Dicing with Death: Panama

North America is linked to the South by the Pan-American highway, but in the middle of the route, there is a gap stretching 100 kms between Panama and Columbia : the Darien. This area of land is an impenetrable jungle, road building would be hugely expensive and difficult, and so far no political consensus regarding this missing link in the route across the Americas has been achieved.

Yet for millennia people and merchandise have been crossing the Darien Gap. Today, many of these crossings, via rivers and dirt tracks, are illegal. Drug dealers make the hazardous journey across, but also their victims, indigenous people fleeing from the havoc caused by deforestation, drug related violence and civil war in Columbia. They join peasants, entrepreneurs, gold miners, adventurers, and hunters looking for jaguars, crocodiles and snakes. All sorts of colourful people can be found in the Darien gap.

For some of these travellers, the final destination is in fact the USA. Score of Illegal immigrants from Somalia, the Sudan and Ertirea, make the journey over the equator, chasing the American dream. We join them as they dodge the army, paramilitaries and guerrilla forces. They must put their lives in the hands of their guides, unscrupulous businessmen who view their clients as no more than merchandise. The immigrants must walk barefoot, or cram into canoes for 3 days and 3 nights without rest in order to complete the crossing.

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