Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Former Paraguayan Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez warns that weak state presence along Paraguay's stretch of the Bioceanic Corridor could turn the new highway into a strategic route for organized crime once it becomes fully operational.
The Bioceanic Corridor is a major road project backed by Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. In Paraguay the highway runs roughly 330 miles from Carmelo Peralta, on the border with Brazil, across the sparsely populated Chaco region to Pozo Hondo on the frontier with Argentina.
Pérez said customs officials, military units, police and regulatory agencies remain largely absent from key sections of the route. She argued that the lack of oversight creates vulnerabilities in an area known for minimal state control. "The full weight of the state needs to be present there," she said in a radio interview.
The corridor is designed to link Brazil's port of Santos on the Atlantic with the Chilean ports of Antofagasta and Iquique on the Pacific, cutting transport times and lowering export and import costs for goods moving across the continent.
Related
