had to climb a hill, there on the hill they asked for the money, cell phones (…) So after having stolen the money and everything, they separated the four of us from the group”, bringing down the rest, he details.

Her son who was with her begged them to leave his mother. “No, my mom, why are they leaving her up here? Put her down, put her down, let her get down with me”, he told them through tears. They hit him with a rifle to keep him quiet, forcing him to march if he didn’t want to die.

“They left me and the three girls up there on the hill, and about an hour and a half later they made us go down, and they told us ‘just as they went up in 5 minutes, they have to go down in three minutes’ (…) Already raped , beaten. The 14-year-old girl was crying, she was screaming, don’t rape her, don’t rape her, the girl was a virgin. Her little skin came down all bloody and we helped her, washed her, bathed her. That little girl… I don’t know if she’ll be around”.

Two of the rape victims were Venezuelan and a third Haitian. The Colombian, internally displaced in her country after the guerrillas stripped her of her land, assured that after arriving in Bajo Chiquito, the first town after leaving the jungle, she saw three of the attackers there. She did not dare to denounce them, afraid that there were more collaborators among them.

“I don’t know if they went to the doctor (in the town), I did go because I was very sore, they hit my legs and everything. Here where I am, I’m sick”. He now hopes to obtain political asylum in Panama or Costa Rica, unable to proceed to the United States.

“DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILDREN”

Often, when given the opportunity, Venezuelans stand in front of the media cameras to warn their compatriots of the dangers of the jungle, begging them not to make the same mistakes.

The young Carlos Alberto Sánchez, 23, looks directly into the camera, addressing his family thousands of kilometers away: “My Venezuelan brother, what I can tell you from the bottom of my heart is that you do not bring your children, if you are going to come, come alone”.

“I saw with my own eyes when a little girl let go of her mother (…) her kangaroo let go and she hit herself on the head with a stone and killed herself. (Also) we were walking down the river, and a Haitian woman, about 36-40 years old, drowned, and her husband later hanged himself and killed the girl”, he details.

In addition, they were robbedkidnapped”. Also “a girl was raped, she came to the shelter of the Indians crying, who had raped her”.

At his side, the baker Carlos Alberto Suárez, 35, insists. “The truth is, I tell all our Venezuelan brothers that it is not worth bringing your family because of that risk.”

Suárez recounts the case of a mother who found an abandoned tent and used it to shelter her daughters. She put them inside her, while she went to the river for water. When they returned, they were dead.

“In the tent there was a coiled snake and (the mother) did not notice”, explains the Venezuelan, who assures that he witnessed what happened, just as he saw “many dead” By the jungle.

With the foots “busted” for the walk, now he just wants to continue the trip to the United States, doing “what is feasible to be able to enter”, from the option “legal” requesting permission in advance from Mexico, until trying to surrender to immigration for “see if it passes or they deport you”.

TITLE 42

In the first four months of this year alone, more than 127,000 migrants heading to the United States arrived in Panama after crossing the jungle, a number six times higher than the same period in 2022, which closed with the record number of more than 248,000 people in transit.

It is also expected that the attempt to reach US soil will increase as of this Thursday, when Title 42, a regulation implemented under the mandate of Donald Trump (2017-2021) and that allowed hot deportations under the pretext of of the pandemic.

Roberth Barquero, human movement manager for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the Costa Rican side of Paso Canoas, explained to EFE that between a thousand and 1,500 migrants are crossing daily from Panama, which means “an increase much higher than last year.

MOVE ON, IF YOU CAN

The young Venezuelan mother Luissiannys Nuñez, 18, breastfeeds her baby leaning against a border police barrier. She is trying to gather “the money” to follow the path with his family.

Yelitza La Rosa, also from Venezuela, was crying because she had no money to continue, unable to pay the $32 bus ticket for her and her sick 15-year-old daughter, who was accompanied by a white dog.

“Many people like us were robbed in the jungle, they took our money, we don’t have any, I don’t know how we’re going to get out”, this teacher, who resells soft drinks, explained to EFE.

Hours later, the mother cried again, but with joy. Someone had given him enough money to buy bus tickets. As they lined up to get into the vehicle, other migrants hugged them goodbye.

Already in their seats, from the top of the bus, they looked out the window. They were crying again. They weren’t allowed to bring their dog unless they paid an extra $30. They got down.

Source: EFE