Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Americas' missing link
Jane's Foreign Report, 28 March 2007
http://frp.janes.com
"Risky is hardly a sufficient characterisation of Colombian plans to build a road through the Darien Gap, a 16,700 km2 area of jungle on the Colombia-Panama border; improbable, delusional or doomed would perhaps be closer to the mark. Boasting a combination of trans-national drug traffickers, Colombian insurgents, Panamanian indigenous separatists and some of the most inhospitable environmental conditions on the planet, the gap could be mistaken for an exaggerated hypothetical case study in where not to locate a major infrastructure project.Yet Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is determined to overcome the odds and for the last two years has persistently lobbied a sceptical Panamanian government to support the scheme."[Sub required]