Acandí (Colombia), Oct 1 (EFE) .- In the Darién jungle, the steps and gasps of suffocation of Haitian migrants are mixed with the «an alè» («let’s go» in Creole) of « guides »who take them to the border with Panama, some sporadic crying of a baby and the roar of the river that passes incessantly and threateningly by their side.
Half a thousand people, the majority Haitians, walk in a silent human line through muddy paths, crossing the river that every few meters gets in the way and creeps them.
Couples with babies, pregnant women exhausted by effort, children who have just learned to walk, in the Colombian town of Acandí, undertake their journey through one of the most dangerous jungles in the world towards North America.
The Darien is a natural barrier for migration without concertinas, a mountainous jungle. Not even the Pan-American Highway managed to cross it, but criminals do in a lawless territory.
This year more migrants have passed than ever , more than 86,000, and the Panamanian authorities estimate that only in August 25,000 crossed. Who stays in it is a mystery without numbers.
A WEEK IN THE JUNGLE
In the jungle, no route is easy, and almost all of them take more than a week.
Edmundo and Franklin, two cousins who come from Brazil, have everything ready before dawn, they travel light, with a pair of pants and three T-shirts.
They are restless: «I have put all my financial savings into this. If they kick me out, I’ll be left with nothing, “says Franklin, referring to the deportations in the US They haven’t lived in Haiti for six years, they don’t have a home to go back to, I’m just uprooted.
The first river crossing is 100 meters from the beginning of the route and the first hill, the smallest of many, less than a kilometer.
It was there that Jorge Luis and his father, José Ramón, had to return. The father, diabetic and with kidney failure, could not take two steps in a row without a tremendous pain running through his body and the guides could not wait for him.
Now they are stranded in the “Las tecas” camp, on the edge of the Darien, after having made two attempts and without resources to go forward or backward. “The situation is not good, I have to die here little by little,” the elder laments to Efe.
A CONTROVERTED BUSINESS
«Gentleman, I’ll bring your backpack», a young man says to a father who, suspicious, asks how much he charges . The search for a better life is expensive.
However, many young people from these Chocó towns, forgotten by the Colombian State, have found in migration a way out. There are many “helping” migrants; either carrying packages or babies for $ 30, guiding them across the river or offering security.
Working with migrants is a delicate business, bordering on illegality and the community council has received a lot of criticism (and some complaints) for it.
«Is it possible that we , as administrators of this territory, cannot we take these people to pass without them having difficulties? “, justifies Freddy Pestana, president of the Acandí (Cocomanorte) community council, which manages the route.
“If someone comes to this territory, I guide them so that they do not pass gloom on the mountain, is that a crime?” For this reason, the thirty “guides” who take the migrants take care not to cross the border with Panama so as not to incur in human trafficking.
Until then, they assure that the road is safe, “a humanitarian community route.”
DEAD AND VIOLATIONS
To the border there are one or two days, depending on the passage, and from there they have two of the most dangerous: the “hill of death” and the “river Turquesa”, which has taken too many people. This week three corpses appeared floating and the previous one, nine.
“In Panama they say that there are people who are alive and dangerous,” he says. Efe Sonthonax, a young Haitian.
They told him “that sometimes they take away what you wear”, but that is not a problem as long as they don’t mistreat him. The bad thing is when “women are raped.”
Everyone has heard what happens in Darien. They know that they will have to pay armed groups, that they must bring some money so that those who rob them do not get angry if they have nothing. Women get the worst.
Those who leave the jungle report rapes, minors who are abused by eight men at the same time, groups they stop and choose “the most beautiful ones.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which receives migrants at On the other side of the border, eight women were raped a day in September.
Many are assaulted to find that in their parts intimate do not hide the savings; few in the groups are spared further abuse. “I was having my period and they left me alone,” says Nadine, a young woman who was treated by MSF in Bajo Chiquito (Panama).
They are “mind-boggling numbers,” says Owen Breuil, spokesman for the humanitarian organization. “At MSF we know complicated contexts, but we have never seen figures like this”, he points out.
“The jungle surrounds you and does not let you go” , a Venezuelan migrant denounced; the Darien refuses to let go of those who are only looking for something better.
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