Should a road be built to connect Panama and Colombia?

The Darien Gap is so named because it is an area within the Darien jungle of Panama where the road has not been completed connecting the two countries of Colombia and Panama. It is only a gap of 80 kilometers, but it may as well be a million miles as there is no way to drive any further south than Panama. There have always been rumblings of a plan to complete a highway and I believe if it were not for the Farc rebels and civil war in Colombia, there would be an eagerness to complete the road linking the two countries. At this time Colombia's old and new president are harping on Panama to complete the road as the government of Colombia is investing over $600 million into a road that will basically dead end at the Colombian border. If Panama keeps it word to keep the gap as it is, Colombia will have built a road to nowhere. Here is more details on this controversial road from La Prensa.

The last 80 kilometers of a controversial road.

The construction of the 'Cross of the Americas' affect Darien National Parks and Katie.

Jose Arcia
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The possibility of joining the north and the center in South America, through the Darien Gap, was this week a new episode.

On Thursday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, awarded the construction and rehabilitation of the first section of a highway in 3000 will be 47 miles from Venezuela to the Colombian-Panamanian border, in Palos de Letras.

The work, called "Cross of the Americas", provides in its first phase construction of 198 new miles of road, including the stretch of Monteria to Palos de Letras, in the border region with Panama (in red in the graphics).

The Panamanian side reach the Panamerican Highway to the town of Yaviza in the province of Darien, so there is a stretch of 80 kilometers in which there is no road infrastructure to link Central and South America.

investment in conflict

The Colombian Government's proposal is rejected by conservation groups in that country.

Organizations of indigenous and black communities of Choco, in Colombia, have expressed their rejection of the work, given that crosses the Katios Park, declared a World Heritage site, reported last Friday the Colombian newspaper El Heraldo.

Alvaro Uribe left office yesterday when Juan Manuel Santos took over the reins of the neighboring country. Both have publicly stated their desire to Panama to build the last stretch of road that would cross the Darien Gap.

Santos, in his visit to Panama in the middle of last July as president-elect, not only reiterated this desire, but with Panamanian businessmen lobbied to open the protected area.

The cap will remain

For the moment, the Colombian-road project in which the Government of the South American country would invest $ 609 million, is like a street "dead end", given that the Panamanian authorities say the opening of the Darien Gap is not into the State agenda.

Alfredo Prieto, Minister of Communication of the Presidency of Panama, said the government has no agenda to build a road through the Darien Gap. "There is nothing even to do a trail," he said.

Prieto said the Colombian authorities' decision is final, but that does not mean that the Panamanian government has plans to build a road through the jungle.

The president, Ricardo Martinelli has reiterated the Government's position not to bow to pressure the Colombian authorities on the subject.

The Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy Demetrius Papadimitriu, referred yesterday to the subject, and assured that the cap will not open.

Javier Arias, manager of the National Environmental Authority, also commented on the matter this week. He said the Darien Gap will remain as is and is not open.

An old proposal

The truth is that the idea of building a road linking Panama and Colombia dates back to 1950, when the United States and several countries of the hemisphere agreed to build a road network in the area.

Plans for the road rested with the Ministry of Public Works. This was reported in 2004 officials of the entity, but at that time unaccounted for planes. They suspected they had been lost during the invasion of Panama in 1989.