Peru’s longest bridge goes nowhere but threatens way of life for indigenous groups

It is the longest bridge ever built in Peru, a massive structure of cement and iron spanning the Nanay River as it connects to untouched areas of the Peruvian Amazon.

So far, it goes nowhere.

The bridge is part of a federal highway project to connect Iquitos, in Peru’s northeast, to the El Estrecho district on the Colombian border, in total some 188km (117 miles).

It faces mounting opposition from Indigenous tribes who fear that the construction will lead to land grabbing, deforestation and drug trafficking, which have plagued similar projects across the world’s largest rainforest.

“The highway will kill us,” said Everest Ochoa, a member of the Maijuna indigenous group that lives in the Peruvian Amazon. “We have to stop this project for the sake of our children, to protect the land for them.”

Construction work is at a standstill as the government conducts a study of the area, but the transport ministry has already built the country’s largest bridge, which extends 2.3km over the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River.