About every few years or so, someone brings up this lame idea of cutting a road through the jungle of the Darien Gap.  Just what we need to expand illegal logging and drug running in Panama. Sorry but I beg to differ with this position reported in  Prensa.

The country with the best air and maritime connectivity in the region should seize the opportunities offered by a land connection with South America.  In his opinion piece published in Prensa.com, Rommel Troetsch highlights the need to raise the debate to develop the essential connectivity that is needed in the south.

“…The gap now covers an area of ??only 58 kilometers from the Panamanian side, 53.5 kilometers from the Colombian side and costs about 231 million dollars to build the stretches of road that are missing, according to John Barnes, exhibitor of CADE 2015. This road would allow land access to a population of 47 million in Colombia, and 400 million in South America.

Opening the overland trade with South America, among other business opportunities, would enhance land transport cargo and would give the people of Darien a great opportunity to escape the poverty, neglect and the isolation in which they find themselves.”