Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with minimal or no consultation with indigenous authorities and no compensation to those
forced to move. Government and big business are not the only threats: poor cattle farmers,
colonos
, desperate for fresh grazing land, have been encroaching on indigenous lands for
years, particularly in eastern Panama.
By far the most organized politically are the Guna, who have had the greatest success
in defending their rights against the state and possess three representatives at government
level. The other main indigenous groups have tended to follow the Guna model, electing a
General Congress
consisting of a
cacique
and community representatives. Leaders from
the various indigenous parties have begun working together to tackle attempts to marginal-
ize them or incorporate them into models of development they do not espouse. In 2008, a
petition listing indigenous peoples' grievances against the state was presented to the Amer-
ican Commission on Human Rights. The resulting landmark victory for the Ngäbe living
along the Río Changiunola, who secured an injunction to halt the dam threatening their vil-
lage, gives reason for some optimism.
The twenty-first century
In an interesting twist, the presidential elections of 1999 were contested between Martín Tor-
rijos, illegitimate son of the former military ruler, and the widow of Arnulfo Arias (the man
Torrijos ousted in 1968),
Mireya Moscoso
, who became Panama's first female leader. On
December 31 she presided over the seamless
handover of the canal
, which is now effi-
ciently managed by the independent Autoridad del Canal de Panamá. The US withdrawal
was a mixed blessing for Panama's economy: many jobs disappeared with the closure of the
bases, but the valuable real estate and infrastructure Panama inherited created investment op-
portunities. Still, a number of the former US buildings lie abandoned, and relations with the
US remain complex.
Moscoso's term in office got off to a rocky start when, before the first budget vote, she gave
Cartier watches and jewellery as “Christmas presents” to the 72 members of the legislative
assembly. It set the tenor for the presidency, which was scarred with accusations of corrup-
tion and incompetence. Her term ended in similarly controversial fashion as she tried to push
through construction of a tarred road linking Boquete and Cerro Punta through the nation-
al park of Volcán Barú. Opposition to the outrageous plan successfully united numerous na-
tional and international environmental groups and became a major election issue allowing
Martín Torrijos
, heading the PRD, to become president.
Though Torrijos junior was elected on a platform of “zero corruption” it did not take long
before scandals started to emerge; nor was his administration's record on the environment
particularly memorable, approving countless hydroelectric projects in Chiriquí and Bocas del
Toro Provinces with scant environmental assessment studies and little negotiation with the
