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A Mother, a Daughter, a Deadly Journey

An increasing number of migrants are trying to pass through the dangerous terrain connecting South and Central America. What forces them to take that route?

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.

michael barbaro

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The jungle connecting Central and South America is among the most dangerous and deadly terrain in the world. Yet over the past few years, the number of migrants trying to cross it to reach the United States has exploded. Today, my colleague, Julie Turkewitz, with a firsthand account of crossing the Darién Gap.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It’s Friday, January 20.

Julie, tell us what we should know about this place, the Darién Gap.

julie turkewitz

So the Darién Gap is this narrow sliver of land between Colombia and Panama. It connects South and Central Americas. And this slip of land is a jungle. And it’s an extremely inhospitable jungle. And this is because the territory is sheer mountains, intense, intense mud. To be able to traverse it on foot is very dangerous because there are deadly animals, bugs, snakes, fast running rivers.

michael barbaro

Wow.

julie turkewitz

And it’s a changing territory too because it’s incredibly wet. This place has no road. There’s a highway called the Pan-American highway that connects Argentina to Alaska. And the only portion of that highway that was never constructed, that could not be constructed by engineers who tried to do it, is this 66 mile portion of the jungle called the Darién Gap.

So for years, what you saw was that a small number of migrants who heard word of mouth about the possibility of crossing, that they could do it, were braving this trek. And so you saw between 2010 and 2020 an average of under 11,000 people crossing a year. What you’ve seen in the last two years is an enormous historic rise in people crossing this very dangerous, in many cases deadly, jungle.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

michael barbaro

How many more people?

julie turkewitz

What we saw in 2022 was almost 250,000 people cross the Darién Gap.

michael barbaro

And what explains why so many people are trying to take this treacherous journey right now?

julie turkewitz

So first of all, the pandemic really hit economies in South America hard. And because the crisis was region-wide, this left one way out. And that way out was north through the Darién Gap. That demand really triggered supply. And so that opened a business opportunity for a lot of traffickers to take advantage of what was happening in their midst.

michael barbaro

Right.

julie turkewitz

And so we see traffickers advertising on social media, encouraging people to come through the gap, talking about this trek as if it’s a vacation. And suddenly, the Darién, which was once considered this impassable space, has become a highway out of the continent. And there’s one group in particular that all of this really affects, Venezuelans, whose economic and political humanitarian crisis is well-known.

And for Venezuelans, there was an extra incentive to try and cross the gap because, at the moment, there’s this de facto exception in US policy that is allowing them to cross the border, stay temporarily, and apply for asylum in the United States. And this is something that almost no other nationality in Latin America has.

michael barbaro

And, Julie, quickly remind us what’s behind this de facto exception.

julie turkewitz

So what we’ve seen since the pandemic began is that the US is rejecting most people who come to the border seeking asylum. They don’t let them stay. Or if they do enter, the US has the option of deporting them while they process their asylum request. That situation is different for Venezuelans.

And that is because the relationship between the United States and the Venezuelan government is extremely strained. There is very little diplomatic or economic relationship between the two nations. And so it’s extremely difficult to put Venezuelans on an airplane from the US back home. So the result has been this de facto exception. The US lets Venezuelan migrants who travel to the US stay, while it is rejecting many other people. And Venezuelans have come to understand this.

michael barbaro

Got it. Thus, there is now a strong reason for Venezuelans to try to make this journey.

julie turkewitz

Exactly. So I needed to make sense of this contradiction that I was seeing between this incredibly harsh terrain, this idea that this place is an impassable jungle, and these numbers that we were seeing, which were really just absolutely astounding. And so my colleague Fede, Federico Rios, photographer, and I decided that the only way really to do this was to do the trek ourselves. And so we set out to cross the Darién Gap.

michael barbaro

So tell us, Julie, about this journey.

[CHATTER]

So I started the journey in Necocli, the beach town in Colombia that serves as the jumping off point for the trip through the Darién.

[CHATTER]

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

So from Necocli, the migrants have to cross this large body of water, this gulf, to get to the point where the jungle begins. And so I have to say, we were totally struck by the organization and the operation of the entire thing.

speaker 1

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

So there are calls on the loudspeaker, where the people who run these formerly tourist boat, now migrant boat, companies are calling the migrants one-by-one to get on their assigned boat after they’ve bought their ticket.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

michael barbaro

So here, we’re starting to see the business component of this right away.

julie turkewitz

Absolutely.

[CHATTER]

So we get on this boat with a large group of migrants on their way to start this journey. And we reach Capurganá, which is the town on the other side of the gulf, the last town before people enter the jungle.

julie turkewitz

So we are leaving now to begin this hike. We’ve just left what people here are calling [SPANISH], which is a refuge set up by the town to help migrants find guides. We’re a group of maybe 100 people. There’s lots of children. Everybody is completely laden down with bags, and mats to sleep on, and things like that. And —

julie turkewitz

So we set off for what would be for most of these migrants a journey of somewhere between six and 10 days in the jungle.

We walked on the dusty road past a couple of modest homes. And then, you see the trees looming before you. And it’s quite beautiful, but also quite ominous because of all of the terrible stories that you have heard about this jungle. And pretty soon, the terrain gets very steep. And it’s very hot. It’s very hot.

julie turkewitz

So we just climbed another hill. This one isn’t so muddy. But it’s just dirt, obviously. And it’s very steep.

julie turkewitz

Amid that steep terrain, which is quite muddy, people are struggling. They’re breathing hard. Some people start to cry.

julie turkewitz

We were in a space where a man was yelling in frustration like, man, they told me it’s hard. But you can do it. That’s bullshit.

julie turkewitz

And then, it starts to get really difficult. The mud becomes extremely thick. So at this point, we’re hiking through a river. Everybody has this bedraggled look about them, just covered in mud. You’re just slipping, and sliding, and sinking into the mud in a way that the mud covers your rubber boots, if you’re lucky enough to have rubber boots, and then fills your boots and traps you in place.

julie turkewitz

There’s all of these little dangers you just don’t even think about. There’s this one tree that if you reach out for has these giant spikes in it. And you reach out, you’d just be spiked through the hand. Fire ants everywhere.

[CHATTER]

michael barbaro

Right. And somehow, people are getting through this with children in their arms or on their backs.

julie turkewitz

Yes, lots of children. Lots and lots of children.

michael barbaro

Wow. [CHILD CRYING]

[CHATTER]

julie turkewitz

So by the time that we are two days in, we really start to see people fall apart. They start to get sick. They start to get injured.

julie turkewitz

[GASP]:

julie turkewitz

There’s a pregnant woman who we watch fall down an extremely steep hill.

julie turkewitz

She just fell down like she was sliding, and just released the rope, and just going, sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding and bumping on these rocks.

julie turkewitz

And it becomes clear that some people aren’t going to make this journey. They’re not going to survive.

And just a few days in —

julie turkewitz

We’re also approaching a body.

julie turkewitz

— we did come across a dead body on the trail.

michael barbaro

Wow.

julie turkewitz

That person, who apparently died on the route.

It smells like death.

julie turkewitz

And I can hear the response of person after person after person who comes across this body.

julie turkewitz

There’s people passing through. There’s little kids.

[CHATTER]

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

They say, careful, careful.

julie turkewitz

And I can hear them trying to shield their children from what is really a pretty horrible part of this trek.

speaker 2

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

speaker 3

No.

julie turkewitz

And then, we continue on. And what is jarring is that just a bit later —

julie turkewitz

You can hear people cheering in the background. Maybe they made it past a certain point.

julie turkewitz

— I hear cheers.

speaker 4

Woo!

julie turkewitz

People encouraging each other, supporting each other.

group

[SINGING IN SPANISH]:

julie turkewitz

You often heard adults singing with kids, just to keep their spirits up.

group

[SINGING IN SPANISH]:

julie turkewitz

So by the fourth day, we have crossed into Panama. We are about halfway through the journey. And we’re about to do the most difficult part of the trek, what is called the Hill of Death.

julie turkewitz

So some more notes that I’ve been meaning to say. Just altogether, the hike is definitely, definitely much harder. We’re going up and down, up and down, up and down hills, very, very muddy hills. You slip, and slip, and slip. It’s almost impossibly difficult terrain. We are scaling trees with roots as tall as me.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And it’s on this hill that I meet Sarah.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Sarah is this tiny six-year-old girl from Venezuela. She’s wearing this tiny pink t-shirt with sparkles on it.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And she is climbing the Hill of Death with a man named Angel.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

He’s not her father, which is, of course, what I thought. And I see Angel help Sarah to make it up and then down the Hill of Death.

julie turkewitz

So we arrived at the top of Banderas. We came down the hill. But it got really late at night. It’s really dark. We’re going to camp between a couple of trees by the river. Fede is making a clearing, basically, with a machete.

julie turkewitz

And when we get there, Angel asked us if he and Sarah could spend the night sleeping near us.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And of course, we said yes.

speaker 5

[SINGING IN SPANISH]:

julie turkewitz

And as we’re setting up camp for the night, I got to know Sarah a little bit more.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And so what I learned that night as I sat with Sarah and I sat with Angel is that, earlier in the journey, Sarah’s mother had made friends with Angel and several of Angel’s friends. Sarah’s mother had then become injured, I didn’t really understand how, and that morning had asked Angel if he could help her by carrying Sarah at points, by guiding her while she trudged along in her injured state.

And at some point, Angel and Sarah had looked back. And Sarah’s mother was gone. And by the time I met them, no one knew where her mother was. It wasn’t clear to us if she was even alive.

angel

It’s insane. It’s just insane. It’s like that girl —

julie turkewitz

While we’re camping that night, Fede and I are trying to process everything that we’d heard from this sweet little girl, and what she must have gone through that day, and also what her mom must be thinking.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

julie turkewitz

And she —

angel

I bet her mom has to be sleeping somewhere else, asking herself if she just lost her daughter. That’s scary. That’s scary because it’s not the first —

julie turkewitz

Yeah.

julie turkewitz

It really seemed to exemplify what a cruel journey this was, that a mother would be pushed, some would say forced, to hand her child, the fate of her child, to someone she had really just met, all in the hopes of making it for the Darién Gap and making it to the United States.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

So what happens the next morning?

julie turkewitz

So Sarah’s group wakes up very early. And they tell us that they are going to head out. They’re going to continue.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

But before they left, I asked Sarah for a description of her mother in case I saw her later that day and could interview her, could tell her that Sarah was OK.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And I’m told that Sarah’s mother looks exactly like her, that physically, she’s identical, same hair, same skin. Sarah’s group leaves. And Fede and I decide that we are going to stay behind. And we’re going to wait and hope that we find the mother.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And sure enough —

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

— a few hours later, a woman matching the description we were given comes down the hill. And I ask her, are you Sarah’s mother? And she exclaims. And she wants to know immediately if her daughter is OK. By this point, it’s been more than a day since she’d seen her only child. They’d been on this journey for about six days so far. Her name is Alexandra.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Sarah’s mom tells me that she has terrible blisters on her feet, blisters that are so bad she could barely walk.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

So we sat down on a log by a river. And I asked her what landed her here. How did she get here? Why is she here?

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

She told me she was a lawyer in Venezuela. And she made reasonable money for some time. But when the country’s oil industry collapsed, her business collapsed.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And for years, she had to wait in long lines for food, for Sarah’s diapers, for basic supplies.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And in her mind, Venezuela was no place to raise a family. So earlier that year, she had left Venezuela, crossed on foot the Atacama Desert to make it into Chile, where she thought that she could build a new life. But the salaries were too low.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

She couldn’t practice law there because she didn’t have the right paperwork. And —

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Alexandra tells me that she’s under the impression that the US will let her in and let her stay in the country. And this is where she wants to raise her daughter. That’s what brought her on this trek in the first place.

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

So we talk about what this experience has been like for her. And she’s just horrified by the fact that she’s become separated from her daughter. She’s horrified about what her daughter is going through.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

All she can think about is what this experience must be like for this tiny six-year-old.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

So we say goodbye. And I continued on, hoping that I might catch back up with Sarah and tell her that her mother was alive, and OK, and that it seemed they were going to be able to find each other.

[CHATTER]

By this point, it’s day seven. We are exhausted. But Fede and I are still moving much faster than Alexandra. And we think we might be able to catch up with Sarah at the next camp. So we’re finally, finally arriving at a place called [SPANISH].

speaker 6

[SPANISH].

[SHOUTING]

julie turkewitz

The next camp is a place called [SPANISH]. This camp is a pretty big stopping point near the end of the journey. [SPANISH] is run by a family that sells food. There are police officers. There’s a little bit of infrastructure around.

[CHATTER]

speaker 7

Food.

julie turkewitz

Yeah.

speaker 7

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

You don’t think we should buy —

julie turkewitz

And as we settle in, I start scanning for Sarah.

[CHATTER]

sarah

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And I spot Sarah and Angel. And I immediately tell Sarah that I’ve met her mom, that she’s just a day or two behind.

angel

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

And Angel tells me that since I last saw them, Sarah has been crying a lot.

[CHATTER]

sarah

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

She’s been asking about her mom non-stop.

angel

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And as I’m talking to her, she’s asking to wait at this camp, to wait at [SPANISH], for her mom to meet them there. But it’s pretty clear that this camp, [SPANISH],, although it has some infrastructure, is not fit for a child to be sitting around and waiting for days for their parent. It’s dirty. There’s really no sewage system.

So Angel has decided what they need to do is get to the end of the trek, where there is a government camp where children who have been separated along this journey can stay until they are reunited with their parents, with their adults. And that’s where they want to take Sarah. So I tell them that I’m staying behind to do reporting and that I will be there when her mother arrives. Alexandra is probably a day behind. I know I can wait and try and connect with her at this camp.

michael barbaro

So what happens next?

julie turkewitz

So we’re waiting in [SPANISH]. I see this boat arrive.

julie turkewitz

Alexandra has just arrived on a boat. She can barely walk. She can barely get out of the boat. She’s just limping.

julie turkewitz

Alexandra is on the boat. Her face is just twisted in pain.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Her feet are so destroyed, as she can’t walk. She’s crying. And she’s shaking. She tells me that they spent the night before outside because their tent has broken. She’s covered in these bug bites. Her skin is just red and inflamed.

[CHATTER]

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

She hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink in two days.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

She just keeps asking about Sarah. And she just keeps asking, where is Sarah? And she just wants to keep going right away to get as quickly as possible to find Sarah. And —

julie turkewitz

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

I tell her that I saw Sarah, that Sarah is just up ahead.

alexandra

[CRYING]:

[CHATTER]

julie turkewitz

And all she wants to do is get moving immediately.

alexandra

[CRYING]:

julie turkewitz

She doesn’t want to eat. She doesn’t want to sleep. She doesn’t want to rest. She just wants to find her daughter. And so we get in this boat to head toward the government UN camp together.

julie turkewitz

So this is Alexandra arriving at [SPANISH], which is this community in Panama where her daughter should be. She should be able to see her any minute now.

julie turkewitz

So we get off the boat. As before, she needs to be carried.

julie turkewitz

She can barely lift her legs. Oh. [BOAT RUNNING]

One of the boat drivers is helping her.

julie turkewitz

She’s scanning for her daughter.

julie turkewitz

She’s going to have to climb up this small hill. I know that’s going to be really hard for her. [SIGHS]

julie turkewitz

She’s scanning and scanning.

julie turkewitz

And Alexandra’s face is just pure pain.

julie turkewitz

You can really feel the hope, but mostly the desperation. And finally, she is taken by Panamanian officials to one of the shacks. And there inside the shack is Sarah, is her daughter.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

[CRYING]

julie turkewitz

So I’m in that room with my colleague. And we are watching this reunion happen. And Alexandra just — she grabs her daughter. She holds her. And she starts asking for forgiveness right away.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I didn’t abandon you, is what she says. She wants Sarah to know that she didn’t do this on purpose. She would never leave her daughter on purpose. That’s the most important thing for her to say to Sarah.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Alexandra was touching Sarah all over, scanning her body. Right.

And she wanted to confirm that they’re together. But I also think she wanted to know that her daughter wasn’t hurt. They had been separated now for three days. Lots of things could have happened to her.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

Sarah seemed to be in shock.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

And she almost seemed not to believe that her mom was there. Or she seemed to be struggling to understand what had happened over these last three days. She just kept telling her mom that they’d made it out of the jungle.

alexandra

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

julie turkewitz

It was a very bittersweet reunion because they were together finally after enduring so much, each of them. They had just experienced something so difficult that I know is going to mark both of them for their entire lives. But they hadn’t even made it near the United States. They still had so much more to do.

michael barbaro

Right. Well, we’ll talk about that for a moment. Do Alexandra and Sarah end up making it to the United States after everything that they have just been through?

julie turkewitz

Yeah, that’s a really heartbreaking question. Sarah and her mother, they rest for a day or two. And then, they head north. They have to pay for buses that take them up through Central America. And they end up in Honduras. And when they are in Honduras, they hear about a new policy put in place by the Biden administration.

michael barbaro

And what is that policy?

julie turkewitz

The Biden administration has ended the exception that allowed people like them from Venezuela to enter the United States at a time when very few other nationalities from South America were being let into the country. And essentially, Sarah and Alexandra learn that after doing this harrowing, harrowing, traumatic journey, they will be rejected when they arrive at the US border.

And the Biden administration did this because they were looking at the same numbers that we were looking at. They were seeing that this exception had helped drive people through the jungle. And they were seeing this very large number of people headed toward the United States. And frankly, they were freaking out.

And so they put in place this new policy. Venezuelans will now be turned away. And Sarah and Alexandra find out about this just two days after they emerged from the jungle. But what is interesting about this new Biden policy is that it also creates a new way to come and stay in the country temporarily while they seek asylum.

And essentially, what the Biden administration is saying is, please, Venezuelans, don’t come to the Darién Gap. Please apply for this new way into the United States, what the US is calling a humanitarian parole, in which you have to meet various requirements like having a passport and having a person in the United States who will sponsor you, who will essentially say, I will be their financial backer for a couple of months when they arrive.

And so Sarah and Alexandra think, OK, maybe this is what we can do. We’ll try that. And they apply. And as I’m speaking to you right now, that is where they are. They are living in Honduras. They have no family there. They have very little support. And they’re just waiting.

michael barbaro

So as it happens, in this cruel twist of fate and timing given the Biden policy change, this entire harrowing journey through the Darién Gap for Alexandra and Sarah was, essentially, for naught. It was in vain. There was no way it was going to lead them into the US.

julie turkewitz

Yeah, which is, I think, a pretty intense thing for a mother to wrestle with, having put themselves and, even more than that, their child through this incredibly traumatic experience in search of something bigger, in search of something better, in search of some, kind of, safety.

michael barbaro

If you are the United States, there is a logic to this, as painful as it clearly is for Alexandra, and for Sarah, and for everyone like them who went through this journey. And the logic is that they want to discourage this trip because it’s dangerous and because the US can’t accept this many people, according to the White House. And so has this policy change had the intended impact that it sought? Has the number of people trying to cross the Darién gone down since it went into place?

julie turkewitz

There are two parts of that answer. The first part is that, yes, in the immediate sense, the policy worked. When we left the jungle, there were about 5,000 people leaving the jungle, crossing the jungle in a single day. When that policy was put in place, the number went down significantly, almost immediately, within 10 days.

But the thing is that you still have 700, 800 people a day going through the jungle. And if you look at 700 or 800 people a day times 365 days a year, you’re talking about almost 300,000 people possibly crossing the Darién Gap in 2023. This would follow a year in which 250,000 people crossed the Darién Gap. And we considered it an astounding, eye-popping, shocking number. And so what this tells us is that despite this policy, people are still willing to take this enormously difficult trek.

michael barbaro

So even though the number of migrants has dropped, it hasn’t reverted back to that much smaller number from years ago. And it sounds to what you’re saying, there are still so many more people crossing the Darién than ever before.

julie turkewitz

Absolutely. And if you ask me, why is this happening, you have to look first at the fact that from South America, US migration policies look extremely confusing. They’re changing constantly. And so people think, well, the policy might be x when I leave. But by the time I arrive at the border, it’s going to be different. And maybe I will be the one to get through.

The second thing is that this desperation continues. The financial fallout from the pandemic continues. And the third thing, you have to look at what’s happening on the internet, the way that traffickers are luring people, advertising to people, as if this is a vacation. And that is really happening in a fairly unregulated way.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

And so all of those factors mean that despite this US policy that is trying to stop people from taking this journey, the Darién is now open. The Darién is an open migrant corridor that will continue to be used unless something major changes in the US or unless something major changes in the jungle. And what that means is more families putting themselves in these extremely traumatic situations because they believe that they have no other choice.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

michael barbaro

Julie, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

julie turkewitz

Thanks, Michael. [MUSIC PLAYING]

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Thursday, the Supreme Court said that an internal investigation had failed to identify the person who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in May, an extraordinary breach of the court’s rules of secrecy. The investigation included 126 interviews, as well as an examination of the court system of computers, printers, and phones. But in the end, the mystery of who disclosed the historic ruling may never be solved.

And the United States hit its debt limit on Thursday, prompting the Treasury Department to begin using a series of accounting maneuvers to ensure that the federal government can keep paying its bills. Republicans have said they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless the Biden administration agrees to a series of major spending cuts, a strategy expected to produce a high-stakes showdown in the coming weeks.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today’s episode was produced by Sydney Harper and Carlos Prieto with help from Nina Feldman and Clare Toeniskoetter. It was edited by M.J Davis Lin and Patricia Willens with help from Lisa Chow, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Elisheba Ittoop, and was engineered by Brad Fisher.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Eileen Sullivan.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.

[MUSIC PLAYING]


With mountains, intense mud, fast-running rivers and thick rainforest, the Darién Gap, a strip of terrain connecting South and Central America, is one of the most dangerous places on the planet.

Over the past few years, there has been an enormous increase in the number of migrants passing through the perilous zone in the hopes of getting to the United States.

Today, we hear the story of one family that’s risking everything to make it across.


Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times.

ImageA tropical forest with a few people walking uphill on a dirt road through it.
For decades, the Darién was considered so perilous that only a few thousand dared to cross it each year. Today, it is a traffic jam.Credit...Federico Rios for The New York Times

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Julie Turkewitz contributed reporting.
Fact-checked by Susan Lee.
Special thanks to Eileen Sullivan.

The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Chelsea Daniel, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Sofia Milan, Ben Calhoun and Susan Lee.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Cliff Levy, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Desiree Ibekwe, Wendy Dorr, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello and Nell Gallogly.

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