A bold plan to close the deadly Darién Gap unravels
America and Panama struggle to control surging migration
![At 5am migrants wearing bright lifejackets leave the village of Canaan Mebrillo in the heart of the Darien Gap, Panama.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240817_AMP502.jpg)
At a migrant shelter in the thick jungle of Colombia’s Darién region a restaurant advertises fried fish, pork chops and 5G internet. A sign in cheerful bubble letters points the way to the border with Panama. Yet just a 30-minute walk along the muddy, steep path from the restaurant, a razor-wire fence stretches between the trees. “All I can say is that this route is closed,” says an agent from Senafront, Panama’s border force, an automatic rifle hanging from his shoulder. “As for 500 metres that way, or a kilometre that way, I don’t know what to tell you.”
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Law of the jungle”
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