MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

María Corina Machado closes Panama visit with tribute to Venezuelans who crossed the Darién

“More than 500,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién in search of freedom. Many remained on the way,” Machado said during her speech to the plenary of the Panamanian Parliament

Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado on Monday closed her visit to Panama with a tribute to the more than half a million Venezuelan migrants who over the past decade crossed the Darién jungle on their way to North America, in a speech before the National Assembly of Panama and during the presentation of the key to Panama City by the municipal authorities. The visit was also marked by the confirmation of her presidential candidacy as part of the democratic transition plan set out by the United States following the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro on 3 January.

“More than 500,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién in search of freedom. Many remained on the way,” Machado said during her speech to the plenary of the Panamanian Parliament. The border jungle between Panama and Colombia became in recent years one of the epicenters of the regional migration crisis. In 2023 alone, Panamanian authorities counted 520,000 transients, the vast majority of Venezuelan origin. The Missing Migrants project of the International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 450 disappearances in the Darién since 2014, with a peak of 172 in 2024.

“Here many fell and were unable to continue. And many of you took them in after that harsh journey. Today many, the vast majority, are preparing to make the journey in reverse and we will be waiting for them with open arms,” the leader said at the seat of the capital's municipal government. The Darién crossing collapsed almost entirely from 2024 onward, following the combination of restrictive policies by the Panamanian government of José Raúl Mulino and the migration crackdown of the Trump administration. The flow has been reversed: last year, some 22,000 people, the vast majority Venezuelans, crossed from Panama to Colombia by sea.

“What returns are different citizens, who have lived very painful experiences but who have also known the most beautiful face of international solidarity, like the one we are seeing here today,” Machado added, in reference to Panama's stance during the migration cycle. The leader held a meeting on Monday with Mulino, one of her main allies on the continent, with whom she agreed on the need to “move forward to find a democratic solution that brings stability” to Venezuela.

Machado's stay in Panama falls within the three-phase transition plan agreed between Washington and the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez, which contemplates the holding of free elections as the third stage of the process. During her visit, the leader confirmed her presidential candidacy, met with the Venezuelan diaspora and opposition leaders, and on Sunday held a meeting with Colombian presidential candidate Paloma Valencia, of the uribista Centro Democrático, who will contest the first round of elections on 31 May in Colombia.