For centuries, the people of Komarca Embella have fished and bathed in the Taxa River, a jungle channel that flows from the Darien Gap. They have been used to the changes in water for a long time. The rainy season brings mud and sediment to the fast river. But now they are seeing unprecedented changes in the wake of the migratory bird crisis. Garbage, gasoline and feces are left behind by the 1.2 million vulnerable people who trekked through one of the planet’s most biodiverse rainforests.
Moving Through Darien Gap – The remote area along the Colombia-Panamanian border, barely manageable until it became the epicenter of the 2021 migration crash, has effectively disappeared, but families in the small community of Villa Caleta still fear bathing in the winding river. Their main source of food is the leak of fuel from the boats that carried people turkesa. And deep in the jungle, criminal groups shoved into the area to benefit from the crossing route are part of illegal gold mining and deforestation operations.
Panama’s authorities and residents say that the humanitarian crisis has created an environmental crisis that has taken many years, while communities suffering from consequences.
“The water is contaminated with garbage,” said Militza Olea, 43. I noticed the red pain still dotted on the skin of my 3-year-old nephew since he took a bath in Tarquesa. “We have to be careful. Everyone climbs out of the river hives on the skin, especially the children.”
2,500 tonnes of garbage at a cleanup cost of $12 million
It’s been months since migration in once surrounded jungles and rivers plummeted, but authorities say there are high concerns about pollution and other environmental conditions. They estimate that 2,500 tonnes of garbage are left in the Darien Gap, and that just cleaning it along the migration route would cost around $12 million.
At the pinnacle of migration, as many as 3,000 people a day floated down Taquesa, passing Villa Caleta and other communities on their way out of the jungle.
Today, floating in the water and tangled in the trees are immigrants of foam mats used for sleep, immigrants painted with shattered shirts with soil, backpacks and plastic bottles.
Panama’s Environment Minister Juan Carlos Navarro has denounced the US government. He said the Trump administration should put bills in place to clean up as the majority of immigrants crossing the Darien Gap are heading towards the US.
Navarro pointed to Panama’s lack of money and resources, saying that the government was promised $3 million by the resignation of Biden administration in January, but that the funds promised under President Trump have not arrived.
“They haven’t wiped out the mess,” he said. “If the US is responsible for opening its borders, the US should pay it.”
The White House did not respond to email requests for comment.
Fecal and other contaminants
Beyond the garbage floating in the river, officials say the tests show dangerous levels of contamination.
The latest test by government hydrologists in August showed large quantities of fecal E. coli bacteria in the Tarquesa River, usually showing human waste. The community also found the decomposition bodies were passing by the house, the leader said.
Authorities said further testing should be performed on current water conditions. But they believe the problem is likely to remain as most of what has been left from the relocation remains further upstream, despite being permitted by the environmental authorities in Panama.
Others from the Olea and indigenous Comarca Embella community are made up of around 12,000 people who have long lived deep in Panama’s southern jungle until the crossing of migratory routes and territory from Colombia.
Although doctors and officials have not made medical diagnoses, residents say the symptoms only appeared when migration began to surge in around 2021.
Olea said her family would spend money from plantain crops for expensive antibiotic cream brought by a family traveling by boat from the nearest town. Not everyone can afford it, they say their rash spreads.
Olea is also worried about water supply. There is fresh drinking water for now thanks to the small plants set up by the aid organization, but she said their small water store is not enough for the dry summer season.
“When the time comes, people here will need that water,” she said. “The river must be clean.”
Food shortages are already a problem, and the economy is struggling with the disappearance of immigrants. Many say that environmental impacts are making the problem worse.
“The fish we catch, they still smell like gasoline,” said community leader Cholino de Gracia. “We can’t fish anymore because we actually eat fish full of gasoline.”
Deforestation and criminal activity
The immigration flow forced Colombian criminal groups, known as the Gulf Clans, into the area and seized control of the immigration route, said Henry Schuldiner, an insight crime researcher investigating organized crime in Darien Gap.
The group has been cultivated for a long time, and the plant used to produce cocaine, illegally mined gold, is a process that uses mercury to extract gold from the ore, poisons the land around the mine, and extracts water.
Schuldinner said on the Colombian side of Darien Gap that the group is using control of large jungle swaths to expand surgeries and money from environmental crimes. In some cases, this includes reducing from existing illegal logging operations. In others, they sliced and burned the dense jungle and replaced it with a coca field.
“We are seeing an increase in the clearing of the land around these municipalities adjacent to Darien, primarily due to coca cultivation,” Shuldiner said. Along the previous immigration trail, “Environmental crimes are occurring, and (the Wang Clan) are directly benefiting.”
In some cases, the criminal activity drifted into Panama as the group set up illegal mining operations in federally protected national parks. In January, authorities said they had detained 10 Colombians and Panamaanians who dismantled illegal gold mining networks and left behind a jungle contaminated with mercury and cyanide.
Elsewhere, Environment Minister Navarro and residents said the criminals leased land on Indigenous reserves to wash away the money they earned during the economic boom, burning and cutting down dense jungles to give way to cattle ranches.
In 2023, Darien deforestation was shot after years of decline, according to latest data from Global Forest Watch, which monitors deforestation using satellites. Local leaders say it will take a long-term blow to communities that have lived from the land for centuries.
The state of “environmental disorder”
Navarro said the Panama government must try to save the jungle from a state of “environmental disorder.”
“It’s a treasure trove of biodiversity,” Navarro said. “They disrupted the entire life system of this community and hurt some of them forever. … With this disaster over, we will be able to save the forest.”
But local community leader De Gracia and others in the area say the area has been ignored for a long time. They accuse the Panama government of being able to bounce back faster by cleaning the water and developing the region.
Olea is most concerned about the kids in places like Villa Caleta, watching her nephew play, even with the rash running along her arm.
“Without water, there’s no life here,” she said.
Janetsky and Delacroix write for the Associated Press.
