The Hidden War Against the World's Impoverished Migrants of Color

As the public’s attention is fixated on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a new breed of warfare has been quietly and insidiously creeping into existence. This asymmetric warfare is characterized by the weaponization of natural spaces such as the geographical space between Colombia and Panama, El Tapón del Darién, against impoverished migrants of color. Staying informed about sudden and extreme global events is crucial, but we must resist being distracted from more insidious and subtle transformations and forms of violence happening around the world. The ongoing inhumane war waged by the world's wealthiest nations against the planet's impoverished peoples, currently manifesting in El Darién, also deserves our unwavering attention.

This mountainous jungle area connecting the South and Central American regions has become a globally constructed local border zone that impoverished migrants of color from different parts of the world cross in search of refuge in North America. The discursive construction of El Tapón del Darién as a hostile border zone is a weapon that endangers and has material impacts on migrants, while it simultaneously absolves states from responsibility. This discourse presents “hostility” as innate to El Darién, and migration as an individual and free decision. El Darién is portrayed as a space naturally embodying “risk” and “danger” while states are framed as alien to the phenomenon and their role in creating the conditions that force individuals to migrate in the first place is ignored. Consequently, migrants are left resisting a war from an invisible enemy whose most powerful weapons are silence, inaction, and inhumane immigration structures that perpetuate the contexts that force individuals to use these routes.

In 2022, El Servicio Nacional Migración Panamá reported that 248,284 people crossed El Tapón del Darién, representing a whopping 936% increase from 2019. This influx highlights the increasing relevance of this space and its relationship with the peoples who transit it. Yet, the lack of meaningful attention paid to it by states and mainstream media reflects a larger trend of neglect towards the world’s impoverished populations of color, who are disproportionately impacted by the weaponization of natural spaces in this new form of global warfare.

This war does not target nations or territories, but the bodies and very existence of the world’s racialized poor. Impoverished and with little or no access to resources, safety, and life opportunities, they are forced to undertake the journey through El Tapón del Darién in search of a "better life" in the United States or Canada. However, this journey exposes them to a natural environment that is not meant for human transit. Thus, migrants’ stories about their journeys through El Darién include descriptions of tropical diseases, loss of body parts, extreme physical and emotional exhaustion and trauma, encounters with wild animals and insects, flash floods and turbulent rivers. Moreover, armed groups also prey on migrants crossing El Darién; migrants endure physical and non-physical violences such as rape, extortion, and murder with impunity. These natural and human threats are not accidental hazards; they are deliberate weapons of the states targeting the bodies and lives of impoverished migrants of color.

"We must not allow ourselves to be distracted from this ongoing inhumane war, but instead demand accountability from governments across the globe."

The situation in El Tapón del Darién is an asymmetrical war impacting impoverished peoples of color worldwide. This space is traversed by peoples from various parts of the world, including the Caribbean and countries from the African, Asian, the Middle East, and American regions. These individuals have endured economic hardship, violence, displacement, dispossession, and state abandonment; not to mention the historical and contemporary role that wealthy Western countries have played in creating these circumstances. As such, El Tapón del Darién is one of the multiple natural spaces where impoverished peoples from around the world resist the wealthy countries’ continuous appropriation of space, commodification of natural resources and bodies, and conception of certain lives as disposable.

While the Russia-Ukraine war is important, solely focusing on it diverts our attention from other less notorious wars that also have life-and-death consequences for peoples across the globe. Moreover, this allows wealthy states to continue waging this war against impoverished migrants of color because it goes unnoticed. Similarly, it is crucial to recognize that the agency of migrants is constrained by the circumstances in which they are placed as a result of states’ action, inaction, and economic and legal systems.

The weaponization of natural spaces like El Tapón del Darién against impoverished migrants of color is a new and insidious form of global warfare. By discursively constructing El Tapón del Darién as a naturally hostile space, states insidiously weaponize it to deter and endanger these migrants. This asymmetrical war impacts impoverished migrants of color resisting wealthy states’ appropriation and commodification of nature and human lives worldwide. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted from this ongoing inhumane war, but instead demand accountability from governments across the globe. The urgency of this situation requires our unwavering attention.