Through Two National Parks Proposal and savings Cancel plans for construction of the Darien Gap link, saving U.S. taxpayers two-thirds of the project's cost.
Total costs are unknown.
The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego but deliberately has one small gap. Known as the Darien Gap, the area includes about five million hectares of rainforest along the border of Panama and Colombia, which includes national parks in both nations. While the Darien Gap link would complete the Pan-American Highway, the most likely route would cut through the center of the region, paving 262 kilometers of dirt road and constructing 110 kilometers of new road in the Darien National Park. The U.S. signed a 1971 treaty to pay two-thirds of the total project cost, but times have changed in the last three decades and the treaty should be canceled or at least reviewed. Local Community Concerns Indigenous peoples have passed numerous resolutions rejecting the road and demanding legal recognition for their claim on the land.