The jungle between Colombia and Panama used to be impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America.

Once nearly impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America, the jungle between Colombia and Panama this year became a speedy but still treacherous highway for hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

Driven by economic crises, government repression and violence, migrants from China to Haiti decided to risk three days of deep mud, rushing rivers and bandits. Enterprising locals offered guides and porters, set up campsites and sold supplies to migrants, using color-coded wristbands to track who had paid for what.

Enabled by social media and Colombian organized crime, more than 506,000 migrants — nearly two-thirds Venezuelans — had crossed the Darien jungle by mid-December, double the 248,000 who set a record the previous year. Before last year, the record was barely 30,000 in 2016.

Dana Graber Ladek, the Mexico chief for the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration, said migration flows through the region this year were “historic numbers that we have never seen.”

    • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      It’s a gap because there’s no infrastructure crossing it. Not because people can’t walk through it. To prevent that, it would probably need to be a waterway, which would force people to use boats or swim. It would still be passable though.

      There frankly aren’t many places humans can’t traverse with our own bodies. We’re an extremely versatile, mobile species, even to the point of being capably semi-aquatic sometimes.

      • _edge@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        71·
        11 months ago

        We’re an extremely versatile, mobile species, even to the point of being capably semi-aquatic sometimes.

        And here am I, hardly capable of leaving my chair.

        • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          11 months ago

          Yeah. Equality of opportunity is an aspiration to be fought for. Not yet a pre-existing reality, though.

            • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
              41·
              11 months ago

              Not necessarily. Equality of opportunity already being achieved is a common right wing talking point. You cannot look at the handicapped and actually say they all get the exact same chances as we do though, that’s frankly pants-on-head silly.

              There’s a whole lot they can’t do.

      • _edge@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Of course, it’s not an actual highway, but the myth was there’s no (safe) way for humans to cross the gap (over land). And now people just do it.