The Highway Through Darién

It’s okay to get jacked and head out on the highway, but I’ve been there and I can tell you that the fast lane is littered with countless smoldering wrecks.
Hunter S. Thompson

Writing is hard work.
William Zinsser, On Writing Well


Were the editors of Agenda magazine really that desperate?

One of the benefits of living in Panamá and subscribing to La Prensa is that you receive several attractive, glossy publications every month. They’re included free as part of the package. But to be honest, most of these magazines lack substance. Nevertheless, I do enjoy looking at the photographs of the young and beautiful as well as those of the rich and influential at their parties.

As with most magazines around the world, Panamá’s are full of ads. This month’s Agenda is selling Maseratis, Dior 44 Diamonds Crystal Watches, BMWs, Hugo Boss suits, and ocean liner cruises along the eastern shore of South America.

On occasion, the editors include genuinely interesting articles. In their most recent issue, for instance, there’s a piece by Ana Alfaro, La Prensa’s literate food critic, about her tour of Robert Mondavi’s vineyards in Napa Valley, California.

But also in this edition there’s a woefully undeveloped article titled “La carretera de la discordia” (The Highway of Disagreement). In it, the author, Jaime Raúl Molina, writes in favor of the construction of a highway that would travel straight through the heart of Darién. This dense rainforest—once considered impenetrable—separates Panamá from Colombia.

The issue of cutting a path through this unspoiled jungle has been debated since the first half of the twentieth century. And at present, it is a source of disagreement between two presidents—with Álvaro Uribe of Colombia strongly in favor, and Panamá’s Martín Torrijos opposed. Polls show that the majority of Panamanians are against the project.

In “La carretera de la discordia,”—a startlingly concise two page article, including ads—Molina scoffs at the concerns Panamanians have about the highway. The fears of Colombia’s decades-long war spilling into Panamá, of the creation of another route for drug smuggling, and of diseases being spread because of increased human traffic are all, according to the author, irrational

Molina does admit, nevertheless, that the concern over damaging Darién’s ecosystem is, by far, the one Panamanians mention most. And the author proceeds to assure his readers, in a mere seventy words—I counted them—that there is nothing to worry about.

The gist of Molina’s argument? We tore down jungles and rainforests to build the Canal and this brought us prosperity. Building a road through Darién will do the same. And the financial benefits will far outweigh the environmental costs.

He also mentions in an earlier section of his article that if we build this road, the dream of a completed Pan American Highway, a road that runs without interruption from Alaska to Argentina, will finally be fulfilled—thus opening Panamá to the world.

Was Jaime Raúl Molina sober when he wrote this?

I confess that I’m against the road. Once the path through Darién is cleared, the rainforest will be altered—irretrievably so. But I’m also pessimistic about environmentalists winning this war. The chorus of those in favor of the highway—composed mainly of apostles of the economic windfalls of globalization—is growing stronger each day.

But that’s all the more reason the question needs to be discussed—and with earnest. The stakes, with regard to the preservation of one of the last remaining wildernesses in the region, are indeed high.

Did the editors of Agenda truly consider Molina’s pithy effort worthy of inclusion in their magazine, not to mention of prominently promoting it on the cover of February’s issue?

The folk from Agenda, which I place among Panamá’s best magazines, should keep the ads for the Maseratis and the Christian Dior 44 Diamonds Watches. (In fact, when I become a best-selling author I may decide to buy a couple of each.)

They must, however, become more selective about the articles they publish—especially when they explore such vital matters.

Otherwise, few readers will take their publication seriously.