Tuesday, 23 January 2018 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: South America / Südamerika Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 7minutes
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Yaviza is a town and corregimiento in Pinogana District, Darién Province, with a population of 4,500. The town marks the southeastern end of the northern half of the Pan-American Highway, at the north end of the Darién Gap. Two major national parks exist in the Darién Gap: Darién National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Darién) in Panama and Los Katíos National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional de Los Katíos) in Colombia. The Darién Gap forests had extensive cedrela and mahogany cover at one time, but many of these trees were removed by loggers. Darién National Park covers around 5,790 square kilometres of land and was established in 1980. It is the largest national park in Central America.
The Darién Gap is home to the Embera-Wounaan and Kuna (and the former home of the Cueva people before their extermination in the 16th century). Travel is often by dugout canoe (piragua). On the Panamanian side, La Palma is the capital of the province and the main cultural centre. Other mestizo population centers include Yaviza and El Real de Santa María. The Darién Gap had a reported population of 1,700 in 1980. Corn, cassava, plantains, and bananas are staple crops wherever land is developed.
The Darién Gap was subject to the presence and activities of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has committed assassinations, kidnappings and human rights violations during its decades-long insurgency against the Colombian government. FARC rebels are present on both the Colombian and Panamanian sides of the border. In 2000, two British travelers, Tom Hart Dyke and Paul Winder, were kidnapped by suspected FARC guerillas in the Darién Gap while hunting for rare orchids, a plant for which Dyke has a particular passion. The two were held captive for nine months and threatened with death before eventually being released unharmed and without a ransom being paid. Dyke and Winder later documented their experience in the book The Cloud Garden and an episode of Banged Up Abroad. Other political victims of the Darién Gap include three New Tribes missionaries, who disappeared from Pucuro on the Panamanian side in 1993. In 2003, Robert Young Pelton, on assignment for National Geographic Adventure magazine, and two traveling companions, Mark Wedeven and Megan Smaker, were detained for one week by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a pro-government paramilitary organization, in a highly publicized incident. From May 2013, Colombian neo-paramilitary forces were reported to be very active in the Darién around Los Katios National Park and the Cuenca Cacarica. In 2013, Swedish backpacker Jan Philip Braunisch disappeared in the area after leaving the Colombian town of Riosucio with the intention of attempting a crossing on foot to Panama, via the Cuenca Cacarica. His skeletal remains were recovered in June 2015 with evidence he had been killed with a shot in the head. The FARC admitted to killing him, confusing him for a foreign spy.
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