Panama reinforces security on the border with Colombia; seeks to reduce irregular crossing of people and narco

The Panamanian government on Friday reinforced surveillance on its jungle border with Colombia, in an attempt to curb irregular migration that crosses Central America on its way to the United States and combat drug trafficking that plagues the region. Panama has to take its advance measures, since in 2021 134,000 (irregular) migrants transited and this year we have already more than 5,000,” Security Minister Juan Manuel Pino told reporters from the border area of Darien. What is happening in the future, due to the geopolitical and geostrategic changes of the states, is more (irregular) migration that will pass through Panama,” he added. Read more: Inside a grave they found father and son dead: They had been kidnapped for 8 monthsPino traveled this Friday to Darien, along with different commanders of police institutions, to announce the deployment of some 1,200 agents to combat irregular migration, drug trafficking and organized crime on the border with Colombia. even, that during the last weeks several people have been detected in the jungle, mixed with the migrants, with a history of terrorism, although he did not give further details.” It’s very hard” The jungle border of Panama and Colombia, 266 km, has become a corridor for irregular migrants trying to cross Central America on their way from South America to the United States.For that virgin jungle, of 575,000 hectares, and where the thick vegetation prevents seeing the sun in some areas, migrants face multiple dangers, as wild animals, including poisonous snakes, mighty rivers and criminal groups.” It’s a very hard journey, I was walking with my wife and I never imagined that we were going to go through that,” Cuban Iván Makensy, one of the people treated at a migrant camp in the town of Metetí, in Darien, told AFP. The hills are huge of large, (we were) stuck in the mud, in the river, seeing dead people, going hungry,” added Makensy, who left Cuba to seek greater opportunities in the United States.According to official figures, during 2021, about 134,000 irregular migrants crossed the Darien, a record figure that exceeded the accumulated between 2010 and 2020, when 117,000 were registered in total. Mostly, they were Haitians (61%), although there were also Cubans (12%), Africans (4%) and Asians (3%). However, in recent months it has gone from an average monthly income of more than 25,000 migrants, between August and October 2021, to 4,700 in January. In addition, the majority are now Venezuelans, followed by Haitians. Panamanian authorities say migrants cross the Pacific from the Colombian town of Juradó to Jaqué, Panama, and the Caribbean from Capurganá, Colombia, to Canaan Quince, Panama.” Our strategy contemplates establishing with more accentuation the controls on migratory flows guaranteeing the life” of migrants and “respect for human rights,” said Pino.Stop the scourge of drug trafficking Panama also seeks to curb drug trafficking in Central America, a region that pulverized in 2021, with about 250 tons of drugs, its record of annual seizures. Hidden in submarines, boats, drones, airplanes or containers, drug traffickers move cocaine from South America, mainly Colombia, to the United States, the world’s largest consumer of this drug. The drug is moved, above all, by sea, so the Panamanian government also announced the reinforcement in the waters and border coasts with Colombia.The Panamanian government suspects that the increase in seizures is due to the increase in the production of cocaine, the exit to the market of drugs stored during the coronavirus pandemic and the new strategies for their transfer to the United States and Europe. ” The scourge of drug trafficking knows no borders,” Pino said. “The mission is clear: to prevent and dismantle the actions of drug trafficking through our territory,” he added. We will redouble efforts” against drug trafficking and human traffickers, said the director general of the National Border Service, Oriel Ortega.Read more: Mother is detained because she “allowed the murder” of her two-year-old baby: her boyfriend killed him VIDEO. Elba Esther Gordillo marries Luis Antonio Lagunas at the age of 77

Original source in Spanish