Guyana : the foreign legion | M6 | Les Chemins de l'Impossible

The border between French Guiana and Brazil is one of the most inaccessible borders imaginable. Between the Maroni and Oyapock rivers, 130 kilometers in the heart of the jungle, designated by road markers that vanish under vegetation within a few days…130 kilometers into which no customs officer has ever put a foot or carried out the slightest control. The legionnaire commandos of the third foreign infantry regiment based in Cayenne are in charge of marking the French presence on this impossible road. A squadron of about thirty men sets off for these hostile lands. A twenty-day mission, in small boats or by foot, to uncover the border markers from their layer of vegetation. With packs weighing more than 30 kilos for each of the men for they have to take everything in with them, from the chain saw to the explosives. An infernal jungle. Often they have to cut a passage through with their machetes. In certain places, the men are happy if they’ve been able to progress 500 meters in the day. “It’s so thick,” says Colonel Berthout,” that it is impossible to send an helicopter to pick up someone who’s been hurt or is sick.”