Panama will reportedly start imposing a fine of up to $5,000 on illegal migrants caught crossing through the Darién Gap jungle trail, President José Raúl announced on Thursday.
Mulino made the announcement in a weekly press conference where he covered a wide array of topics such as migration and health while also giving an update on some of the results of his policies.
“Any person who enters the country – foreigner – violating immigration checkpoints, land, air or sea, will be fined an amount ranging from one thousand dollars to five thousand dollars, depending on the seriousness of the infraction,” Mulino said.
Mulino explained that migrants who do not pay the fine will be “unable to leave the country” and deported “if they do not have the economic resources to comply with the sanction imposed.”
Upon taking office in July, Mulino began implementing measures to limit the flow of U.S.-bound migrants passing through the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle trail that Panama shares with Colombia and the only land bridge connecting South and Central America.
Over the past several years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have passed through the dangerous jungle trail en route to the United States’ southern border. According to official statistics, an overwhelming majority of the migrants crossing through the Darién Gap are Venezuelan nationals fleeing their country and its authoritarian socialist regime.
Panama registered a record-breaking 520,085 migrants who crossed the Darién throughout 2023 — more than double the 248,284 migrants registered during 2022.
Some of the new measures implemented by Mulino’s administration include the installation of barbed wire fences across the jungle trail’s most commonly used routes, signing a deal with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the establishment of U.S.-funded deportation flights, and the dismantling of “VIP” route services mostly used Chinese migrants — whose numbers have seen a significant surge in recent years, becoming the fourth largest group of migrants crossing through the jungle trail by nationality.
While the measures appeared to have had a noticeable effect in August, Panama’s Migrant Authority recorded a significant 51.23-percent surge of migrants crossing through the Darién Gap in September.
September’s surge was majorly driven by Venezuelans fleeing from their country in the aftermath of a fraudulent presidential election in July and dictator Nicolás Maduro’s brutal persecution campaign against dissidents and protesters.
Mulino gave a preliminary update on Panama’s migrant statistics during the month of October, explaining that, as of Thursday, October 31, local authorities documented roughly 21,542 migrants crossing the Darién Gap that month.
While the amount excludes Thursday, Mulino asserted, October’s final tally will wrap with fewer migrants than September.
The Panamanian president explained that, as of Thursday, Venezuelans continue to lead 2024’s total migrant crossing numbers through itsMulino territory at roughly 196,813, followed by about 16,000 Colombian nationals, 15,000 Ecuadorians, 12,000 Chinese, 11,000 Haitians, and 31,000 of other nationalities.
Mulino also referred to U.S.-funded deportation flights, stating that at least 23 flights of that nature have now taken place since July, the latest of which included “dozens” of Colombian nationals. Mulino expressed that he hopes to continue to carry out similar deportation flights every week.
The record-breaking number of U.S.- bound migrants crossing the Darién Gap since 2023 prompted Mulino to declare at the United Nations in September that the new “United States border” is functionally located in Panama, describing the large migrant flow as an “immense global problem.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.