Three deportees drown when boat capsizes off Panama after U.S. sent them to southern Mexico
Feb 10, 2026Guna Yala, PanamaVenezuela
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 Panama's Guna Yala archipelago, killing two Venezuelan women and one Colombian man. 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.
