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The waterway was cleaved across the most narrow section of the Panamanian isthmus in the late 1800s and early 1900s, by French and then U.S. engineers.

Perhaps to that end, López Obrador announced Friday that Mexico plans to extend a cargo train line that spans a narrow isthmus its the south to the Guatemalan border.

The migrant route through the narrow isthmus grew exponentially in popularity in recent years with the help of organized crime in Colombia, making it an affordable, if dangerous, land route for hundreds of thousands.

Many gay and trans people in Mexico City and elsewhere call themselves muxes — though community leaders here, concerned about cultural appropriation, say only Zapotec people from the isthmus can qualify.

It is known as the 'gap' on Panama's Darien isthmus because it is the only missing section, running about 60 miles, on the Pan-American highway that stretches from Alaska to Argentina.