As Petén highway plans surface, so do objections

Guatemala

The engineers showed up six months ago unannounced, conducting surveys in the Maya Biosphere Reserve here in Guatemala’s northern department of Petén. Next, copies of a map began circulating. They showed proposed roads running through the reserve to the Mexican border. Soon after, a government official admitted privately that highways would be built through the five-million-acre (two-million-hectare) reserve. Then he denied it. Not until October, after months of rumors and government silence, did Guatemalan officials acknowledge that they indeed are considering highway plans for the region. As of this month, these called for construction of a new road and the paving of existing dirt roadway to create two new highways that would connect with highways Mexico already has built to the... [Log in to read more]

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