Thread: Mexico hopes new highway into drug country sparks developmen

Mexico hopes new highway into drug country sparks development

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y Chris Hawley - Apr. 26, 2010 12:00 AM
Republic Mexico City Bureau

PALMITO, Mexico - Mexican legend says when Archangel Michael threw Satan out of heaven, his broken spine formed a jagged ridge that winds across Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains: the Devil's Backbone.

Named originally for its horribly steep climbs and deadly drops, in recent decades it has acquired a more sinister meaning. The road that runs east-to-west along the ridge goes through the heart of Mexico's drug country, where poverty and isolation have led to the rise of marijuana farmers and traffickers who settle disputes with bloodshed.

Now the Mexican government has launched a massive, three-year highway project to straighten the Devil's Backbone and, it hopes, bring development, jobs, a greater police presence and order to the lawless mountains.

It's building a new 45-mile highway to replace the winding Devil's Backbone road, which runs along a ridge between the Pacific Coast city of Mazatlan and the interior city of Durango. The new road is an engineering feat that will require 63 tunnels and 32 bridges, including the world's second-highest road bridge. About 11 miles - one-fourth of the route - will be underground.

"This is going to be a marvel, something really world-class," said construction manager Miguel Angel RamÃ*rez, as he stood at the edge of the 1,280-foot-deep Baluarte Gorge, which lies along the route. Later this year, crews will start laying a roadway across the gorge, creating a span so high that the Empire State Building could fit under it.

Rough area

The old Devil's Backbone road is the only crossing through the Western Sierra Madre mountains for 500 miles, and it runs through some of the most remote parts of Sinaloa and Durango states. The thickly forested mountains are full of clandestine farms growing marijuana and opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, as well as airstrips used to move cocaine shipments northward.

The closest federal police stations and military bases are hours away, so drug traffickers operate with impunity, using murder and torture to silence villagers and keep weak local police forces at bay. They also ambush vehicles as they crawl along the Devil's Backbone, said Ernesto Gómez Chacón, the town administrator in Pueblo Nuevo.

In Pueblo Nuevo, on the eastern side of the Baluarte Gorge, suspected traffickers killed three teenagers on Feb. 26 and sprayed the town hall with assault rifles on Feb. 28. On March 28, they gunned down 10 people, ages 8 to 21, for failing to stop at a checkpoint.

Drug-related murders doubled in Sinaloa from 2006 to 2009, and in Durango state they shot up tenfold, according to the Reforma newspaper. The U.S. State Department has urged Americans not to travel to Durango state because of the danger.

The new, high-speed road will be well-lit and patrolled by federal police cruisers, the Mexican Transportation Department says. Soldiers will be able to move more easily through the mountains to deter drug smugglers.

"I think it's going to bring more security," Gómez said. "We won't be so isolated from the authorities anymore."

Officials hope the road will bring tourism and industrial development, tempering the lure of the drug trade.

"The more jobs we can bring to these areas, the more we'll reduce crime - I'm a true believer in that," said Nicolás VelÃ*z, a tunneling supervisor. "If we don't give these mountain people any options than to be criminals, then that's what they'll be."

Building challenge

The first road along the Devil's Backbone opened in the 1940s. The terrain was so rugged that construction crews brought in supplies by mule train.

"Now we're trying to do in three years what it took them 15 years to do," said Ernesto González, a construction supervisor.

Construction of the Mazatlan-Durango highway began in 2005, but work on the toughest stretch through the Sierra Madre began only last year. When it opens in 2012, the highway should cut the trip between Mazatlan and Durango from eight hours to 2½.

Most of the tunnels are already being dug, including the 1.6-mile Sinaloense Tunnel, the longest on the route.

But the most challenging part of the highway is the Baluarte Bridge on the border of Sinaloa and Durango states, González said. With its roadway 1,280 feet above the Baluarte River, it will be the world's second-highest highway bridge after the 1,550-foot-high Sidhue River Bridge in China, according to HighestBridges .com, which ranks such structures.

Drug gangs occasionally set up roadblocks in the area to protect shipments or drug crops, check for rivals or shake down residents.

But there have been no run-ins between construction crews and drug traffickers, RamÃ*rez said.

"I'm sure they're out there, but we don't bother with them and they don't bother with us," he said.

Economic hopes

Communities along the route are already getting ready for an influx of visitors and industry.

Durango Gov. Ismael González Deras says he's hoping the new highway will encourage Asian manufacturers to open factories in his state because of the easier connection to the Pacific Ocean. His government has purchased 4,300 acres near the highway for a new industrial park. Sinaloa Gov. Jesús Aguilar predicted a boom in traffic at Mazatlan's port.

"With development of this type, people will have less reason to turn to illicit activities," said Alma Larrañaga, a spokeswoman for Mexico's Transportation Department.

Experts cautioned against too much optimism. Traffickers are deeply entrenched in the Sierra Madre. It could take years before new development puts a dent in the drug trade, said Gerardo López Cervantes, director of the economics department at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.

"It's not going to change overnight," López Cervantes said.

In Palmito, population 788, residents welcomed the construction.

"It's already brought a lot of work. You see people going down to Mazatlan to shop and coming back with all these new things they've bought," said Sandra Quinteros, a nurse. "It's going to be good. The people here need this."

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Wow, that's gonna be one high bridge huh? Creepy. Good for them, though, and I hope it achieves new opportunities for their people in Mexico.

Would you feel the same way if they were exporting furniture to the United States?

Being the pessimist I am, maybe the new highway will simply facilitate faster and more efficient distribution of drugs.

What amazes me about this project is the incredibly low cost, compared to US projects. That's why I keep saying that Third World development can be done much cheaper than trying to accomodate an expanding population in the US.

Here is an example:

Locally our planners are wrangling about a 1.5 mile bridge and 3 mile light rail project. The cost: $4 billion.

Yet for $900 million (at last report) Mexico is building this 50 mile long project, with 63 tunnels and 32 bridges.

Originally Posted by Captainron

What amazes me about this project is the incredibly low cost, compared to US projects. That's why I keep saying that Third World development can be done much cheaper than trying to accomodate an expanding population in the US.

Here is an example:

Locally our planners are wrangling about a 1.5 mile bridge and 3 mile light rail project. The cost: $4 billion.

Yet for $900 million (at last report) Mexico is building this 50 mile long project, with 63 tunnels and 32 bridges.

Right O, Captainron. But we all know we're getting ripped off on the cost of our roads and bridges. We're getting ripped off on everything our government is doing.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

Being the pessimist I am, maybe the new highway will simply facilitate faster and more efficient distribution of drugs.

http://www.planetware.com/i/map/MEX/mex ... es-map.jpg

Here's a map of the states of Mexico. The state of Durango is number 5 on the map and the state it's being connected to is the coastal state of Sinoloa on the west coast of Mexico, shown as number 4 on the map. I'm sure there's already plenty of good roads headed North out of Durango and Sinoloa to the United States.

Originally Posted by Judy

Originally Posted by Captainron

What amazes me about this project is the incredibly low cost, compared to US projects. That's why I keep saying that Third World development can be done much cheaper than trying to accomodate an expanding population in the US.

Here is an example:

Locally our planners are wrangling about a 1.5 mile bridge and 3 mile light rail project. The cost: $4 billion.

Yet for $900 million (at last report) Mexico is building this 50 mile long project, with 63 tunnels and 32 bridges.

Right O, Captainron. But we all know we're getting ripped off on the cost of our roads and bridges. We're getting ripped off on everything our government is doing.

Yeah, and we are getting ripped off by the crooks we have to put in jail. I'm just getting completely sick----the more that I see honest citizens getting trampled and evil people being supported. Grrrrr! I have told family members years ago that I thought maybe I just wanted to get out of this country. The "conservative" years, I thought were terrible, with all of the scams and white collar crooks and Wall Street crime. (I personally know what it's like to be on the receiving end of that kind of --------) And then you wake up and see that the Left has an agenda to just give everything away, too.

I even heard people saying years ago that maybe Muslim society was better because they simply don't tolerate violations of their law. But then they have some pretty dreadful ideas, too.

The bright side is that this local project that I mentioned has stirred up a firestorm of public opposition----and I finally see ( I hope) the termination of at least this overall liberal agenda of spend, spend, spend.

Yeah, and we are getting ripped off by the crooks we have to put in jail. I'm just getting completely sick----the more that I see honest citizens getting trampled and evil people being supported. Grrrrr!

We don't have a government...we have a band of socialist thieves... Inside every road bill is half pork and entitlement program spending...and "for other purposes" that nobody knows what the hell that means...could be a fire truck or a rocket...

But that new road will be a god send for drug delivery....

Originally Posted by Captainron

What amazes me about this project is the incredibly low cost, compared to US projects. That's why I keep saying that Third World development can be done much cheaper than trying to accomodate an expanding population in the US.

Here is an example:

Locally our planners are wrangling about a 1.5 mile bridge and 3 mile light rail project. The cost: $4 billion.

Yet for $900 million (at last report) Mexico is building this 50 mile long project, with 63 tunnels and 32 bridges.

That's because mexico doesn't have to contend with union labor.