MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Tuesday, May 26th 2026 - 14:08 UTC
“More than 500,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién in search of freedom. Many remained on the way,” Machado said during her speech to the plenary of the Panamanian Parliament
Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado on Monday closed her visit to Panama with a tribute to the more than half a million Venezuelan migrants who over the past decade crossed the Darién jungle on their way to North America, in a speech before the National Assembly of Panama and during the presentation of the key to Panama City by the municipal authorities. The visit was also marked by the confirmation of her presidential candidacy as part of the democratic transition plan set out by the United States following the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro on 3 January.
“More than 500,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién in search of freedom. Many remained on the way,” Machado said during her speech to the plenary of the Panamanian Parliament. The border jungle between Panama and Colombia became in recent years one of the epicenters of the regional migration crisis. In 2023 alone, Panamanian authorities counted 520,000 transients, the vast majority of Venezuelan origin. The Missing Migrants project of the International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 450 disappearances in the Darién since 2014, with a peak of 172 in 2024.
