Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino declared at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that US-bound migrants passing through his country are a “major global problem” and called on the international community to help.
Mulino, who took office in July, spent much of his speech talking about the Darien Valley, a dangerous jungle pass that straddles Panama and neighboring Colombia and has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants use it in recent years to reach the United States. The Darien Valley is the only land bridge connecting South and Central America.
The Panamanian president has declared that as a result of the Darien migrant influx, “the new border of the United States” is Panama. President Mulino also declared that, unlike previous administrations, he would use all international fora to demand a “joint effort” to stop illegal migration and to fight organized crime that profits from migration through human and drug trafficking.
“Today, Panama faces a major problem because of its strategic location: illegal migration through the Darien jungle for hundreds of thousands of migrants who have fled serious economic, political and social problems and are seeking the so-called American dream,” Mulino said.
Panama's president said more than 500,000 migrants passed through the Darien Highlands in 2023 and claimed the migration flows were led by “criminal organizations based in neighboring countries that exploit the needs and hopes of thousands of people to receive illicit financial gain.”
President Murino said he understands the difficult decision to migrate to escape poverty and oppression, but stressed that Panama as a nation already has enough social and economic problems and does not have the resources to solve the migration crisis on its own. The President also stressed that the flow of migrants through Panamanian territory comes at a social, human and environmental cost to the country, as migrants leave behind garbage and, even more tragically, “rotting corpses.”
“Illegal migration through Panama is part of a larger global problem and should be high on the agenda here at the United Nations,” Murino said.
Mulino said he knows the Darien Valley “very well” because, as security minister 10 years ago, he led the fight against Panamanian drug guerrillas. He argued that there is a big difference between analyzing illegal immigration from an office and witnessing it in the flesh. The president stressed that seeing children orphaned by the harshness of the jungle trails “would touch the soul of the most sober analyst who studies these issues in a comfortable office.”
“I want all of you to see the gravity of what is happening, because we feel that we are not getting all the international support we need to face a situation that is very dire from a humanitarian point of view,” Murino said. “It is very costly financially, very dangerous for our safety and the environmental destruction that we are being left with is very worrying.”
Mulino said political instability is one of the causes of mass migration, and cited Venezuela as a “concrete example.” Citing UN statistics, he said nearly eight million people have fled Venezuela, calling the figure “a real migration tragedy that has not been addressed convincingly or credibly by international organizations for many years.”
Mulino called on international organizations to act “vigorously against clearly anti-democratic attitudes and actions” in light of the Venezuelan regime's claims of a fake presidential election on July 28 that dictator Nicolas Maduro fraudulently “won.” Mulino said it was “very difficult” to talk about health and the environment while Venezuela is facing a migrant crisis.
“How can one speak of sustainable regional development in the face of this never-ending political crisis that affects the entire continent?” he asked. “I will not pretend that my statements are natural and eco-friendly when the blood of migrants is being shed, risking their lives in our jungles in search of the dream of freedom.”
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
