CENTRAL AMERICA

Monday, March 23, 1998 Online Edition 98

Salvadoran govt builds houses for citizens affected by new border

Special to Honduras This Week

RANCHO QUEMADO, El Salvador -- The government of El Salvador has begun construction of a housing project here, just a few miles from the newly designated Honduran-Salvadoran border, in an effort to encourage Salvadorans living in Honduras to return to their homeland.

Following the delimitation of the border between Honduras and El Salvador in an historic ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague almost six years ago, many people who consider themselves to be Salvadoran citizens continued to live in what is now designated Honduran territory.

Through the project, "Altos de la Frontera," El Salvador is trying to lure them back onto Salvadoran territory. The Salvadoran government is also offering 13,000 Colones to each citizen who returns.

One of the first new residents of Altos de la Frontera is Raquel Benitez, who was 10 years old when the World Court made the decision that placed her in Honduran territory. She has a daughter who was born last year in Honduras but Benitez has her registered as a citizen of El Salvador. Benitez says she will remain in El Salvador until she receives the assistance promised by the government, then she will return to help cultivate her family's farm land in Honduras.

Jose Martir Garcia is another person who has been granted a lot in Rancho Quemado and, like the majority here, he left several family members behind in Honduras to take care of his lands there and to make sure the older children attended school.

Benitez and Garcia both claim to have received fair treatment from Honduran authorities, but Pablo Cruz Herrera, president of the Work Committee in Altos de la Frontera, claims that the goal of this new housing project is to offer a solution to some of the problems that are occurring in Honduran territory. "Some of our countrymen are kept in oppression and slavery by the Honduran authorities," says Cruz Herrera.

Bartolome Garcia, another new resident of Rancho Quemado, claims that even though he feels threatened by the Honduran forestry agency COHDEFOR which has demanded payment for the right to exploit Honduran forests, he will only stay in El Salvador long enough to receive the benefits.

"We have never thought about bringing everything over here, because over there [Honduras] we have our lands. We want to get the benefits here and there, because we are Central Americans, and as such can live where we choose," he said.

Monday, March 9, 1998 Online Edition 96

Transit of Panama Canal a unique experience

The double set of steel locking gates at Miraflores locks provide a sealed encasement for vessels while the water in the chamber rises and falls. Photo by E. Sowers

By CAROL L. BOWMAN, Special to Honduras This Week

Historians believe that as early as 8,000 B.C., prehistoric man use the Isthmus of Panama as a migratory transit route between Central and South America. Today, almost 10,000 years later, modern man remains economically, socially, and culturally dependent on this crossing.

After the Spanish settled Panama in 1510, King Charles V envisioned the importance of the canal across the 50-mile Isthmus. He ordered a survey of its capability in 1534, hoping to find a more accessible route to return to Spain the tons of gold pillaged from the Peruvian Incas. Las Cruces cobblestone mule trail was paved instead.

In 1850, the lure of gold in California, again charged the idea of the shortcut. This time the United States built the Panama Railroad, but a tremendous cost of human suffering from disease and inhospitable conditions.

In 1880, Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had just successfully completed supervision of the Suez Canal, undertook the auspicious task of the Panama Canal. For 20 years, he struggled before the project failed in financial ruin.

Reenter the United States, which purchased the rights and equipment from the French for $40 million, entered into a treaty to construct an interoceanic ship canal, and began construction in 1903.

The vision held for centuries would become reality after 10 years, the labor of 75,000 men and women, and a cost of $400 million. Thousands of lives lost to malaria, yellow fever and land slides during the construction added heavily to the toll of this project. But on August 15, 1914, the SS Ancon made the first official Atlantic to Pacific Ocean transit.

To appreciate this unparalleled engineering accomplishment, one must transit through the Canal. Most travelers pass through the Panama Canal on cruise ships. In fact, the Crown Princess was the largest passenger ship to transit the Canal on May 2, 1993, at a toll of $141,344.

But there is an alternative. For those travelers preferring to also experience the dramatic country of Panama, partial or full transit tours of the Canal are available. Motorized yachts depart daily from the Pacific's Balboa Pier, located several miles from Panama City.

The all day Panama Canal crossing journeys through the Miraflores double set of locks, raising the vessel to 56 feet above sea level, through Miraflores Lake, onto Pedro Miguel Locks to a height of 85 feet. The launch then navigates through the Gaillard Cut, slicing the Continental Divide with engineering precision, through the Gatun Lake, and finally descending the three-lock-down process through the Gatun Locks to the Atlantic Ocean.

Consider the partial transit if time is short. You enter the Panama Canal from Balboa Pier, but sail first beneath the gleaming span, The Bridge of the Americas. Rising 384 feet above the ocean and measuring 5,425 feet, the bridge connected in 1962, the land masses divided during canal construction.

As the vessel nears the first set of locks, Miraflores, the pageantry of the Canal begins. Every small motorized yacht or sail boat must "piggy back" a larger vessel to proceed through the Canal.

Each vessel, regardless of its size, must take on a pilot from the Panama Canal Commission who navigates the ship through the entire length of the Canal, and remains its captain until completion. The temporary "changing of the guard" and raising of the Canal's flag begins the fanfare.

As the boat enters the lock chamber, the awe begins. Men in rowboats, looking like cowboys deftly roping a calf, expertly throw thick cords onto the boat, anchoring it to the lock walls. The majestic gates close securing the vessel within the 1,000 ft. lock chamber. The lock gates at Miraflores measure the tallest in the Canal system. This height is needed to adapt to the extreme tidal variation of the Pacific Ocean.

Slowly, you feel the boat beneath you rising, as 22 million gallons of water moved by gravity from the upper chamber flood the section. Within eight minutes, the boat has risen 32 feet above sea level. The smooth sides of the locks are within an arm's reach. Touching the walls of the Panama Canal provides a sensation missed on a cruise ship.

This process is repeated through the other section of locks, until the vessel is at 56 feet above sea level. You leave the chamber and sail into Miraflores Lake. Upon reaching Pedro Miguel Locks, the "piggy back" vessel departs from the host ship, turns around and hooks up with a southbound vessel for the return.

The partial transit provides the opportunity to maneuver the Canal in both directions. You enter the lock at 56 feet above sea level, the process is reversed, as the chamber empties the water and the boat inches its way down the walls. Larger ships are guided through the chambers by electric mules, robot-like locomotives costing $2 million each.

An average of 40 ships transit the Panama Canal per day, and the process is the same for each. The Canal operates with precision and efficiency, much the same way it did on opening day, 75 years ago.

World figures such as King Charles V of Spain, Balboa, and Napoleon Bonapart dreamed of a passage joining the two hemispheres to provide a world trade route. Theodore Roosevelt usually gets all the credit. But all those who had the vision, all those who tried, but failed, all those who tackled the insurmountable task of cutting through the Continental Divide, despite heat, disease, and inhumane misery, all those who died -- they are the heroes of this remarkable human achievement: The Panama Canal.

"For those travelers preferring to also experience the dramatic country of Panama, partial or full transit tours of the Canal are available."

"Slowly, you feel the boat beneath you rising, as 22 million gallons of water moved by gravity from the upper chamber flood the section."

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