Read moreWhere hell and hope collide: Migrants face hostile jungle on the road to the US
So many people come through the Darien Gap that the Panamanian government has set up facilities and earmarked resources to aid them.
But Mulino, a conservative lawyer aged 64, pledged during the election campaign that he would shut it down.
“Those who are down there (in South America) and those who would like to come, need to know that whoever arrives here is going to be sent back to their country of origin,” Mulino said Thursday.
“Our Darien is not a transit route, no sir. It is our border.”
Mulino is the protege of popular former president Ricardo Martinelli, who could not run because he lost an appeal against a money-laundering conviction.
Most Panamanians believe Martinelli will wield control from behind the scenes, according to a recent poll.
Mulino’s election comes as the Central American country grapples with deep-rooted corruption, a severe drought that has hobbled the economically critical Panama Canal, and a stream of US-bound migrants passing through its jungles.
While most of those crossing the Darien are fleeing an economic crisis in Venezuela, migrants from Africa and Asia also use the remote rainforest in their bids to reach the United States.
“The border of the United States, instead of being in Texas, moved to Panama,” Mulino, who served as security minister during Martinelli’s 2009-2014 presidency, said last month.
(AFP)
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Publish date : 2024-05-09 18:58:00
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