48 257 October 17, 2011. According to the information available to the IACHR, this process is continuing, 258 without any clarification of the facts alleged or any punishment for those responsible. E. Impact of the Bayano Hydroelectric Complex and the Pan American Highway on the the indigenous peoples Kuna of the Madungandí and the Emberá of Bayano, and their members 181. As the IACHR has considered proven in preceding paragraphs, the construction of the dam meant the flooding and consequent destruction of the territory inhabited ancestrally by the Kuna and Emberá peoples of Bayano, and on whose ecosystem they depended for their physical and spiritual 259 survival, which itself represented a grave impact on the alleged victims’ traditional way of life. This impact is described by a member of the Emberá community as follows: ... I suffered a brusque change as a child also at that time and I know that my whole family suffered the same at that moment when the water was rising behind the dam, flooding their houses, I saw it with my own eyes; we were the last family to abandon that place. Since then I was waiting on the other side of the river for us to move to the place where we were first relocated, when we reached that place, our community was ill, that I will never forget, and my community became ill and went crazy, my family ran fleeing into the street, to the mountains, those are things that stay with us … even the children, like they went mad, perhaps due to the very impact that we suffered. Perhaps we didn’t have any way to live 260 with our nature….(sic) 182. The construction of the hydroelectric complex led to an increase of diseases in the indigenous communities, caused mainly by the decomposition of the plant cover due to the creation of the 261 reservoir. According to the information produced, “the lake is also responsible for the proliferation of malaria by means of mosquitoes that transmit it and other flies that bite in the area, a major health 262 problem for the indigenous peoples.”” In this respect, the record before the IACHR includes an epidemiological report produced May 12, 2009, in communities of the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí, which verifies that presence of “parasitic diseases of water origin” such as “malaria…, yellow fewer [and] 263 leishmaniasis plasmodium vivax.” In addition, in a medical report produced based on a visit to three 257 Annex 89. Proceeding in response to complaint AID-FAR-CHE-298-11, folios 46-48. Annex 16 to petitioners’ brief of July 13, 2012, received by the IACHR the same day. 258 In that regard, the State affirmed in its last submission to the IACHR that “[a]t this time, according to information of the Municipal Government, the reopening of the investigation will be requested, since there is new evidence that supports doing so.” Submission of the State of September 17, 2012, received on September 24, 2012. 259 In this respect, the petitioners note: “The flooding of their ancestral lands no longer allows any tribe to continue its traditional way of life, and keeps them from passing on their cultural knowledge to future generations. For these indigenous groups, religious and cultural sites and bound up with the lands already flooded under Lake Bayano that cannot be replaced.” Brief of additional observations on the merits by the petitioners, received by the IACHR on December 18, 2009. p. 23. 260 IACHR, Public hearing, March 23, 2012 on “Case 12,354 -- Kuna of Madungandí and Emberá of Panama,” 144th regular period of sessions. Testimony of Bolívar Jaripio Garabato, member of the Emberá community of Piriatí and of the Emberá General Congress of Alto Bayano. Along similar lines, the Cacique General of the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí noted on this incident that: “... I felt the sensation of the invasion of Bayano and also … I feel very sad because lately, and in addition that I … experienced, I felt the pain with this reservoir on the Bayano river ... has lost sacred sites, burial grounds, among others, and lack of cultural values.” IACHR, Public hearing, March 23, 2012 sobre “Case 12,354 -- Kuna of Madungandí and Emberá of Panama,” 144th regular period of sessions. Testimony of Manuel Pérez, Cacique General of the General Congress of the Kuna Comarca of Madungandí. See hearing at http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/ 261 Petitioners’ initial petition of May 11, 2000. pp. 3-4. Annex 17. Sworn statement by the Kuna caciques. Annex 17 to petitioners’ initial petition of May 11, 2000. p. 26; and petitioners’ brief of September 21, 2001, received by the IACHR September 24, 2001. pp. 7-8. 262 Annex 17. Sworn statement of the Kuna caciques. Annex 17 to petitioners’ initial petition of May 11, 2000. p. 26; and petitioners’ brief of September 21, 2001, received by the IACHR September 24, 2001. pp. 7-8. 263 Annex 90. Epidemiological report produced May 12, 2009. Annex F-3 to petitioners’ brief of additional observations on the merits, received by the IACHR on December 18, 2009.