Yaviza is a town and

corregimiento ''Corregimiento'' (; ca, Corregiment, ) is a Spanish term used for country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes, ensuring districts were under crown control as opposed to local elites. A ''corregimiento'' was usually headed by a '' corr ...

Pinogana District Pinogana District () is a district (''distrito'') of Darién Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,823; the latest estimate (for 2019) is 26,160.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district cov ...

Darién Province Darién (, , ) is a province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country and bordered to the north by the province of Panamá and the region of Kuna Yala. To the south, it is border ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

with a population of 4,441 as of 2010.

Location

The town marks the southeastern end of the northern half of the

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

, at the north end of the

Darién Gap The Darién Gap (, , es, Tapón del Darién , ) is a geographic region between the North and South American continents within Central America, consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama's Darién Province and the norther ...

.Leonard, Thomas M
Historical Dictionary of Panama
p. xxxv (2015) It lies on the

Chucunaque River The Chucunaque River is a river of Panama. It is a tributary of the Tuira River in the Darién Province Darién (, , ) is a province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country a ...

, a major tributary of the

Tuira River The Tuira River is located in the Darién Province of eastern Panama. It flows into the Bay of San Miguel at the province capital of La Palma. It is the largest river in Panama, and one of its tributaries, the Chucunaque River, is the longest ...

, along which travel by boat into the Darién Gap occurs. The nearest town on the river route is

El Real de Santa María El Real de Santa María is a corregimiento in Pinogana District, Darién Province, Panama with a population of 1,183 as of 2010. It is the seat of Pinogana District. Its population as of 1990 was 1,201; its population as of 2000 was 1,185. The t ...

, which is the capital of

Demographics

The population of Yaviza as of 1990 was 8,452, falling to 3,317 as recorded in the year 2000, and rising to 4,441 as of 2010.

History

The town was founded by Spanish missionaries as San Jerónimo de Yaviza in September 1638.Rutkow, Eric
The Longest Line on the Map
p. 322 (2019) A Spanish fort (Fuerte de San Geronimo de Yaviza) was built in 1760, and heavily damaged by an attack of the Indigenous Guna in 1780.Lonely Planet Panama
p. 427 (2022) A flood destroyed half of the remaining ruins in the mid-20th century.Jimenez, Raul E. (6 August 2018

''La Prensa'' (in Spanish) Darien_Gap_OSM

As the

was constructed, it eventually reached Yaviza as a dirt road. But plans to complete the road to Colombia were stopped, leaving Yaviza as the end point of the northern half of the highway.Johnson, Tim (25 October 1992)
Panama revives dream of completing highway that would link the Americas
''Monitor'' (

McAllen, Texas McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...

; Knight Ridder content) ("Engineers slashed the highway -- really just a dirt track barely passable in the rainy season -- through to Yaviza in 1983.") The final sections of the highway to Yaviza have since been improved and are now paved.Howe, Ben Ryder (March 2001)
The Forgotten Highway
''The Atlantic'' ("The government, under pressure from the peasants, has announced that it will begin paving the road to Yaviza.")

References

Corregimientos of Darién Province Populated places in Darién Province Populated places established in 1638 {{Darién-geo-stub