BAJO CHIQUITO, Panama –
Jesús Chávez, a 34-year-old pastry chef from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, arrived in this small village at Panama’s edge of the Darien jungle on Friday.
He was traveling with five others, a mix of friends and family. They had all left Venezuela last Saturday with the goal of reaching the United States.
He said the group had waited in Venezuela for the results of July’s presidential election, but after President Nicolás Maduro was declared winner despite evidence that he had lost, they decided to leave. “We didn’t see any hope,” Chávez said.
They entered the Darien Gap Tuesday and heard about Donald Trump’s presidential victory while still trudging through the jungle.
Migrants line up to board a boat at the Tuquesa River, near Bajo Chiquito, after walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia en route to …