A moment of madness from Timothy Weah left the USA’s Copa America campaign hanging by a thread on Thursday as the hosts crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat to Panama. Juventus winger Weah was sent off in the 18th minute after an off-the-ball clash with Panama’s Roderick Miller in a stormy Group C battle at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Although Folarin Balogun fired the US into the lead four minutes after Weah’s dismissal, Panama’s extra man advantage ultimately took its toll and the Central Americans hit back with goals from Cesar Blackman and Jose Fajardo to seal victory.

The defeat means the United States will almost certainly have to win or draw against group leaders Uruguay in their final group game next Monday to have any chance of advancing to the knockout rounds.

Uruguay all but assured themselves of a place in the last eight with a thumping 5-0 win over Bolivia in East Rutherford on Thursday.

In Atlanta, meanwhile, US coach Gregg Berhalter said after his team’s defeat that Weah’s red card had been the decisive moment of the match, describing the sending off as “silly.”

“The match-changing event is obviously the red card and it puts us in a tough spot but we expected that from them,” Berhalter said.

“I can’t fault the effort of the group, especially after going down a man. The guys dug in and we were close to coming out with a point. But it’s a shame, because there was more in this game, and a silly decision by Timmy leaves us shorthanded.”

Weah, meanwhile, took to social media to apologize for his red card.

“A moment of frustration led to an irreversible consequence, and for that, I am deeply sorry to my teammates, coaches, family and our fans,” he wrote on Instagram.

Weah ‘sad and angry’

“I sincerely apologize to everyone. My love for this team goes beyond just football and I’m so sad and angry at myself for putting my brothers through what they went through tonight.”

Berhalter’s team might have snatched the lead in the 81st minute after Weston McKennie’s fine run and cross found substitute Ricardo Pepi at the far post. Pepi’s tame header fell into the arms of Panama goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera, however, to leave it at 1-1.

That miss proved costly, as with seven minutes remaining, Fajardo swept in an emphatic finish from Abdiel Ayarza’s low cross to put Panama 2-1 ahead.

A fractious finale saw Adalberto Carrasquilla sent off after a cynical hack on US captain Christian Pulisic in the dying minutes as Panama hung on for the win.

“That’s soccer at the end of the day. We know what we signed up for and playing in a Copa America, we knew it was going to be a fight,” US midfielder Tyler Adams said afterwards. 

“Credit to Panama, they did their job and they got the result. Obviously, I think moving forward, we need to control our emotions in certain situations. 

“The team fought for everything after we got the red card. Definitely can’t fault the effort. But by winning the first game we’ve put ourselves still in a position that we have all to fight for in the next game.”

Adams said Weah had apologized for his rash dismissal following the game. 

“You never mean to get a red card, under any circumstances,” Adams said of Weah. “He’s not that type of person. 

“He apologized to the team. And you know, just respect to the rest of the team because they  fought for every single ball, every single duel, every single minute, and we still created chances even after going down to 10 men.”

Uruguay, meanwhile, looked in ominous form in Thursday’s other game, demolishing Bolivia with five unanswered goals at the MetLife Stadium.

Facundo Pellistri, Darwin Nunez, Maximiliano Araujo, Federico Valverde and Rodrigo Bentancur were all on target for the Uruguayans.

Panama is on the verge of a dramatic change to its immigration policy that could reverberate from the dense Darien jungle to the U.S. border.

President-elect José Raúl Mulino says he will shut down a migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now, Panama has helped speedily bus the migrants across its territory so they can continue their journey North.

Whether Mr. Mulino is able to reduce migration through a sparsely populated region with little Government presence remains to be seen, experts say.

“Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,” Mr. Mulino said after his victory with 34% of the vote in Sunday’s election was formalised on May 9 evening.

As he had suggested during his campaign, the 64-year-old Lawyer and former security Minister said he would try to end “the Darien odyssey that does not have a reason to exist”.

The migrant route through the narrow isthmus grew exponentially in popularity in recent years with the help of organised crime in Colombia, making it an affordable, if dangerous, land route for hundreds of thousands.

It grew as countries like Mexico, under pressure from the U.S. Government, imposed visa restrictions on various nationalities including Venezuelans and just this week Peruvians in an attempt to stop migrants flying into the country just to continue on to the U.S. border.

But masses of people took the challenge and set out on foot through the jungle-clad Colombian-Panamanian border. A crossing that initially could take a week or more eventually was whittled down to two or three days as the path became more established and entrepreneurial locals established a range of support services.

It remains a risky route, however. Reports of sexual assaults have continued to rise, some migrants are killed by bandits in robberies and others drown trying to cross rushing rivers.

Migrants dead, missing after boat capsizes off Panama coast

Even so, some 147,000 migrants have already entered Panama through Darien this year.

Previous attempts to close routes around the world have simply shifted traffic to riskier paths.

“People migrate for many reasons and frequently don’t have safe, orderly and legal ways to do it,” said Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission in Panama for the UN’s International Organisation for Immigration.

“When the legal routes are not accessible, migrants run the risk of turning to criminal networks, traffickers and dangerous routes, tricked by disinformation.” Loprete said the UN agency’s representatives in Panama would meet with Mr. Mulino’s team once its member are named to learn the specifics of the president’s plans.

If Mr. Mulino could be even partially effective, it could produce a notable, but likely temporary, impact. As with the visa restrictions that unintentionally steered migrants to the overland route through Panama, if the factors pushing migrants to leave their countries remain they will find other routes. One could be the dangerous sea routes from Colombia to Panama.

In a local radio interview on May 9, Mr. Mulino said the idea of shutting down the migration flow is more philosophical than a physical obstacle.

“Because when we start to deport people here in an immediate deportation plan the interest for sneaking through Panama will decrease,” he said. By the time the fourth plane loaded with migrants takes off, “I assure you they are going to say that going through Panama is not attractive because they are deporting you.” Julio Alonso, a Panamanian security expert, said what Mr. Mulino could realistically achieve is unknown.

“This would be a radical change to Panamanian policy in terms of migration to avoid more deaths and organised crime using the route,” he said.

Among the challenges will be how it would work operationally along such an open and uncontrolled border.

“In Panama, there is no kind of suppression with this situation, just free passage, humanitarian aid that didn’t manage to reduce the number of assaults, rapes, homicides and deaths along the Darien route,” Mr. Alonso said.

Mr. Mulino’s proposal is “a dissuasive measure, yes, (but) whether it can be completely executed we will see”.

It’s also unlikely that much could be accomplished without a lot of cooperation and coordination with Colombia and other countries, he said.

Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that “without considering the risk of returning migrants to dangerous situations, in mathematical terms I don’t know how they hope to massively deport” migrants.

“A daily plane, which would be extremely expensive, would only repatriate around 10 per cent of the flow (about 1,000 to 1,200 per day). The United States only manages to do about 130 flights monthly in the entire world,” Mr. Isacson said.

Darwin Cigarroa, a migrant from Venezuela, carries a cross while walking toward the U.S. border in a caravan called “The Migrant’s Via Crucis”, in Huixtla, Mexico March 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Venezuelan migrants often have a quick answer when asked to name the most difficult stretch of their eight-country journey to the U.S. border, and it’s not the days-long jungle trek through Colombia and Panama with its venomous vipers, giant spiders and scorpions. It’s Mexico.

“In the jungle, you have to prepare for animals. In Mexico, you have to prepare for humans,” Daniel Ventura, 37, said after three days walking through the Darien Gap and four months waiting in Mexico to enter the U.S. legally using the government’s online appointment system, called CBP One.

Mexico’s crackdown on immigration in recent months — at the urging of the Biden administration — has hit Venezuelans especially hard. The development highlights how much the U.S. depends on Mexico to control migration.

Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped so this year after a record high in December. The biggest decline was among Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in January from 49,717 in December.

While two months do not make a trend and illegal crossings remain high by historical standards, Mexico’s strategy to keep migrants closer to its border with Guatemala than the U.S. is at least temporary relief for the Biden administration.

Large numbers of Venezuelans began reaching the U.S. in 2021, first by flying to Mexico and then on foot and by bus after Mexico imposed visa restrictions. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the largest nationality crossing the border.

Mexico’s efforts have included forcing migrants from trains, flying, and busing them to the southern part of the country.

Last week, Mexico said it would give about $110 a month for six months to each Venezuelan it deports, hoping they won’t come back.

Venezuelans account for the vast majority of 73,166 migrants who crossed the Darien Gap in January and February.