Colombian and Panamaian defense ministers met Wednesday to discuss illegal immigration and transnational crime, Colombian media reported.
Colombia’s Juan Carlos Pinzon and Panama’s Jose Raul Mulino met in Bogota to move forward with the Bilateral Border Plan signed in February 2011, which aims to combat shared threats in the Darien Gap border region and strengthen cooperation in the fight against transnational crime.
Pinzon said the forested border region between Colombia and Panama was a route for drugs to enter Central America and Mexico, and gave shelter to Colombian illegal armed groups.
Mulino said before leaving Bogota one of the worrying issues discussed was the number of Cubans entering Colombia from Ecuador, illegally crossing the border into Panama and going from there to the United States.
This weekend alone, 100 Cubans entered Panama illegally, said the minister. Cuban nationals can enter Ecuador legally as they do not require visas for the Pacific country.