Venezuelan migrant Marcel Maldonado (30) walks after crossing the Tuquesa River, near the village of Bajo Chiquito, the first border checkpoint in Panama's Darien province, on September 21, 2023. The clandestine journey through the Darien Gap usually lasts five or six days, at the mercy of all kinds of bad weather. More than 390,000 migrants have entered Panama through this jungle so far this year, far more than in all of 2022, when there were 248,000, according to official Panamanian data. (Photo by Ivan Pisarenko / AFP)