The Ferry That Never Arrives: Panama-Colombia

Sometimes you can tell the Fix is in, and it's hard to look elsewhere than my own country. I used to argue that America has cleaned up it's act in Latin America, and I think it's true compared to the old days. Even in the 80's, no matter how zealous guys like Bob Casey and Oliver North seemed to be, the guys on the ground actually often did a good job of teaching militaries to respect human life and create a middle ground between paramilitary fanatics and the Left Wing guerrillas who might be romantic, and sympathetic if you ever watched an oligarchy, but might not make things better in the long run. These days, the movement of the Non Aligned and the whole Bolivarian thing is kind of doing it's deal, and it's like watching teenagers fledge the coop.. they'll figure it out eventually.
It's true that the second Bush administration likely tried to undermine or potentially overthrow Chavez, although not much came of it, but for better or for worse, the Monroe Doctrine has learned to be a more respectful parent of sorts.
However, nothing seems to trump security, which is why I think the fix might be in on the Colombia-Panama Ferry.
For the uninitiated, if you can build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, or put a man on the moon, you can build a road across the Darien Gap.. it's tough country, trust me, I have seen it, but there isn't much man can't do with a little diesel and some heavy equipment. The thing that has always blocked the extension of the Pan American Highway, which currently runs as far south as a wild little town called Yaviza, Panama, is American Diplomats, by all rumor. They think it's bad enough that all of Central America can make it to the US border to have a hop over, but the idea of adding a land connection to another 600 million people doesn't sit well with them.. so as much as the US claims to be an advocate of free market, the car, and transportation infrastructure development, there does appear to be a limit.. the idea of 2 million Peruvians deciding to join their cousins in Denver with some white powder in their mochilla to pay for the trip seems to be too much for the powers that be.
So I am just speculating, but it would seem a fair bet that some combination of shipping and security interests are what keeps a ferry from Colon to Cartagena from ever happening. My first awareness of this was in talking to friends who motorcycled south from the US trying to get to Tierra Del Fuego, and they told me about having to go to Colon to ship their bike in a shipping container. For the individual, there is of all things, a backpacker ferry service, that occasionally runs afoul of the authorities in Cartagena, that ships groups of maybe 7-15 tourists on some form of charter sailboat or i think in one cast an old fishing boat from the fascinating little berg of Portobello, Panama to Cartagena, with a stop to snorkel and see the natives in Kuna Yala, the San Blas islands. But this is hardly a car ferry, hardly a convenient overnight trip like has been accomplished so many places around the world, keeping commerce afloat, and offering a relaxing alternative to the airplane.. so recently, with a friend in Cartagena hoping to get to Panama, I got to watch the whole silent death of a Ferry Service.. let's see if the web page still exists... they had even scheduled their first voyage which came and went with an apology.. they seem to have taken it down...
Here's the short postmortem:
http://news.liveandinvestoverseas.com/Investment/panama-to-colombia-ferry-project-cancelled.html
Some history of the Previous Attempt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucero_Express
I might be engaging in conspiracy theory, maybe the business really isn't there, but something makes me wonder..