April 2008 e-News

The Ngöbe villagers' situation continues to deteriorate with AES Corporation now using lights to work on the dam around the clock, and police blocking all non-Ngöbe-residents from entering the zone. Panama's Supreme Court has still not responded to the amparo (similar to habeus corpus) petition our partners filed in December. In March, we filed a petition on the Ngöbes' behalf with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. We asked the Commission to go directly to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an order demanding that Panama halt work on the dam until the Ngöbe are properly consulted and their rights are respected.