The Trans-American Void

Source: Council on Foreign Relations

The Pan-American highway is the longest road in the world. Beginning on Alaska’s northern coast near Prudhoe Bay, and ending near Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, it stretches almost exactly 30,000 kilometers, or nearly 20,000 miles, across two continents, through fourteen countries, and across vast deserts, dense jungles, and treacherous mountains. Dangers along the route include scarcity of fuel and supplies, cartel and trafficking violence, and adverse climate conditions, some of which are guaranteed at given times of year - a particular challenge given the expected shift in season between the northern and southern hemispheres.

It would stretch continuously across both continents if it weren’t for one stretch, barely over 100 kilometers (66 miles) long, existing as one of the most dangerous jungles on earth.

The Darien Gap is located specifically in eastern Panama, along the country’s border with Colombia. It contains nearly every hazard to life that an individual can think of: deadly wildlife, narco- and human traffickers, guerrilla fighters, towering mountains, an overall lack of adequate infrastructure, and even unexploded Cold War-era bombs all maintain a presence in the area.

It may seem confusing how and why such factors, however, prevent the construction of a road, particularly given similar threats existing in other countries such as Peru and Mexico, where the Pan-American Highway has already been fully completed. Environmentalists have pointed to the integrity of the jungle as a critical factor, alongside health officials who raised concerns surrounding the spread of hoof-and-mouth disease through intensive cattle farming. These pieces of evidence were presented in the 1970s, halting the last major efforts to complete the Highway, even despite the offer from the United States to finance 60% of overall costs. Lastly, the Panamanian government sees value in leaving it largely untouched, given its further status as a home to indigenous peoples, and a natural barrier against crime in and beyond the jungle.

Source: NPR

This has not stopped migrant traffic, an ongoing regional issue, however. Despite the astonishing dangers described above, approximately 250,000 people still crossed the Darien Gap in 2022, a number reached by August of this year, and expected to double by the end of 2023, many of them being organised and equipped by criminal groups. These migrants come primarily from Haiti and Venezuela, though other groups of people from as far away as Africa and even Afghanistan have been noted as migrating illegally across the Gap.

And yet, in spite of everything mentioned above, tourism in the Gap is simultaneously a salient presence. A German company named Wandermut received backlash for offering group packages there, TripAdvisor maintains reviews on the area with named organisations offering tours, and even testimonies of tourist interactions with illegal migrants have been published online.

In the end, the true testimony here is perhaps that the world is as curious as it can be dangerous - especially in the Darien Gap.

TAI Score: Degree 3. Irregular migration patterns and an inability to enforce legal systems in the Darien Gap is already causing issues as far away as the United States, where illegal immigration is playing a significant role in the 2024 presidential election. Drug and gang violence are further fanning flames of populist sentiment. Though the Gap itself is not inherently a threat, phenomena existing within it are displaying an outsized impact abroad.