The Darién Gap: A Reporter's Journey through the Deadly Crossroads of the Americas

by Belén Fernández

The narrow Darién Gap, the only land bridge connecting South and Central America, encompasses a spectacularly hostile jungle, covered in steep mountains, dense rainforests, and flood-prone marshes. Known in Spanish as el infierno verde, or “the green hell,” it is one of the most inhospitable places in the world. Its terrain is too treacherous for roads, yet hundreds of thousands of refuge seekers contend with its horrors every year in the hopes of reaching the United States, still some three thousand miles away. And of the countless who set out for the border, an untold number never arrive.

In this book, journalist Belén Fernández visits the Darién Gap to report on the dehumanizing and deadly stretch of land that has become a mass graveyard for migrants. Fernández’s travels bring her into contact with refuge seekers, people smugglers, law enforcement officials, and many more whose stories bring life to a place overwhelmingly associated with death. Combining history, on-the-ground reporting, travelogue, memoir, and searing politico-economic analysis, she shines light on a largely made-in-the-USA crisis that has come to define our modern era.

Engrossing and heartrending, The Darién Gap is a poignant and compassionate indictment of structural inequality and institutionalized inhumanity in a world where the have-nots must risk death for a chance at a better life—or any life at all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

206 pages, Hardcover

Published August 12, 2025

Reviews

[Hannah]

I learned a lot about the history and current context of the Darien Gap and enjoyed her humor and scathing critiques/condemnation of capitalism, imperialism, racism. Less convinced that she "needed" to venture into the Darien Gap herself to tell this story, but appreciated all of the information written around it and recommended for anyone looking for an easy to read crash course.

[Big AL]

Belén Fernández’s book is many things. Its an account of the plight faced by the many migrants who undertake the crossing of the Darién Gap, a stretch of jungle that connects Colombia and Panama. She also takes the time to point out the exploitative geopolitical factors that pressure people into making such an arduous journey. And also, the book also serves as somewhat of a personal diary as we learn quite a bit about Fernández’s life and mental headspace. She juggles all these intentions with her writing quite skillfully, and also with a hefty amount of sarcasm, morbid humor, and punk attitude. She’s frank about her thoughts and feelings on these subject matters and isn’t ashamed to talk about them.

She ends up becoming a fascinating character in and of herself and I found myself wondering what became of Johan even after the book was finished. What happened with Fernández and her mother after the passing of her father? I was left wondering more about these other threads of her life, but it isn’t something I fault her for because when the book ends, around the middle of 2024, that’s probably around the time she had to turn in her manuscript since the book was published in August 2025.

This was a very moving, very enraging read. But it is important.

[Trevor Darley]

Ms. Fernández has great dry humor, and she masterfully switches between being poetic and blunt depending on the information being presented. Feels meandering at times, but that's fitting given the subject matter. This book is an effective crash course for liberals who haven't quite grasped the scale and bipartisan nature of US meddling and malice, and is useful as a quick reference (including statistics) for people already somewhat familiar with pan-American history.