Liberal Forum

At the time foreign interests (European and US mainly) had an interest in developing the region. This was due to geopolitical reasons. The region is at the waist of the continent and even though narrow the obstacle was insurmountable without infrastructure. Heavily forested, hot, and tropical diseases were rampant. Foreigners had no natural immunity's. So this was a daunting endeavor. Not for the faint of heart. But there was a great value to developing the region if someone could overcome the obstacles. The US was best suited for this as we had experience developing large tracks of land to the north. But this was a different beast in many ways. Our experience indicated railroads were the first order of business.

If successful this would shorten trading routes having to go around South America.