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By Adriangela Alvarez
For five days Rubén Bustamante and four companions crossed the dangerous jungle of Darien. They left their homes from San Cristóbal, Táchira state, with the intention of fulfilling the American dream, but the road was more difficult than imagined.
“In my case, I only raised 400 dollars and with that I managed to get to Panama. After we managed to cross the jungle, we had to sleep on the street and endure days without eating, ”he told the whistle Bustamante, who suffered the realities of the Darién.
Although he had already heard of the dangers that thousands of migrants have gone through, the group of Venezuelans took a risk. “We are from the Barrio El Río sector of San Cristóbal, we arrived in Cúcuta, from there we started for Medellín, specifically to Necloquí, where we took a boat that passed to the other side of the Capurganá island, and then we crossed the Darién,” he said. the 34-year-old man in a conversation via WhatsApp.
“We got into trails, but you have to pay where you go”
During the days of the tour, these people ate crackers, tuna, water, and rice, but it was not enough, since fatigue and the arduous journey meant that the supplies ran out faster than expected.
In addition to dietary limitations, Rubén Bustamante and his friends, aged between 19 and 30, faced roads known as trochas to move from one country to another. “The issue of the trails is complicated, first they tell you that you must pay 5 dollars, but when you are there they charge you up to 20. The people who show you the way are armed, sometimes they leave you thrown out and you risk being robbed” , commented to the whistle Bustamante, who is already in Mexico.
“We rescued a child and walked with him for three days”
Despite the vicissitudes, the group from Táchira on their journey rescued a child who was alone in the Darién jungle. They walked with him for three days and decided to hand him over to the Panamanian authorities.
On August 15 through the social network Facebook, Bustamente together with his companions published the photo of the rescue of a minor. Despite the confusion of the child’s nationality, they only knew that he spoke French, but they could not specify the country of origin. The migrant also commented that at that moment they only cared about rescuing him, since it was a great risk to leave him abandoned in the jungle and the dangers of him.
“We were walking up a hill in the Darién and on one side we found the child crying, we approached him and decided to take him with us; We provide shelter and food during the journey because that is our duty as human beings,” explained the Venezuelan.
Although at the time of publication of the photograph, different media outlets indicated that the rescued minor was a girl, Bustamante told the the whistle that it was actually a boy.
In the first seven months of 2022, the National Migration Service (SNM) of Panama assured that 71,012 migrants crossed the dangerous Darien jungle in order to reach the United States; 44,943 of them Venezuelans and that means 63.28%.
“The Darién jungle is something incredible, I don’t recommend it to everyone, I know that many of us come for a dream, but the truth is that things are hard,” concluded Bustamante.
The last trace he had the whistle of the five tachirenses was in Mexico, since the communication failures that migrants face at the time of the crossing prevented them from knowing if they achieved their longed-for arrival in the United States.
Correspondents TeamVista_4
Correspondents TeamVista_4