Human traffickers offer ‘VIP route’ from Venezuela to avoid Darién perils. It’s just as dangerous

News Snapshot:

Some time before dawn on an October morning, Jancerlin Martínez, 33, was preparing to embark on the next leg of her journey to the United States, where she hoped to join relatives in Florida. She had left Venezuela with her sister Jaerlin, 26, and brother Joencer, 19, a few days earlier, eager to provide a better future for her unborn child. Martínez had saved for two years for the trip, before traveling overland to the Venezuelan border, and then flying with her siblings to the Colombian island of San Andrés. From here they planned to cross the Caribbean to Nicaragua,...