Thread by @julieturkewitz

🧵Last yr, 250,000 ppl crossed the Darién jungle in a desperate attempt to make it to the US. This year, that number has already reached 360k. @federicorios and I have returned again & again to the jungle, trying to understand this flow. Some anecdotes from our latest reporting.

Most people risking the Darién trek continue to be from Venezuela, like Samuel, 13, on the left. But Ecuadoreans fleeing a relatively new security crisis at home, like Geomaira, 21, right, are now the second largest group in the jungle.

Many of the migrants arriving in the Colombian town of Necoclí, near of the edge of the Darién, come with almost nothing, and hope to work their way along the route to the US. Many are children from Venezuela, who have known nothing but economic crisis. An aid group offers meals.

The Colombian towns at the entrance to the Darién have long been neglected by the Colombian gov.

Local leaders say pleas for help in dealing w/ the influx of migrants have fallen on deaf ears.

This is Acandí, at the mouth of the jungle, where residents lack even basic services.

In the absence of any significant state presence, the residents of Necoclí and Acandí have taken over the migrant route, turning it into a multimillion $ business — led by some of their elected leaders. Here, migrants who have paid $170/person for passage march to a first camp.

Locals organized under a registered nonprofit called the New Light Darién Foundation explain the route and issue bracelets once migrants have paid for passage from Acandí to the border.

Hanging over the Darién migrant industry is the AGC, or Gulf Clan, a criminal grp that is the region’s “hegemonic” armed actor, according to the Defensoría. They charge their own tax, abt $80 a migrant, according to tax collectors in Necocli. The sticker is the proof of payment.

More than 2,000 people now leave each day from the Las Tecas camp, where they begin their journey into the Darién jungle.