Migrants brave dangerous jungle and armed groups to journey from Colombia to the US

Covid recessions and insecurity are prompting Caribbean and West African migrants to attempt the crossing — but between armed groups, disease and treacherous terrain, many never make it

(Haitian migrants cross a river deep in the jungle of the Darien Gap, the dense jungle migration corridor between Colombia and Panama. Photo by Jordan Stern)

Originally published at Pirate Wire Services

Necocli, Colombia- Colombia has officially reopened its land border with Panama after a year and a half of pandemic closures. The news has prompted thousands of mainly Caribbean and West African migrants to trek to the frontier.

For many, their trans-continental journey officially begins at the Darien Gap: the treacherous, tightly packed jungle between Panama and Colombia which the builders of the Pan-American Highway were infamously unable to penetrate. The trail has served as a smuggling corridor for goods, people and narcotics for decades — and is controlled by armed groups with roots in Colombia’s civil war.

Migrants take a boat from the tourist town of Necoclí across the Caribbean gulf to the hamlet of Acandí, before continuing to the Las Tecas staging camp at the trail’s entrance. The jungle settlement is bustling, crowded with vendors selling overpriced goods and blasting…