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It is the longest bridge ever built in Peru, a huge iron and cement structure that passes over the Nanay River and reaches virgin areas in the Peruvian Amazon.
But so far, it’s going nowhere.
The bridge is part of a project federal highway that will link Iquitos, in northeastern Peru, with the district of El Estrecho, on the border with Colombia, for a total of approximately 188 kilometers (117 miles).
It faces growing opposition from indigenous tribes, who fear that construction will lead to land grabbing, deforestation and drug traffickingwhich have plagued similar projects in the world’s largest rainforest.
Where does the bridge lead?
“The highway is going to kill us,” Everest Ochoa, a member of the Maijuna indigenous group that lives in the Peruvian Amazon, told The Associated Press.
“We have to stop this project for the sake of our children, to protect this land for their future.”
The works have been halted while the government carries out a study of the area.
But the Ministry of Transport has already built the country’s largest bridge, stretching 2.3 kilometres over the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River.
The construction of the bridge has been one of the most expensive projects.