Chyron
Oscar
Colombia

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The Darién is like a nightmare,

as if you're in a nightmare
with a thousand and one demons.

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The Darién Gap
is the jungle that separates
Colombia and Panama

It is one of the most
dangerous migratory
routes in the world

Chyron
Greicis
Cuba

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When I was in Uruguay


my plan was to go to Nicaragua
and go on from there.

But the embassy was closed due to COVID.

I’m a cook. I worked
at a good restaurant in Uruguay

and it closed because of COVID.

I no longer had a living,
I had to move forward.

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Crossing the Darién
is the only option
for a lot of people


Lacking resources,
they cross on foot from
Capurganá, Colombia

Chyron
Alejandro
Venezuela

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When we entered the jungle

there were close to 600 immigrants,

600 people from all over:

Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans ...

They left in groups of 50 or 60

and off they went.

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You enter the jungle
with the help
of coyotes or guides

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Initially, we had two guides
helping the group.

They helped us get through
a day and a night and a day.

At a certain point

there was a river
and there they told us

it was time for the famous
Montaña de la Muerte [Death Mountain].

It's completely crumbled.

Imagine a hill joining another hill.

And what connected them collapsed.


What was left? An edge this wide
and the cliff face going down.

Chyron
Ángel
Venezuela

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One girl slipped
and she fell off the cliff.

I felt so much pain in my heart
not being able to help.

Everyone else saw it, they screamed,
but they kept going.

We kept on climbing.

From so much climbing up the mountain,

people dumped what they were carrying.
Clothes, food, bags, tent ...

Then we got to the river.

The most dangerous place I've seen.

Chyron
Solange
Cuba

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There is a place …
They call it “three crosses.”

It was horrible,
because we had to cross

and two Haitian women were carried away

to the other side of the river.

The river swept them away.

And…

We managed to cross from another point,

which had a weaker current
but it was deeper.

After we crossed, we climbed
the mountain, we went down,

my Cuban friend said to me:

“That's a girl.”

The corpse of a Haitian girl
passed by right in front of us.

All night I dreamt about it.

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The jungle also harbours
other dangers: attacks

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Most of my journey
was with an elderly man.

He looked up ahead and said:
“They're going to attack us.”

Guns, knives ...

They took a girl away alone,

she was terrified and her husband
was standing there.

Mohamed
Sierra Leone

Some people want to run.

It’s me and the group.

I speak to them, I say:
“Everybody cool down.”

I say: “There's nowhere to go.”

I see five women,

five women:

three from Venezuela,
three Venezuelan girls,

and two [from] Haiti.

The people take them into… rapists.

I saw it with my eyes.

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Migrants often talk
about people
who were left behind

People exhausted
or injured, who they
couldn't help

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We left him two days before
the boat picked us up.

He was at the top of a hill,
inside the tent, waiting there.

An elderly man.

The wife was outside and said:
"Please, sugar, food."

And we gave it too.

Actually, you find things here

that you just can't imagine

and obstacles you have to make it past

and things that you don't believe
you're ever going to do

or that you're going to go through.

A lot of people
don't make it past them.

Title
Colombia and Panama
must open a safe route
for migrants