13 sahilas may form regional congresses for coordination at this level, and local congresses entrusted with 48 the administration of each community. 2. The Emberá Indigenous People of Bayano 62. The Emberá of Bayano are found in the corregimiento of El Llano, district of Chepo, province of Panama, in the Republic of Panama. 63. The Emberá constitute a linguistic subgroup of the Chocó indigenous group, which comes from what is today the Colombian State. The second subgroup that derives from the Chocó are 49 the Wounaan, also called Nonamá. 64. According to the census conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Census in 2010, the total Emberá population in Panama is 31,284, which accounts for 7.5% of the country’s 50 indigenous population. At present they constitute the third largest indigenous group of Panama. th th 65. In the late 17 and early 18 centuries the Emberá and Wounaan migrated from Colombia to what is today Panamanian territory and settled on the banks of the rivers in the present-day th province of Darién, in Panama. In the early 19 century a part of the Emberá group moved to the region 51 52 of Bayano , situating themselves along the river, with a principal village called Majecito. The Emberá and Wounaan who remained in the region of Darién were recognized by the State as a comarca by Law 53 22 of November 8, 1983. The Emberá who remained in the Bayano zone were not included in this law. 48 Law 24, Articles 4 to 7; and Executive Decree 228, Articles 6 to 29. 49 Annex 1. Esther Urieta Donos, thesis “Ipeti-Choco: Una comunidad Indígena de Panamá afectada por una Presa Hidroeléctrica.” Universidad Veracruzana, School of Anthropology, 1994. pp. 59-60. Annex C to Petitioners’ brief of additional observations on the merits, received by the IACHR on December 18, 2009. See also, Reina Torres de Araúz. “Cunas (Tules).” In: Panamá indígena. Panama City: Panama Canal Authority. 1999. p. 192. 50 National Institute of Statistics and Census. Resultados Finales del XI Censo de Población y VII de Vivienda. Table 20: Indigenous population in the Republic, by sex, province, indigenous comarca, indigenous group to which they belong, and age group. 2010. 51 Annex 3. Alaka Wali, “Kilowatts and Crisis: Hydroelectric Power and Social Dislocation in Eastern Panama,” 26 Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado 1989. Annex 51 to petitioners’ initial petition of May 11, 2000. This migration is explained as follows: “Those who have studied the phenomenon agree that in these same years the migratory flow of black Colombians from the Chocó to the Darién was on the rise, and likewise of peasants from western Panama, displaced in turn by the plantation crops and ranchers. The pressure brought to bear by these two human groups on the lands occupied by the indigenous probably sparked another response: ‘…as they lacked title, the indigenous did not have any more resources than to yield and to go look for new lands elsewhere…,’, but we consider equally valid to postulate that the Chocóes, in a defensive posture on the part of this ethnic group, opted to seek new areas where they could maintain their traditional lifestyle. And so Emberá-speaking families began to situate themselves in the basin of the Bayano river and Wounaan-speaking groups relocated in the district of Chimán in the province of Panamá (sic)”. Annex 1. Esther Urieta Donos, thesis “Ipeti-Choco: Una comunidad Indígena de Panamá afectada por una Presa Hidroeléctrica”. Universidad Veracruzana, School of Anthropology, 1994. p. 89. Annex C to the petitioners’ brief of additional observations on the merits, received by the IACHR December 18, 2009. 52 According to a study by the Bureau of Settlement of the Bayano Integral Development Project, done in 1973, the Chocó living in the Bayano river basin numbered 623 persons, who constituted 115 families. Specifically, it notes that as of 1973, there were in all 152 persons in the village of Majecito, in the Bayano River. Annex X. Esther Urieta Donos, thesis “Ipeti-Choco: Una comunidad Indígena de Panamá afectada por una Presa Hidroeléctrica.” Universidad Veracruzana, School of Anthropology, 1994. p.p. 91-92. Annex C to the petitioners’ brief of additional observations on the merits, received by the IACHR December 18, 2009. In addition, in the public hearing before the IACHR, expert Ultiminio Cabrera Chanapi indicated: “Before the Bayano hydroelectric dam was built, the Emberá people of the Alto Bayano … were all around the river, from the source to the mouth, they occupied the fertile territories … there were [communities] in Río Diablito, there was one in Majecito, in Río Piragua, and along all the tributaries of the Bayano river.” IACHR, Public hearing, March 23, 2012 on “Case 12,354 -- Kuna of Madungandí and Emberá of Panama,” 144th regular period of sessions. Expert testimony of Ultiminio Cabrera Chanapi. See hearing at http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/. 53 The Emberá-Wounaan Comarca was established by Law 22 of November 8, 1983; the Administrative Organic Charter of the Comarca was adopted by Executive Decree 84 of April 9, 1999.