On March 1st, Ngöbe authorities decided that dialogue should continue with the Panama government over the country's mining laws, but requested that the dialogues be moved to take place at UN offices and be mediated by officials of the UN, according to a statement by mediators.
Dialogues between the Ngöbe and the government began after a week-long blockade of the Pan-American highway starting in late January. The Ngöbe organized the blockade after the national legislature made a last minute move to pull articles from the mining law that would prohibit mining concessions within the Ngöbe-Bugle territory. The protests were met with violence from Panama’s military which resulted in the deaths of two Ngöbe protesters.
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Crosses of two Ngöbe protesters killed by military, including a 16-year old student.
Yesterday, a committee of human rights groups published a report based on their investigations of the violence. They cited 15 different human rights violations committed against the Ngöbe Bugle people during the week of protests. The 59-page report denounced the state of Panama for using military tactics against civilians. The report included evidence of use of lethal weapons, excessive violence, shots fired from helicopters, unlawful detainment, raids of private homes without warrant, and the suspension of cell phone service blocking communication among activists within the Ngöbe-Bugle territory and calls outside the country.
See a summary of the report by Servindi, in Spanish, here.
