Panama - Minority Rights Group

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Environment The Republic of Panama is located on the Isthmus of Panama, which connects Central and South America. On the western border is Costa Rica and to the east is Colombia. The Panama Canal runs between the low-lying Caribbean and Pacific coasts. There are numerous offshore islands.

According to the 2023 Census, the total population of Panama stands at 4,064,780, making it one of the smallest countries in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

History Before the arrival of the Spanish in 1501, Panama was densely inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples whose kinship groups extended into the Caribbean as well as South America and along the Isthmus as far north as Honduras. Craftsmanship was highly skilled, for instance in the making of gold huacas or figurines, which were traded north with Mayan cultures in Mexico and south into Colombia. Trade and travel between the Pacific and Caribbean coasts were conducted along a trail established by the indigenous nations. The trail was later adapted and used by the Spanish, who named it ‘Las Cruces’.

As the narrowest part of the American continent, Panama’s later history has been largely determined by its strategic importance for imperial powers. Following the Spanish arrival, the Isthmus became a major crossroads for intercontinental and transoceanic travel using the Camino Real (Royal Road), which developed out of the original Las Cruces trail. For nearly two centuries it was the principal route for taking large numbers of enslaved Africans to the Pacific Coast colonies like Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and for transferring gold and silver from South American mines to Spain. Today, mestizos of mixed indigenous, African and European ancestry make up the majority of the Panamanian population.

With the decline of the Spanish empire, in 1821 Panama declared its independence from the Spanish government, and immediately afterwards, it voluntarily decided to join Gran Colombia, led by Simón Bolívar. US efforts to exert influence in the region, particularly with regard to the construction and control of the Panama Canal, were instrumental in the separation of Panama from Colombia years later.

In 1846, the government of Colombia signed the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty with the United States, permitting the construction of a railroad across the territory that would run from Panama City beside the Pacific to Colón on the Caribbean coast. In addition to Chinese workers, this brought the first influx of Afro-Caribbean labour migrants who were recruited from Jamaica and other parts of the British West Indies.

In 1903, the United States supported the secession of Panama from Colombia in order to gain control over the Canal Zone: an eight-kilometre strip of land, on either side of the construction site of the proposed inter-oceanic canal. In exchange for a US guarantee of Panamanian freedom from reincorporation into Colombia, with the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, the new state granted the United States the right to build and own the canal ‘in perpetuity’. The construction employed over 30,000 Afro-Caribbean ‘diggers’, many of whom stayed after completion. The Canal was opened in 1914, and US involvement in the creation of Panama set a precedent for regular interference in Panamanian affairs.

In 1939, the country’s protectorate status was ended in a revision of the Canal Treaty which explicitly recognized Panamanian sovereignty. This ushered in an era of ultra-nationalism which had a negative effect on non-Hispanic groups however, while the United States continued to control the Canal Zone. It was not until the 1970s, under the government of Omar Torrijos, that a new form of Panamanian nationalism and a desire for sovereignty brought Afro-Panamanians and the dominant mestizo Spanish speakers together. A concrete result of this process was the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which led to the revision of the canal treaty in 1977, granting Panama sovereignty over the Canal Zone and affirmed that full operational control would pass into Panamanian hands in December 1999.

The US arrest of Panamanian leader General Manuel Noriega, through a military operation in December 1989 marked a blow to Panamanian sovereignty and a return to a period of US interference in the country’s affairs. Although the full extent of the invasion’s impact remains unknown, it is estimated that more than 2,000 died, many more ‘disappeared’ and 20,000 lost their homes during the first days of the ‘Operación Causa Justa’.

After the invasion, Panamanian political parties became more cautious about promoting anti-US nationalism. The 1994 elections were won by Ernesto Balladares and the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) which was the party of Noriega. The new government toned down the party’s previous anti-US views and focused on trying to attract more investment and expansion of the economic sector.

In the elections of September 2004 Martín Torrijos (son of Omar Torrijos) of the PRD earned 47 per cent of the vote and assumed a five-year presidential term. Government policies continued to favour a market economy and free-trade arrangements with the United States.

In May 2009 Panama held general elections in which Panamanians voted for all their elected leaders, from President through National Assembly Deputies to city councilmen and mayors for a five-year term. Ricardo Martinelli from the Democratic Change party, founded in 1998, won the election with 60 per cent of the vote. Martinelli’s government implemented a number of projects during his rule that impacted severely on indigenous communities in the country. This included the outright dismissal of a petition by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to suspend a US$600 million hydroelectric project in the Bocas del Toro province. Subsequently completed in 2011, this particularly affected the Ngäbe-Buglé peoples, displacing many from their homes. Martinelli’s government approved similar projects such as the ‘Barro Blanco’ dam in the same year, which is still ongoing and has caused severe inundations, mass fish killings, damaged sacred sites and destroyed the crops upon which Ngäbe-Buglé communities rely.

In May 2014, Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez, candidate of the opposition People First Alliance, was elected as President. Martinelli was constitutionally barred from seeking a second term in office and was subsequently implicated in allegations of public embezzlement and wiretapping. Carlos Varela’s government, on the other hand, took some positive initiatives towards indigenous peoples and minorities in the country. Examples included the establishment of political guidelines and a plan of inclusion for Afro-Panamanians, approved by the General Assembly in 2014. Furthermore, in 2016 the National Secretariat for the Development of Afro-Panamanians (SENADAP) was established. The Ministry of Social Development also created the National Council on the Chinese Ethnic Group as a consultative body in 2015.

Despite these positive steps, hazardous hydroelectric projects, deforestation, poverty, health, illiteracy and other issues particularly affecting minorities and indigenous peoples persist. Corruption remained a key political issue for the May 2019 presidential elections, which resulted in victory for the Democratic Revolutionary Change Party candidate Laurentino ‘Nito’ Cortizo, who is seen as a centrist and ran on a platform of combatting inequality. Ahead of the country’s May 2024 election, the electoral court upheld the ban on Martinelli running for office again.

Governance Panama’s 1972 Constitution seeks to protect the ethnic identities and native languages of Panama’s population, requiring the government to provide bilingual literacy programmes for indigenous communities. The Family Code recognizes traditional indigenous cultural marriage rites as the equivalent of a civil ceremony.

In November 1993, following a successful national strike with the support of other social movements, the National Coordination Body of Indigenous Peoples of Panama, made up of Kuna, Emberá and Ngäbe-Buglé leaders, sponsored a national convention to demand the creation of a high-level government commission to implement greater investment in indigenous areas. President Guillermo Endara endorsed these proposals and incorporated the 1992 Agreement on the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC) into domestic law.

In 2016, the Panamanian National Assembly adopted Law No. 37, which established the requirement of consultation and free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples. While this was positive, indigenous peoples were not consulted in the development of the legislation. Panama has yet to ratify the key indigenous peoples’ rights instrument, namely the International Labour Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), although it did vote in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Ministry of Government includes a Vice Minister of Indigenous Affairs, whose office was established in 2013 and is tasked with coordinating the various relevant government offices and projects in order to guarantee the full participation of indigenous peoples. At the time of writing, the current Vice Minister is Ismael A. Jaén who was appointed in February 2023.

Despite these legal protections and formal equality, indigenous peoples without exception have relatively higher levels of poverty, disease, malnutrition and illiteracy than the rest of the population. The biggest campaigning issue for Panama’s indigenous peoples has been the struggle for land rights in the form of autonomous land reserves.

The 1972 Constitution required the government to establish comarcas or reserves for indigenous communities, but this policy was not universally implemented. The country has recognized such territories for six of the country’s indigenous peoples. These have a significant degree of autonomy and are free from taxation. These provisions were later supplemented by Law No. 72, adopted in 2008, which enables the demarcation of collective indigenous land titles outside the comarcas. Only five land rights claims have so far been recognized under Law No. 72, however, out of the 29 that have been filed.

The most recent comarca Naso Tjër Di was established in 2020, granting official recognition to the territory of the Naso people. Its establishment was fraught, having been vetoed by President Juan Carlos Varela in 2018. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Naso people in 2020. However, while the comarca has been recognized, its boundaries have yet to be demarcated, making it difficult to enforce.

Panama’s indigenous peoples still face a myriad of challenges. These include land rights disputes, inadequate access to education and healthcare, and cultural preservation concerns. The need for sustainable development, improved infrastructure and continued efforts to protect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples remain crucial priorities in Panama.

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Source link : https://minorityrights.org/country/panama/ Author : Publish date : 2017-08-08 18:29:37 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source .