Venezuelans face perils trying to go home

As the boat bounced across choppy Pacific waters, Mariela Gémez and her two children huddled for 17 hours on top of sloshing gas tanks, uncertain of what lay ahead in the dense jungle.

- By Matias DELACROIX AND MEGAN JANETSKY

MATIAS DELACROIX Associated Press MARIELA Gomez of Venezuela holds son Mathias as they arrive in Panama, having given up on the U.S.

The 36-year-old Venezuelan mother was among a million migrants to journey across the continent in recent years in hopes of reaching the United States. But with legal pathways slashed under President Trump, she and thousands of other Venezuelans are now trying to make their way back in a “reverse migration.”

More than 14,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have returned to South America since Trump's immigration crackdown began, according to figures from Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica.

Struggling to buy even food after failed attempts to stay in the U.S., Gémez can’t afford the $280-per-person charge for the more frequented Caribbean route to Colombia. So a growing number of migrants like her are boarding boats that ferry cargo between Panama’s capital and Colombia’s jungle-clad Pacific coast.

The new route is half the price and twice as dangerous.

“We lost hope,” she said. “We're trying to return, but we don’t have the money to go back.”

‘Only the clothes on their backs’