Three Deportees Drown, One Rescued, When Boat Capsizes Off Panama
A boat carrying a passenger who had been bused from the U.S. to Tapachula, Mexico, alongside Venezuelan journalist Roberto Betancourt capsized on February 10, 2026, near Gaigirgordub island in Panama's Guna Yala archipelago, killing two Venezuelan women and one Colombian man. The vessel, identified as the Maryi and based in Miramar, Colón province, was carrying 16 migrants; one Venezuelan survivor was pulled from under the overturned boat by local divers and later transferred to Panama City for medical care. Many of the Venezuelans on the late-January deportation bus had been told by immigration agents that it would take them to Mexico City to board a plane to Caracas; when the bus instead continued to Tapachula, some attempted the dangerous route south through Central America and Panama to reach Colombia's northern coast. A separate boat carrying migrants capsized in the same region hours earlier, with all aboard surviving.
