The blockade of the Pan-American Highway has become a common issue. A never ending story. It is a fact that, week after week, for different reasons the news reports the closure of the main route. The protagonists are the indigenous people, the peasants, the residents of different towns and even school students, who, due to the lack of work elements in the educational establishments, travel through the tertiary or secondary route to close the Cali, Popayán and Pasto passage.
From the different demonstrations around the road, one can think that it is a question of subversion or issues linked to different political positions. But when you look with a magnifying glass, what you see are the unfavorable living conditions that generate the protests. Thus, the indigenous, peasant or Afro population demonstrates because they cannot find any other way to face the problems they suffer.
To explain the fact of what happens on the road, history is used; it is said that the Cauca ruling class is not interested in what happens in the municipalities of the department. Supposedly the world for them is in the navel of Popayán’s bureaucracy. But the question, beyond the complaints, of the reasons and without reasons that obscure life, we must look at the map of the department. An elementary issue is that the capital of the department is isolated from the Pacific coast. There is, for example, no road between Popayán and Guapi, nor interest in Gorgona Island. The difficulty of reaching the sea is not overcome… But if it is the route to the east, the issue is complicated because you have to go through the wasteland that is difficult to navigate, an arduous path called a road, full of gaps and difficulties. In turn, to the south the passage is hindered by geological faults, landslides that make transit impossible. And the worst thing is, the promised route through the Estanquillo is still a good idea that is on the horizon of promises that are not embodied in reality.
Well it seems that things are no different in the White City. Interest is growing in the Popayán-Cali route, although the railway was not only suspended, but the rails were also raised. Now, regarding the constant closures of life, it must be clear that the interruption in the road does not harm the national government, since it seems that the State does not reach these parts. Furthermore, blocking the road ends up affecting the capital of Cauca itself, some industries have left the city precisely because of the strikes and excesses on the highway. Those affected are the department of Nariño, the peasant producers near the highway, transporters, passengers, small businessmen and also, why not say, international trade.
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