Panama: Resistance Grows as Contested Dam Project Moves Forward

[Judi Lynn]

Panama: Resistance Grows as Contested Dam Project Moves Forward



Ngabe Bugle indigenous community leader Clementina Perez | Photo: EFE

Published 10 July 2015


Indigenous leaders say an eviction of their blockade protest would be equivalent to a "declaration of war" against the community.

The Panamanian government has decided to move forward with the controversial Barro Blanco hydroelectric project, pushing indigenous movements in resistance to unite to strengthen their opposition, Prensa Latina reported Friday.

In a statement, authorities announced the government's plans to complete the construction of the dam taking “all measures necessary” to safeguard the surrounding population and to continue to engage in dialogue with affected indigenous communities, which have adamantly opposed the project.

The contested hydroelectric project was temporarily suspended on February 9, 2015, after a long resistance led by the indigenous Ngabe Bugle people. However, the government decided to retsart the project and put completion of the dam back on track.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Panama-Resistance-Grows-as-Contested-Dam-Project-Moves-Forward-20150710-0023.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Don't forget the Rio Negro Massacres in Guatemala over taking their land for a dam:

Guatemala's Chixoy dam: where development and terror intersect

A 1982 massacre paved the way for a hydroelectric dam built with development bank funds. What lessons have been learned?

Nick Dearden
Monday 10 December 2012 10.01 EST

Thirty years ago a massacre took place in the Guatemalan highlands that left 400 people dead. Countless more were displaced, tortured, raped or left starving. And all to make way for a hydroelectric dam.

Sadly, there was nothing especially unusual about this event in a country where, by 1982, horrific events had virtually become the norm under a series of military governments intent on terrorising the population. More shocking is that those people suffered to make way for a mega-dam supported by two institutions supposedly committed to development: the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.

So pleased were the banks with the Chixoy hydroelectric dam that, in 1986, they authorised another loan to the project, making no mention of the human rights catastrophe that had taken place.

The Chixoy loan was one of a series made to Guatemala's government from the mid-1970s onwards, which are analysed for the first time in a report released by Jubilee Debt Campaign to mark international human rights day.

There was nothing new about western interference in Guatemala. In 1954, after a brief but glorious 10-year experiment with democracy – the only genuine push for development in Guatemala in the past century – the government was overthrown by a CIA coup.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/dec/10/guatemala-chixoy-dam-development-terror

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A real legacy of pure evil is forced upon the innocents of the world by the bloated goblins of the right-wing who plan to keep paying soldiers with the people's taxes to kill everyone who could try to oppose their control of the world.

Their day is coming, and they are fools to try to ignore this simple fact.

[polly7]

2. Thanks, as always, Judi Lynn for all this information.

These people fight, and have fought, so hard and suffered so much. I hope you're right that the evil ones causing the deaths of people all over the world for nothing but profit and greed will get their day - sooner than later.

It's all just so sad.