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The Trans-Peninsular Highway: A New Era for Baja California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jack N. Barkenbus
Jack N. Barkenbus*
Affiliation:
Center for Marine Affairs, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California
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Extract

As Mexican President Luis Echeverria Alvarez strode to the dedication stand, confetti and rose petals filled the air; and upon raising the Mexican flag at the base of a 135-foot-high statue located in the middle of the Baja California desert, more than 5,000 peopled cheered, “Viva Mexico, viva la carretera” (the highway). The occasion of the recent dedication and praise was the completion of the first paved highway that effectively links northern and southern sections of Baja California. To North Americans who have been numbed by the dizzying pace of superhighway construction, this single, rather narrow, twolane highway may seem of scarce consequence. But for the inhabitants of the Baja California peninsula, one of the most desolate areas of land on this earth, the 1,061-mile highway heralds a new era. This paper intends to explore some of the economic and political consequences likely to evolve from the road's existence. More specifically, it examines the basic objectives Mexican officials bring to the highway, and posits the likelihood of the fulfillment of these objectives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , August 1974 , pp. 259 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1974

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