The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. But in recent years, the jungle has become a superhighway for people hoping to reach the United States. Caitlin Dickerson traveled the route to report on their experiences. [~https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC~](https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC)
Nearly 800,000 people may cross the jungle route between Colombia and Panama this year, according to the United Nations. “The U.S. has spent years trying to discourage this migration, pressuring its Latin American neighbors to close off established routes and deny visas to foreigners trying to fly into countries close to the U.S. border,” Dickerson writes. “Instead of stopping migrants from coming, this approach has simply rerouted them through the jungle, and shifted the management of their passage onto criminal organizations.” The Gulf Clan cartel “effectively controls this part of northern Colombia. It has long moved drugs and weapons through the Darién Gap; now it moves people too.”
“In the three trips I took to the Darién Gap over the course of five months, I saw new bridges and paved roads appear deeper in the jungle, Wi-Fi hotspots extend their reach, and landmarks that were previously known only by word of mouth appear on Google Maps,” Dickerson continues. The trip is advertised on TikTok and YouTube and can be booked online. The cheapest, most grueling route costs about $300 a person to cross the jungle on foot—for $1,000, you can take a boat up the coast.
“Panama’s newly elected president campaigned on the promise to seal the Darién Gap completely,” Dickerson continues. “But an effort to do just that, announced by the U.S., Panama, and Colombia last year, had no discernible effect—more than half a million people made it through, the largest number to date. In June, the Panamanians installed a razor-wire fence across the border at the same spot where we had crossed. When I asked one of our Colombian guides what the cartel was going to do next, he replied, ‘Make another route.’ Before the week’s end, someone had cut a hole in the fence, and migrants were streaming through.”
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The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. But in recent years, the jungle has become a superhighway for people hoping to reach the United States. Caitlin Dickerson traveled the route to report on their experiences. [~https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC~](https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC)
Nearly 800,000 people may cross the jungle route between Colombia and Panama this year, according to the United Nations. “The U.S. has spent years trying to discourage this migration, pressuring its Latin American neighbors to close off established routes and deny visas to foreigners trying to fly into countries close to the U.S. border,” Dickerson writes. “Instead of stopping migrants from coming, this approach has simply rerouted them through the jungle, and shifted the management of their passage onto criminal organizations.” The Gulf Clan cartel “effectively controls this part of northern Colombia. It has long moved drugs and weapons through the Darién Gap; now it moves people too.”
“In the three trips I took to the Darién Gap over the course of five months, I saw new bridges and paved roads appear deeper in the jungle, Wi-Fi hotspots extend their reach, and landmarks that were previously known only by word of mouth appear on Google Maps,” Dickerson continues. The trip is advertised on TikTok and YouTube and can be booked online. The cheapest, most grueling route costs about $300 a person to cross the jungle on foot—for $1,000, you can take a boat up the coast.
“Panama’s newly elected president campaigned on the promise to seal the Darién Gap completely,” Dickerson continues. “But an effort to do just that, announced by the U.S., Panama, and Colombia last year, had no discernible effect—more than half a million people made it through, the largest number to date. In June, the Panamanians installed a razor-wire fence across the border at the same spot where we had crossed. When I asked one of our Colombian guides what the cartel was going to do next, he replied, ‘Make another route.’ Before the week’s end, someone had cut a hole in the fence, and migrants were streaming through.”
Read more: [~https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC~](https://theatln.tc/cEdYiKyC)
— Mary Stachyra Lopez, audience and engagement editor, The Atlantic