https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/eeuu-dona-panam%C3%A1-carpas-material-163320645.html

This Monday, the United States donated tents, camping cots and other material worth half a million dollars to assist the thousands of migrants who arrive in Panama after crossing the inhospitable Darien jungle.

This year, until March 8, some 82,000 migrants crossed the inhospitable jungle from Colombia, where insecurity has increased and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported an increase in sexual violations of travelers.

In addition to the tents and cots, the United States embassy in Panama delivered sheets and mosquito nets to the Immigration Service and the border police (SENAFRONT) of that country, all for a total value of more than $500,000.

“This is another example of the collaboration, of the continuous commitment, that the government of the United States of America has with the people of Panama,” said the minister counselor of the embassy, ​​John Barrett, when delivering the donation at a SENAFRONT base. in the city of Metetí, in the province of Darién, about 180 km east of the Panamanian capital.

Barrett regretted the incidents that occurred in the early hours of March 2 in San Vicente, near Metetí, where an argument between two migrant women led to a fight and the burning of a shelter and some vehicles.

“It is a great shame, but it also recognizes that there is a great challenge, that there is a great burden for the local communities that are on the path […] where the migrants come,” the US diplomat told reporters.

During the incidents, about 250 migrants clashed with border police. The fight ended with 45 detainees – 38 Venezuelans, six Colombians and one Ecuadorian – who remain in preventive detention to be tried for “crimes against collective security” and “against economic assets,” the judiciary said in a statement.

The Darién jungle, the 266 km long and 575,000 hectare border between Colombia and Panama, has become a corridor for migrants from South America trying to reach the United States, with a record of more than 520,000 travelers in 2023. , according to official Panamanian figures.