5
e.
there have been death threats “against the community leaders and those
individuals who ha[d] stood out due to their firm attitude against the dam and
negotiating with the company,” which have not been adequately investigated;
f.
on January 3, 2008, a demonstration by the Ngöbe was repressed using tear gas
and other types of force, and in this context “fifty protesters [were] detained,
including three minors;”
g.
on July 3, 4, and 5, 2009, the Community of Charco La Pava “was sieged by
security agents, who threatened to evacuate the community by force” and the affected
communities were in “grave risk of suffering a violent repression at any time;”
h.
“the Chan-75 dam would flood the four communities,” all of which “would have
to be transferred from their current settlements.” The Commission added that the
State “has quickly advanced in the construction and flooding;”
i.
Since February 2008 the communities of Charco La Pava and Valle del Rey have
experienced inconveniences due to the noise of the construction works and the
detonation of explosives, which sometimes was 24 hours a day. They claim grave
psychological impact due to this type of explosions, as they generate a situation of a
lot of pressure for the communities. The Commission added that Ngöbe families “ha[d]
reported that due to the dust generated by the construction machinery around them,
several children had started suffering from frequent and intense respiratory illnesses,”
“vomiting and diarrhea,” and as consequence of the explosions “the river [was] being
contaminated” and that “the presence of fuel and motor oil waste” would “contaminate
the fish which are the base of their nutrition” and “any way of getting food (hunting,
fishing, or agriculture);”
j.
the communities, especially Charco La Pava, would need to be relocated urgently
in view of the unsustainable life conditions suffered, given that they “live surround[ed]
by the construction works;”
k.
“the transit of persons of vehicles, whether from the community or not, has been
restricted both by AES personnel” and “by the Police, which at times supported the
company’s employees in imposing these limitations.” According to the Commission,
the restrictions to transit consisted of “open prohibitions on passing from and to the
communities, requiring permits –issued by the same company from their offices in
Changuinola or in Panama City- to be able to enter the communities, of performing
searches, roadblocks, and intrusive questioning of those who try to pass through the
existing access roads, and acts of harassment, both by the police and by company
employees.” The circulation restrictions would impede “carrying out the traditional
patterns of mobility along the ancestral territory for effects of hunting, collecting, and
agriculture;”
l.
those who had signed agreements had been subject to “deceitful maneuvers,”
“pressure and grave threats” to compel them to accept compensations and
resettlements.” The Commission referred to the report of the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the situation of the Ngöbe communities, issued on September 7, 2009,
where the Rapporteur, “during his on site visit,” “identified a significant level of
discontent among the members of the communities affected by the project,” including
certain people who “had signed agreements with the company” because “they had no
other option.” The Special Rapporteur emphasized that “there is a clear imbalance
between the parties to the negotiation in terms of power, access to information, and
capacity,” that “the negotiations promoted by the Company are oriented toward
achieving agreements with individual families, not adjusting to the traditional