Migrants on a boat leaving Gardi Sugdub on Panama’s Caribbean coast, Sunday, February 23, 2025, after giving up hopes of reaching the U.S. while in southern Mexico amid President Trump’s crackdown on migration. [AP Photo/Matias Delacroix]
A tragedy unfolded off the coast of Panama last Friday when a boat carrying 19 South American migrants sank, claiming the life of an 8-year-old Venezuelan boy.
The ill-fated vessel was part of a group of three attempting to navigate treacherous waters to return to their home countries, part of a “reverse flow” of migrants, as many had given up on the increasingly perilous journey to the United States. Panamanian authorities reported that strong waves caused by bad weather led to the sinking. While the rest of the passengers were rescued, the young child perished in the sea.
The boat’s passengers, largely from Venezuela and Colombia, had initially sought refuge in Mexico and Central America before being driven back south due to the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown on immigrants. As border policies tightened, these migrants, unable to enter the US, found themselves stranded, facing the dire choice of either braving dangerous terrain in the Darién jungle or risking death at sea in order to get back to their home countries.
A Venezuelan migrant summed up the desperation: “What else were we going to do but return?” After 15 days of failed attempts, scrounging money and enduring inhumane conditions, they saw no other option but to board the doomed boat.
This heartrending loss is not an isolated incident; it is emblematic of the brutal consequences of US foreign policy. American imperialism has ravaged entire nations across Latin America and beyond, destabilizing economies, toppling governments, and fueling violence, forcing millions to flee the misery it has created in search of survival elsewhere.
Moreover, US immigration policies criminalize asylum seekers and force them into life-threatening situations. Since Trump took office, thousands of Latin American migrants have been systematically denied entry and pushed back into the cycle of poverty, danger and death.
The tragic drowning of the young Venezuelan boy mirrors the countless other immigrant deaths that have become routine under the reign of US imperialism. Dozens perish every year attempting to cross the US-Mexico border, succumbing to the extreme heat of the Texas desert or drowning in the Rio Grande.
Trump’s border policies are nothing short of war against the working class, with immigrant families serving as the first targets. The US government, having spent decades pillaging Latin America through economic strangulation, regime change operations and corporate exploitation, is now treating the refugees created by its own policies as subhuman.
The militarization of borders, with the collaboration of the Mexican government, has transformed the region into an open-air prison, where migrants are shot at, abducted and left to die in concentration camps euphemistically labeled “detention centers.” The harrowing images of children caged, starved and stripped of basic hygiene bear a chilling resemblance to the most shameful episodes of human history.
The sight of an 8-year-old Venezuelan boy drowning at sea is not unlike the grim scenes that have played out across the Mediterranean, where thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees have perished trying to escape war, famine and economic devastation.
Fortress Europe has mirrored the US strategy of deterrence through death, letting boats sink rather than offering rescue. In 2024 alone, over 10,400 migrants died or disappeared at sea while attempting to reach Spain, an increase of 50 percent from the previous year. European authorities have deliberately abandoned refugees, in some cases pushing boats back into open waters to ensure they meet a grim fate.
The so-called “pushback” tactics employed by both the US and Europe are not just crimes against immigrants—they are calculated acts of mass murder designed to reinforce the capitalist order. These atrocities are the natural byproduct of an imperialist system that profits from the suffering of the working class while using immigration controls to stoke nationalist divisions and bolster reactionary politics.
Trump’s attacks on immigrants are not simply about border security; they are a trial run for broader repression against the entire working class. The brutalization of migrants—through indefinite detention, family separations and militarized policing—is meant to set a precedent for the kind of repression that will be extended to all workers who dare to resist. The same forces that have constructed concentration camps for immigrants will have no qualms about deploying these tactics against striking workers, protesters and political dissidents.
The Democratic Party, with its hypocritical rhetoric of “opposition,” has been complicit in this campaign. The Obama and Biden administrations deported millions of immigrants and today’s Democratic leadership has funneled billions into Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies, ensuring that Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continue their reign of terror. The supposed “resistance” from the Democratic Party is nothing more than empty posturing, as both ruling-class parties are united in their defense of capitalist rule.
The death of the 8-year-old boy, like the countless others before him, is an indictment of the entire capitalist system. No amount of reform or policy tweaking can alter the fundamental reality that as long as profit remains the driving force of society, and the world divided into competing nation states, immigrants and workers more broadly will be treated as disposable. The only viable solution is the abolition of borders, the dismantling of imperialist war machines and the establishment of a socialist society that prioritizes human needs over corporate profits.
Workers around the world must recognize that the struggle of immigrants is their struggle. The same economic forces that drive Venezuelans to risk their lives at sea are responsible for wage stagnation, mass layoffs and declining living standards in the US and beyond. The fight against anti-immigrant violence must be part of a broader movement to overthrow the capitalist system and replace it with one that serves the working class.
The tragedy in Panama is not just a humanitarian disaster—it is a crime of imperialism. The ruling class has blood on its hands, and it will take a unified, international working class movement to bring it to justice.
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Publish date : 2025-02-25 12:12:00
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