The drug cartel of Colombia is the only thing stopping the 16,000 mile completion of the Pan-American highway. Currently, Highway 1 runs from Alaska to southern Panama.

Image Credit: CNN.com.

Panama will not cut through the Darien Gap (approx. 3 million acres of lush, untouched jungle) that would complete the construction into Colombia. This has nothing to do with preserving the rain forest, and everything to do with becoming a hallway for drug-runners.

Well, not entirely true...

The Darien Gap includes two forest preserves, the Darien National Park in Panama and the Los Katios National Park in Colombia, both of which include human occupants (i.e., jungle tribes -- as well as guerillas and drug traffickers). The Darien Gap also crosses the border between Panama and Colombia. The forest preserves exist because there is a real want in both countries to protect this rain forest environment. The region has been referred to as containing one of the highest degrees of bio-diversity in the entire world. It’s a deadly, while at the same time delightful, paradise (been there, done that). There are, however, construction designs available today which can take nature into account and leave a comparatively untarnished land of beauty that could be enjoyed from an automobile, so I would have to say the park is not today’s main hold up.

Eight pages of light reading.

In a couple decades (sooner if Colombia cleans up it act), it might be a pleasant drive,
Dan