Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli proposed a new alternative for a highway linking the Americas, through Kuna Yala.
At the Tuxtla Summit, hosted by Costa Rica, the proposal of a highway linking Colombia with Panama was discussed again. This road would travel through the so called "Darién Gap".
"This proposal has been rejected by environmentalist groups, arguing that a road through Darién will affect the ecosystem.
Uribe insists on building the road through the Darien Gap, meeting with old reluctance from Panama.
It is only 108 kilometers of road that are missing so that the Americas can be traveled by land from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but there are two arguments for refusing construction. One is that this is one of the few quasi-virgin regions left in the world, and it is feared that the inevitable progress that the road would bring would harm the environment and biodiversity, in addition to threatening aboriginal cultures.