Ana Paula Marra and Nelson Motta
Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, yesterday, for the laying of the cornerstone of the highway that will link Brazil to the Pacific Ocean, said the project would turn a dream into reality and write a new chapter in the history of the continent's peoples. The Transoceanic Highway leaves Brazil in the state of Acre, crosses some 1,000 kilometers in Peru and reaches its final destination in Peruvian ports on the Pacific coast.

"We are moving out of the preaching into the practice. This is idea of physical integration becoming concrete reality. We must remember that people have died for this dream, the dream of Latin American integration," said Lula.

Translator: Allen Bennett