Few migrants remain in the Darien Gap, but an environmental crisis has been left behind

VILLA CALETA, Panama — For centuries, the Comarca Embera people have fished and bathed in the Turquesa River, a jungle waterway flowing out of the Darien Gap. They've long been accustomed to changes in the water — rainy season brings mud and sediment in the faster-flowing river. But now, they're seeing unprecedented change in the wake of a migratory crisis: Trash, gasoline and fecal matter have been left behind from the 1.2 million vulnerable people who trekked through one of the Earth's most biodiverse rainforests.

Migration through the Darien Gap — a remote area along the Colombia-Panama that sat largely untouched until it became the epicenter of 2021's crush of migration — has virtually vanished, but families in the small community of Villa Caleta still fear bathing in the winding river. Fish, their main food source, reek of fuel from boats that carried people down the Turquesa. And deeper in the jungle, criminal groups that pushed into the region to profit off the migratory route are part of illegal gold mining and deforestation operations.

Panamanian authorities and residents say that with the humanitarian crisis came an environmental crisis that will take years to reverse, while local communities suffer the consequences.

''The water is polluted with garbage,'' said Militza Olea, 43, eyeing the red sores still dotting the skin of her 3-year-old nephew days after he bathed in the Turquesa. ''We have to be careful. Everyone climbs out of the river with hives on their skin, especially the children.''

2,500 tons of trash with a $12 million cleanup cost

It's been months since migration in the once-untouched jungles and rivers plummeted, but authorities say pollution and other environmental concerns are at a high. They estimate that 2,500 tons of trash were left in the Darien Gap and that just cleaning it up along the migratory route will cost around $12 million.

At the height of migration, as many as 3,000 people a day floated down the Turquesa past Villa Caleta and other communities on their way out of the jungle.

Today, floating in the water and tangled in trees are foam mats migrants used to sleep, tattered shirts plastered with dirt, backpacks, plastic bottles and more.

Panamanian Environmental Minister Juan Carlos Navarro blames the American government. He said the Trump administration should foot the bill for cleaning because the vast majority of migrants traversing the Darien Gap were headed to the U.S.

Navarro noted Panama's lack of money and resources and said the government was promised $3 million by the outgoing Biden administration in January, but that under President Donald Trump the promised funds haven't arrived.

''They're not cleaning up their mess,'' he said. "If the United States is responsible because it opened its borders, then the United States should pay for it.''

The White House didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

Fecal matter and other contaminants

Beyond the trash that can be seen floating in the river, officials say tests show dangerous levels of contamination.

The most recent test by government hydrologists, in August, showed high amounts of fecal coliform bacteria in the Turquesa River, typically indicating human waste. Communities also found decomposing bodies floating past their homes, leaders said.

Officials said they need to carry out more tests on the water's current state. But they believe the issues likely remain, as most of what's leftover from migration remains farther upstream, where border police blocked Associated Press journalists despite permission granted by Panamanian environmental authorities.

Olea and others in the Indigenous Comarca Embera community — consisting of about 12,000 people who long lived off fertile lands deep in Panama's southern jungle, until their territory intersected with the migratory route running from Colombia — attribute the rashes appearing on residents' arms to the pollution.

While doctors and officials have made no medical diagnosis, residents say symptoms appeared only when migration began to surge, around 2021.

Olea said her family spends money from its plantain crops for expensive antibiotic creams, brought by family members who travel hours by boat from the closest towns. Not everyone can afford it, and they say their rashes spread.

Olea also worries about water supply. There's fresh drinking water for now, thanks to a small plant installed by an aid organization, but she said their small water stores won't be enough during the summer dry season.

''When the time comes, the people here are going to need that water,'' she said. ''The river has to be clean.''

Food scarcity was already an issue, with the economy suffering from the disappearance of the migrants. Many say environmental effects are exacerbating the problem.

''The fish we catch, they still smell of gasoline,'' community leader Cholino de Gracia said. ''We can't fish anymore because you'd practically be eating a fish full of gasoline.''

Deforestation and criminal activity

With the flow of migrants, the Colombian criminal group known as the Gulf Clan pushed into the region, seizing control of the migration route, said Henry Shuldiner, a researcher with Insight Crime investigating organized crime in the Darien Gap.

The group has long cultivated coca, the plant used to produce cocaine, and illegally mined gold — a process that uses mercury to extract gold from ore, poisoning lands and waters around the mines.

On the Colombian side of the Darien Gap, Shuldiner said, the group has taken advantage of its control of large swathes of jungle to expand operations and rake in money from environmental crimes. In some cases, that's included taking a cut from existing illegal logging operations. In others, they've sliced and burnt through dense jungle to replace with fields of coca.

''We're seeing increased land clearings around these municipalities that bordered the Darien, mostly for coca cultivation,'' Shuldiner said. Along the former migrant trail, ''there are environmental crimes happening, and the (Gulf Clan) is profiting directly.''

In some cases, that criminal activity has trickled into Panama as groups set up illegal mining operations in federally protected national parks. In January, authorities said they had dismantled an illegal gold mining network and detained 10 Colombians and Panamanians who left the jungle contaminated with mercury and cyanide.

In other places, Environmental Minister Navarro and residents said, criminals rent land on Indigenous reservations to launder money earned during the economic boom from migration, and they burn and chop down dense jungle to make way for cattle ranches.

In 2023, deforestation in the Darien shot up after years of decline, according to the latest data from Global Forest Watch, which monitors deforestation using satellites. Local leaders say that will deal a long-term blow to the communities that have lived off the land for centuries.

A state of ''environmental anarchy''

Navarro said Panama's government must try to rescue the jungle from a state of ''environmental anarchy.''

''This is a treasure trove of biodiversity,'' Navarro said. ''They've disrupted the whole system of life in this community and damaged some of them forever. ... Now that this disaster has ended, we're going to be able to conserve our forests.''

But community leader De Gracia and others in the region say the area has long been neglected. They blame Panama's government for not doing more to clean their waters or develop the region in a way that would allow them to bounce back faster.

Olea, watching her nephew play even with the rash running along his arms, worries most for the children in places like Villa Caleta.

''Without water, there's no life here,'' she said.