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 RamĂ*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 GĂłmez ChacĂłn, 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," GĂłmez 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 VelĂ*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, RamĂ*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 LĂłpez Cervantes, director of the economics department at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.

"It's not going to change overnight," LĂłpez 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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