More dry facts.

• Author: Miller, William H.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Where could I find more information on the "dry canal" going from Cutuco, El Salvador to Puerto Cortes, Honduras that is mentioned in the article "Expanding Ties of a Far-Fling Diaspora" in the February issue of Americas? An article on the "dry canal" should be of interest to your readers since it would be in competition with the proposed third canal in Panama.

William H. Miller

Ingleside, Texas

Author's Reply:

The idea is fairly simple: build a modern container terminal in El Salvador, on the Pacific Ocean, and link it via superhighway to two upgraded container terminals on the Atlantic--Puerto Cortes in Honduras, and Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. That way, shippers will be able to unload containers from ocean vessels on one side, truck those same containers across the skinniest part of Central America, and reload them back onto similar ships at the other end.

The "canal seco" idea has been talked about for years, but now it's actually being implemented. Construction has started at the Port of Cutuco, on the Gulf of Fonseca along El Salvador's Pacific coast. The $172 million port is being built with a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Dredging is now underway; when finished, ships with capacities as large as 6, 000 or 7,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) will be able to call at Cutuco. Projections call for total cargo to reach 120,000 TEUs in the first year, 185, 000 TEUs by the second year, and 275...