70 266. As regards the administrative remedies filed by the alleged victims, the IACHR has found that on April 5, 2002, the traditional authorities of the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí began a procedure for evicting illegal occupants with the office of the mayor of Chepo. According to the information in the record before the IACHR, that authority did not offer any response to this request. The IACHR observes that the legal basis for the request filed was found in Article 1409 of the Judicial Code of Panama, which established as follows: When the property is occupied without a lease agreement with the owner or his representative or administrator, any of these persons may request that the chief of police have it cleared and hand it over to him or her. If the occupant or occupants do not show title that explains the occupation, the eviction shall take place immediately. 267. The IACHR has answered that after a year without obtaining a response from the local authority, on February 17, 2003, the representatives of the Comarca filed a similar request with the office of the governor of the province of Panamá. The Commission observes that no significant steps were taken in this administrative procedure. In effect, even though that provision establishes that “the eviction shall be carried out immediately” if they do not have titles that explain the occupation – as in the instant case – the first action of the provincial authority was taken on June 6, 2003. It was not until over 11 months had elapsed, since the request, that the provincial governor sought a legal opinion from the Procuraduría de Administración concerning her authority. Nonetheless, as has been proven, the alleged victims reiterated the request for eviction, denounced new invasions, and asked that procedural impetus be given to the matter. 268. That procedure was considered concluded with the resolution of August 2004 by which the provincial authority found itself to lack authority, based on the note issued by the Procuraduría de Administración on March 31, 2004, and ordered the matter archived, considering that it should be forwarded to the Presidency of the Republic. Nonetheless, according to the information available to the IACHR, the record was not forwarded, but rather it was the petitioners who on January 24, 2005, filed the request for eviction of illegal occupants with the Presidency of the Republic. Nonetheless, according to the information before the IACHR, this request did not receive any response whatsoever. 269. In view of those considerations, the IACHR considers that the proceedings initiated by the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí before the national, provincial, and local authorities under Article 1409 of the Judicial Code of Panama did not constitute special, opportune and effective mechanisms that would have enabled the alleged victims to obtain effective protection for their territory; indeed, that state action was at odds with the obligations contained in Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention. 270. The IACHR also observes that the request for eviction of illegal occupants would have been presented to the Presidency of the Republic, given the lack of a corregidor with authority in the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí; a corregidor is an authority with the rank of administrative police authorized to order the eviction of illegal occupants. In effect, as the State argued in various briefs submitted to the IACHR, Article 862 of the Panamanian Administrative Code notes who are the chiefs of 359 police in each region. Nonetheless, Law 24, which established the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí, establishes that the General Congress is the maximum authority, without providing for police 360 authorities. The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice issued a judgment along the same 361 lines on March 23, 2001, which the State also mentioned in the procedure before the IACHR. 359 Article 862 of the Administrative Code. “The following are chiefs of Police: The President of the Republic in the entire national territory, the Governors in their Provinces, the Mayors in their Districts; the Corregidors in their Sub-districts and Neighborhoods, the Night Police judges when they are on duty, the Regidores in their Regidurías, and the Comisarios in their sections.” 360 Communication from the State of May 18, 2007, received by the IACHR May 22, 2007; Additional observations on the merits submitted by the State by brief of April 27, 2010, received by the IACHR May 3, 2010. In addition, in the thematic hearing on the right to private property of indigenous peoples in Panama, the State noted that the High-Level Presidential Commission in May 2008 made a visit to areas invaded by settlers in the Kuna Comarca, on which occasion the lack of an administrative authority to handle the requests for eviction was verified, thus it was considered necessary to appoint a corregidor. Thematic hearing on the Continúa…