MATÍAS DELACROIX

Lifejackets hang at the home of a local in Villa Caleta, Panama, Monday, April 7, 2025. The jackets were once used to ferry migrants after their trek across the Darien Gap on their way north to the U.S. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Migration once fueled an economic boom in the Darien Gap. Now that lifeline is gone
The Trump administration’s crackdown on migration has ended the massive flow of people heading north through a treacherous jungle on the Colombia-Panama border called the Darien Gap.
 
A stray dog walks in an empty migrant reception center that used to receive hundreds of people every day after they crossed the Darien Gap on their journey north to the United States, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Once a migratory highway, the Darien Gap has been left empty under Trump crackdown
A little more than a year ago, the small Panamanian river port of Lajas Blancas was filled with a crush of people trying to make their way to the United States. Now, the makeshift migrant camp has become a ghost town.
 
The thermoelectric plant of the Cobre Panama copper mine, owned by Canada's First Quantum Minerals, in Donoso, Panama, Friday, March 21, 2025, during a media tour of the mine that was closed after Panama's Supreme Court ruled that the government concession was unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama reopens talks about the future of a controversial copper mine, but opposition remains
More than a year after Panama’s Supreme Court halted operations at a huge copper mine because its government concession was deemed unconstitutional, there’s a fresh push with the new Panamanian president to restart the mine.
 
Afghan migrants deported from the U.S. walk to the UN Refugee Agency office in Panama City, Thursday, March 20, 2025, seeking advice on how and where to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Deportees from the US in Panama go embassy to embassy in desperate scramble to seek asylum
Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama are hopping door-to-door at embassies and consulates desperately seeking asylum in any country that would accept them.
 
Migrants who were held in a Panamanian immigration shelter after being deported from the U.S. embraced upon arriving in Panama City on Saturday, March 8, 2025, after authorities gave them 30 days to leave the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
They crossed the world to reach the US. Now deported under Trump, they’re stuck in Panama
Over the past week, Panama’s government has released dozens of migrants from around the world who were deported from the U.S.
 
Migrants, mostly from Asian countries, arrived in Panama City on Saturday, March 8, 2025, after spending weeks in a temporary Panamanian immigration camp following their deportation from the U.S. and being released on the condition that they leave the country within 30 days. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama releases dozens of detained deportees from US into limbo following human rights criticism
Panama has released dozens of migrants deported from the United States who were held for weeks in a remote camp on the condition that they would leave the Central American nation in 30 days.
 
Venezuelan migrant Naomi Diaz sits on a boat departing from Panama's Caribbean coastal village of Miramar to the border with Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Migrants are returning from southern Mexico after giving up on reaching the U.S., a reverse flow triggered by President Trump administration's immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama and Costa Rica turning into a ‘black hole’ for migrants and deportees from US, observers warn
Officials in Costa Rica and Panama are confiscating migrants’ passports and cellphones, denying them access to legal services and moving them between remote outposts as they wrestle with the logistics of a suddenly reversed migration flow.
 
Mariannis Zanzonetti rides on a boat with Venezuelan migrants who asked foe help from Panamanian border police along the Tuquesa River near Bajo Chiquito, Panama, after being robbed by armed men following their crossing of the Darién Gap from Colombia en route to the United States, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Migrants crossing the Darien heard of Donald Trump’s victory — and picked up the pace
Jesús Chávez, a 34-year-old pastry chef from Venezuela, arrived to a village at Panama’s edge of the Darien jungle. He was traveling with five others, a mix of friends and family.
 
Pilgrims arrive inside San Felipe Church to honor the Black Christ in Portobelo, Panama, early Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, during a festival celebrating the iconic statue that was found on the shore in 1658. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
In annual religious pilgrimage, Panamanians crawl to reach the Black Christ of Portobelo
At dawn, pilgrims like Ernesto Troya undertook the hardest stretch of their journey to reach the image of the Black Christ of Portobelo in Panama. Moved by faith, they crawled for several hours along the street toward the image of the saint.
 
A cosplayer dressed as Deadpool attends a Comic-Con convention in Panama City, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A patient photographer captures ‘Deadpool’ in a spontaneous moment at Comic-Con
Matías Delacroix has been taking photos for The Associated Press since 2019. The award-winning Chilean photojournalist, currently based in Panama City, has covered some of the biggest events in Latin America for the AP including the COVID-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the assassination of Haitian Pr
 
Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama prepares to evacuate first island in face of rising sea levels
The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades.
 
Fisherwomen and men pull in a net of fish off the coast of Chuao, Venezuela, early Wednesday, June 7, 2023. Some women are joining a family tradition of fishing and in other cases launching new careers after losing jobs during Venezuela’s economic crisis. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Venezuelan women are increasingly taking up the grueling work of fishing in the Caribbean
Dozens of people hop onto boats every day along Venezuela’s vast Caribbean coast to go fishing on 12-hour shifts. Their tanned bodies have scars or are missing fingers after years of fishing.