Migrants who once dreamed of reaching the United States are now forced to head back south after the arrival of President Donald Trump and stricter immigration policies. Many are stranded in Panama, caught between the Darién jungle barrier and the high costs of crossing the Caribbean Sea.

In Miramar, a small coastal town in Panama, dozens of migrants—mostly Venezuelans—wait for a chance to continue their journey to Colombia. Private boat rides to the border are out of reach for many, with fares reaching up to $260 per person.

“Here we’re stopped by the sea and the money. If it were a road, we’d already be in Colombia. But paying for three tickets for me and my children is impossible,” lamented Marielbis Eloina Campos, a 33-year-old Venezuelan traveling alone with her four young children after waiting a week in Miramar.

Campos left Brazil in 2023 and crossed the dangerous Darién jungle alone with her children, one carried on her back. The journey took six days, and she recalls one child nearly drowning while crossing a river. Despite the risks, she reached Mexico City, where she stayed over a year waiting for an asylum appointment via the CBP-One app. However, its cancellation under the Trump administration forced her to give up and return to Brazil.

“Mexico is torture for us migrants. I feared my children would be kidnapped,” said Campos, who pleaded for help to continue without being chased as if immigration authorities were “a mafia.”

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Due to the high cost of private transport, Panama organized a humanitarian trip that transported 109 migrants from nine nationalities from Colón to the Colombian border aboard an official boat of the National Aeronaval Service (Senan). Another similar operation is expected soon.

Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, expressed concern about this reverse migration flow:
“I am worried that the number of people moving from north to south is increasing,” he said this month.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $55 million loan to support Honduras in improving access to and the quality of education, with a particular focus on rural areas and vulnerable communities, the multilateral organization announced on Friday.

The project will be implemented by the Honduran Ministry of Education and is expected to directly benefit more than 30,000 students and teachers in 33 prioritized municipalities, according to a press release from the IDB.

The initiative aims to strengthen both the demand and supply sides of education, while also improving the institutional capacity of the Honduran educational system.

Key components of the program include:

• Scholarships for secondary students,

• Tutoring programs in mathematics and Spanish,

• The development of core skills such as reading, logical-mathematical thinking, socio-emotional abilities, and digital competencies.

The program also features strategies to prevent school dropout at the basic and secondary levels and to reintegrate students who have left the education system.

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It will additionally promote school inclusion and retention of returned migrant children and adolescents through specialized teacher training and family support.

The funds will also finance:

• School infrastructure improvements,

• Provision of furniture and tech equipment,

• Implementation of a contextualized curriculum for rural areas,

• Strengthening of the national learning assessment system, the IDB explained.

Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves faces a new accusation involving alleged irregularities in the financing of his electoral campaign, a development that has intensified his confrontation with Attorney General Carlo Díaz and even led him to lead a march demanding Díaz’s removal.

“We came to change the rules of the game, to give you (the people) back one of the three branches of government, I assure you this with all my heart and without fear of Carlo Díaz’s threats and his absurd accusations against me,” the president said during his weekly press conference on Wednesday.

On Monday, the Attorney General’s Office filed an accusation with the Supreme Court against Chaves, First Vice President Stephan Brunner, Foreign Minister Arnoldo André, and four ruling party deputies: Pilar Cisneros, Luz Mary Alpízar, Paola Nájera, and Waldo Agüero. The request included lifting the immunity of those involved to open a trial.

According to an investigation launched in 2022, two parallel financing structures were allegedly used during the Social Democratic Progress Party (PPSD) campaign: a private trust and personal bank accounts under the name of a woman surnamed Agüero, who faces a separate criminal proceeding. Both mechanisms reportedly operated outside the control of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the party’s treasury.

Costa Rican law prohibits such maneuvers. The Electoral Code establishes that contributions to parties or campaigns must come only from identified national individuals and be channeled through official means.

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This is the second time the Attorney General’s Office has requested the Supreme Court to lift the president’s immunity. In April, another accusation was filed against Chaves for extortion, related to alleged irregular hiring of communication services funded by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).

The Supreme Court must decide whether to forward the accusations to Congress, where the possible lifting of presidential immunity would be debated. No deadline has been set for this decision.

During his administration, Chaves has maintained a tense relationship with Congress, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and the Judiciary, whom he has frequently accused of political bias and inefficiency.

The confrontation with Attorney General Díaz has been particularly hostile. In March, the president led a demonstration against Díaz, whom he called a “neighborhood bully” and a “puppet.” After the march, the attorney general denounced a “worrying attack on the separation of powers” and noted that the protest was linked to ongoing investigations against the president.

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