Former Security Minister who helped expel guerrilla groups from the forest separating his country from Colombia, José Raúl Mulino took office as President of Panama on the 1st with a new proposal for the area known as the Darién Gap.
Mulino, 65, wants to prevent passage through the jungle that has become a route to the United States for hundreds of thousands of migrants.
On the sidelines of the Mercosur summit in Panama, in which he participated as a guest after expressing a desire to make an agreement with the bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, he received Folha at his hotel to talk about Darién.
The politician says that Brazil needs to help control the Darién crisis. Brazil is an entry point for immigrants from other continents and countries like Cuba, who then head north through the dangerous jungle. It is also the country of origin for thousands of children who, with their migrant parents, make this journey.
"I hope that countries with the concept of free transit, free entry, that do not require visas, will cooperate. Each one is free to allow or not the entry of people into their jurisdiction. But definitely, the countries where they enter, taking advantage of these migratory benefits, if we can call them that, have or should have a role to play," he says.