A month after protests against mining laws that left two killed by Panama's police, the Ngöbe people are engaged in dialogue with the government with mediation from the United Nations. Thousands of international letters and emails in solidarity with the Ngöbe protesters helped achieve this important breakthrough.
The Ngöbe still need our support. They have renewed a demand that the president revoke Executive Decree No. 537, a law which restricts the right of Indigenous Peoples to choose their own leaders. The executive decree violates the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Panama has endorsed. The Ngöbe people first expressed their disapproval of the executive decree in 2009, when they boycotted a government-sponsored election of Ngöbe representatives. On March 7, Celio Guerra, President of the XI Congeso General Ngäbe Bukle, issued a statement again demanding that the decree be revoked, calling the leaders elected through the decree's process "puppets" who are put in place by the government to approve mining concessions within the Ngöbe-Bugle territory.
Please TAKE ACTION now and send an email to Panama officials urging them to respect the Ngöbe's right as Indigenous Peoples to elect their own leaders.
