Migrant traffic through the Darién Gap falls to near zero

• The massive decrease in the infamous route comes as illegal crossings at the U.S. southwestern border fell in June to their lowest point in decades.

Zoom in: Only 10 migrants traveled northward through the Darién Gap in June, according to Migración Panama, an agency in Panama that keeps track of migration in the region.

• That's the fewest in a month since the pandemic, when traffic nearly all but halted, and since the early 2010s, when fewer than a couple hundred migrants took the path monthly, records show.

The intrigue: Nearly 82,000 people traveled through the Darién Gap in August 2023, data collected by Migración Panama and reviewed by the human rights advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America found.

• The August 2023 surge led to a historic rise in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for weeks afterward.
• During the Biden administration, monthly traffic in the Darién Gap ranged from a few thousand to tens of thousands.
• Nearly half a million people made it through the jungle pathway in 11 months in 2023.

State of play: The Trump administration is taking credit for driving the drop in the Darién Gap, pointing to stepped-up enforcement at the southern border.

• "In Panama's Darien Gap, migrants are turning BACK before they even reach our border— only 10 migrants crossed in June," Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote to Axios.
• She noted this represents a drop of more than 99.98% from the jump during Biden's time in office.
• "The world is hearing our message that America's borders are closed to lawbreakers."

Yes, but: Mulino said at a press conference in March that his administration is the one behind the decline after he ordered the closure of migrant transit centers along the Darién Gap.

• "We will not allow more migrants in the Darién region, and we are closing an operation that began in 2016," Mulino said.
• Panama's president said the decline was part of a promise he made when he ran for office.
• Now, some migrants are even using the route in reverse, returning to their home countries, per The Latin Times.

Zoom out: Villages along the Darién Gap, where residents once made money helping migrants, have turned into ghost towns, per the AP.

• The abrupt stop in traffic has upended some Indigenous communities that had shifted from farming to boating migrants across swamps and selling materials for their journey.

Context: The Darién Gap is a 60-mile, roadless, treacherous jungle of crocodiles, snakes, harsh terrain and drug gangs that human rights groups say exposes migrants to harm and disease.

• It's the only break in the Pan-American Highway, a nearly 19,000-mile-long network of roads that runs from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina.
• People often catch yellow fever and malaria through mosquitoes in the region.

Between the lines: No one knows precisely why migrant traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Darién Gap has fallen so much.

• Immigration experts tell Axios that it's likely because migrants and smuggling networks are waiting to see how Trump's enforcement actions play out.

An Axios analysis of Darién Gap migration numbers found that most migrants traveling the route from 2020 through 2024 were from Venezuela, followed by those from Haiti and Ecuador.

• Experts say such migrants were escaping political unrest, gang violence, weather disasters caused by climate change and extreme poverty.

Go deeper: Illegal border crossings hit decades low under Trump crackdown

• Crocodiles, snakes and bodies: Migrants' path through Panama