Plans to build a railway that would slice South America from east to west, crossing part of the Amazon Rainforest, are advancing with Chinese funding, according to a recent announcement by the Brazilian government. Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, along with ministers and Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, met in Beijing on May 13 to discuss the proposed rail link connecting South America’s Atlantic and Pacific ports. “The plan is, in fact, to rip Brazil from east to west,” said Simone Tebet, Brazil’s planning minister. “When we talk about cutting across Brazil, we’re talking about at least 3,000 kilometers [1,864 miles].” The proposed railway, known as the Bioceanic Corridor, would connect Brazil’s Ilhéus Port on the Atlantic Coast to Peru’s new Pacific-facing Chancay Port. The latter opened in November 2024, following $3.4 billion in investments, largely from the Chinese shipping company COSCO, which owns 60% of Chancay port. The Brazilian government said the project would allow exported commodities to be rerouted from Brazil’s agricultural strongholds to China via the Pacific Ocean. This would cut shipping times by up to 10 days compared with the current route across the Atlantic Ocean and around the southern tip of the African continent. “Of what we export to the Chinese, 60% is iron ore and soy, which need to be transported by rail. It is much more efficient, not only from an economic standpoint, but also from an environmental one,” said Leonardo Ribeiro, the secretary of railway transport. Projected route for…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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