Panama's New President Vows Migration Crackdown

• Panama's new president, Jose Raul Mulino, took office on Monday, July 1, vowing to curb illegal immigration, with his government quickly signing an agreement with the United States to crack down on migration through the treacherous Darien Gap jungle passage.
• In his first address as president, Mulino, 65, promised to seek international assistance to find solutions to what he described as a costly "humanitarian and environmental crisis."
• Last year, a record 520,000 migrants risked life and limb, often at the hands of people smugglers, to traverse the Darien Gap, a dense jungle on Panama's border with Colombia.
• "We cannot continue financing the economic and social costs that massive illegal immigration generates for the country, along with the consequent connection of international criminal organizations," Mulino said.
• Minutes later, Mulino's new foreign minister signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. government to "allow the closing off of the passing of illegal immigrants through the Darien," Panama's government said in a statement.
• The agreement was "designed to jointly reduce the number of migrants being cruelly smuggled through the Darien, usually en route to the United States," a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said in a statement.

(Source: Reuters)