U.S., Panama, and Columbia Commit to 60-Day Campaign to Stem Migration Through Darien Gap

On April 11, the U.S., Panama, and Columbia released a trilateral joint statement to undertake a 60-day campaign to stem the flow of illegal migration through the Darien Gap, an isthmus along the Colombia-Panamanian border that connects North and South America.  The United Nations reported in 2021 that the Gap saw 133,000 migrant crossings in 2021, an estimated 250,000 in 2022, and in the first three months of 2023, there have been 88,000 illegal crossings according official Panama migration data, six times the number logged in the same period last year.^[1]