Panama will implement its plan to return migrants from El Darién on flights sponsored by the United States. Although the expectation is that the measure will reduce the flow of migrants, events in Venezuela do not allow absolute calculations.
That is part of the diagnosis presented by the Minister of Security, Mario Zamora.“Initially it will be a reduction,” he says.“But let’s remember that we have a hot situation in Venezuela,” he adds.
Would Costa Rica imitatePanama’s plan?
Since the political campaign that Panama had this year, the possibility of a closure or intervention in El Darién marked the line of Raúl Mulino, finally winner of the process.
Since his arrival in office, the rapprochement with the United States has been strengthened. The North American nation provided $6 million for the trips, as long as the people are not at risk of persecution or torture.
Just during the transfer of powers, President Rodrigo Chaves revealed, in an interview with the Diario La Estrella de Panamá, that the United States would be interested in adding Costa Rica to the same plan.The institutional response was that the evolution of the project would be waited and analyzed.
What is a fact is that a Government delegation, headed by Rodrigo Chaves himself, has been in Panama City. According to Minister Zamora, security and migration will be among the priority issues.
Center could receive up to 4,000 migrants
From the line of Venezuela, the main issuer of migrants, the focus continues on the political events that the country is going through. At the end of July there were elections where the Chavista regime of NicolásMaduro tries to prevail despite international pressure.Although the situation is still under debate, it is not ruled out that the diaspora could continue, for which Costa Rica is reviewing its logistics.
“We were visiting the immigration care center that normally serves 300 to 500 people; but it can have a maximum capacity of 4,000 people in extreme cases,” said Zamora.A scenario of these magnitudes, he emphasizes, would require external aid such as the United Nations and it is a scenario that they do not rule out.“We are precisely having all the alerts in this matter,” he concluded.
