Panama criticizes Colombia for not helping stem record flow of migrants through Darien Gap

[getagrip_already]

2. Like everything in Central America.... it's complicated

Tied up in corruption, politics, and local rivalries as much as anything else.

The road could easily be built. It's mostly politics that is stopping it now. Not so much cattle, but people. It is stopping, or slowing, the flow of people to the us border from south America.

My wife is working with afghan refugees fleeing the taliban. Several fled to Brazil, but can't find steady employment so they made the difficult choice to try to apply for asylum at the us border (despite pleas to not make the attempt). Among other obstacles was the gap.

They made it as far as Mexico, where the Mexican police stole all their money and left them penniless. All the aid agency could offer them was airfare back to brazil where they have a visa; aid agencies cannot legally support someone illegally crossing borders (third hand story).

But there is quite an industry of smugglers and merchants along the way. There is profit in a restricted route. And I'm sure the police and politicians like the staus quo.