By Francisco Peyret
Since the first half of the 19th century, Mexican politicians have imagined the idea of a road along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec that would link the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic. This would help Mexico entered a path of progress because it would establish commercial relations with the most powerful nations in the world. According to the historian Ana Rosa Suárez, the isthmus became a great object of desire, seen as a way to compete with Panama and Nicaragua in transporting merchandise quickly and at a lower cost.
By 1849, businessman José de Garay had a concession for the construction of a project on the Tehuantepec isthmus. The war between the United States and Mexico had just ended in 1948, with the painful loss of territory for our country. It did not take long for North American businessmen to appear, hoping to take over this company. This led to a conflict among several businessmen. Peter A. Hargous bought the concession from José de Garay and founded the Tehuantepec Railroad Company to fulfill the objective. Unfortunately, he clashed with Mexican politicians, who were worried that the country could lose more territories.
In Mexico, there was an intense battle for power between conservatives and liberals, the latter led by Benito Juárez. It seems that these disputes led Hargous to lose the concession in 1851. Two years later, Albert G. Sloo would obtain it and created the Compañía Mixta- Tehuantepec Company. It seems that Sloo managed to convince President Comonfort in 1855 that his company should build the road.
There were other countries involved as well—French and Spanish factions were interested in the isthmus. Finally, the isthmus project went to the United States with the signing of the Ocampo-McLane Treaty. When Buchanan became president in the United States, there was a change in policy towards Mexico. Buchanan sought to buy Baja California, Sonora, and part of Chihuahua and wanted to maintain indeterminate transit through the isthmus. The project had terrible financial problems, and the Ocampo-McLane Treaty was not ratified.
We don’t know what would have happened to Mexico and the south of the country if the road to the isthmus had crystallized. Evidently, the use of natural resources would have been very different, and the fate of communities totally different. According to information from the federal government, the 20 billion peso (US$1 billion) interoceanic corridor is designed link the port of Salina Cruz in the state of Oaxaca on the Pacific coast, and the Coatzacoalcos port in Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico and would compete with the Panama Canal.
Although the Tehuantepec isthmus corridor is strategic for the U.S., it is Chinese companies that are coming to invest in the area. Some Mexican historians argue that with great luck and the war of secession in the U.S., Juárez and Ocampo managed to contain foreign expansionist impulses. Paradoxically, after almost 150 years, it is up to President López Obrador, a devout liberal, to promote this project. It has been the object of desire for international trade for many decades and would greatly impact the economic, social, and environmental composition of southern Mexico.
