Charco La Pava--the front lines

Sneaking In to Charco
Three days ago I woke up at four thirty in the morning to take a truck along the new road along the Changuinola river up to Charco La Pava from Nance. By going so early, we hoped to avoid the police who would still be asleep at their camp along the way.
Arcadio and Ineida went with me and dropped me off right across from Charco and we waited as Benero came to take me across by boat. Francisco Santos' family gave me a room and I set up my mosquito net and had a nap. We set up a meeting with the community later in the day and it gave me a chance to among other things, go for a swim in the river with some of the kids.














At the River--"father of life"
It's very clear that the river is integral to their lifestyle. Dionel, shown here with his brother Hernan, is an expert fisher.   He's holding his homemade spear consisting of a branch, a nail and tire tubing. Later that night, we ate Boca Chica for dinner (much larger fish.) His sister Casilda is behind the two of them washing clothes. I was able to go down to the river only on this day which was a holiday for Carnaval so there were no workers and no police. The rest of the time, I had to stay hidden as the police can be seen with their binoculars peering across the water.

Meeting with the Residents of Charco La Pava
I met with the community that afternoon to explain why I had come and find out from them directly about what is going on. Charco, the community most affected by the dam, is also the most united in their opposition. By their count, about 90% of the population opposes it even though initially, many of them accepted payments to allow studies to be done in the first place. Once it became clear that the company was taking advantage of them, by taking up more land than they had paid for or by approaching illiterate people separately, their group gained momentum.
Most recently, Francisco Santos had signed an agreement back in June for a special payment for damage that would be incurred on his farm, but what he hadn't realized when he signed was that the damage is permanent and that because he wouldn't sell his land, they tricked him into signing for damage instead. This week, AES went through and cleared the land including all of his crops and medicinal plants and valuable wood trees that he could have sold. Instead, it was all washed down the river. Basically, Francisco supposedly still owns the land, but it is useless to him and he has no rights to use it.













This is just one of the types of abuses the community has experienced. The very fact that the police are stopping cars and questioning everyone that comes and goes, is a violation of their human rights to come and go as they please. They are also not allowed to gather in large numbers and outsiders including journalists have been blocked from coming in. The group was planning another protest, but decided to wait to have more time to plan before doing another one. Here they are pictured with their banner featuring AES as a the grim reaper and the Ngobe fighting him off.


















Documenting
I spent that day and the next interviewing people and going on a tour of the community. In order to do this, as the community can be clearly seen from the police station, I was given disguise number two, the pink dress. Here I am with Guillermina, the mom of the 12 person family I was staying with and Olga their neighbor in front of the store. It is sad to have to have a disguise, but it was a great source of laughter for people to see me turn into a "meri ngobere"--a Ngobe woman.















I interviewed Ernesto Lopez, Francisco Santos and lastly Ana Castillo whose mother Isabel Becker lost a very large farm which is now covered with road and heavy equipment. Isabel was taken to Panama City to go for a visit and then held there until she put her fingerprint on a piece of paper selling the farm.




This is what her farm looks like now.



























Here her daughter Ana is shown with three of her kids. All four of them were taken to jail after the protest on January 3rd and held there for two days. Go here for a clip (with quick subtitles) of Ana that  I was able to quickly translate into English and post. It features her after the arrest explaining why she is protesting and was shot by Lucia Lasso in early January in Changuinola.  Ana is feisty and inspiring as you can see here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-956259109176279139&hl=en

















My tour included the markers for the reservoir which would flood the town. People have been told that they will be able to live above this point, but as you can imagine, they are skeptical. Here, Francisco Santos points to the line the water will rise to.
Later, we devised a plan where Benero would go across the river and ask the police a question about a tree trunk in the river while Luis and I went right across from there hidden in the cacao farm. The plan was that Benero would draw the police out so that I could videotape them. Benero did as planned and I was ready to tape from the trees on the other side, but got more than we bargained for as one of the policeman decided to relieve himself right in the direction of the camera. We all met back up later laughing and it felt like a small victory in a long and arduous battle for the community.
















On my second day there, I awoke to the sound of heavy equipment running right across the river. There were at least five dumptrucks, tractors and other machines running back and forth all day. Some people think that AES is moving quickly to fast track this project as there is increasing pressure on the company.


Why I'm Doing This
It is obvious that I have taken the construction of this hydroelectric dam and the abuses around it, very personally. I lived in this place for two years and six months of my life and it was such a life-altering experience for me. The people are so great, the land so beautiful. But my hope in creating this blog is to use my personal feelings and show what is happening there and make the connection between our country and theirs.
It is imperative that those of us who respect the rights of the Ngobe and their way of life, and the unique biodiversity of the international park, La Amistad which borders this project, do what we can to help and stand up for what might seem like a little patch of earth miles away. As Americans, it is particularly important that we "cancel out" the bad guys, in this case, AES and the Panamanian government, who have repeatedly disrespected the Ngobe and shown disregard for the environment.
Please consider contributing to the Center for Biological Diversity and Cultural Survival, just two of the organizations that are working on this issue. 

Here: 

www.biologicaldiversity.org/support/give/index.html  

(in the notes say it's for the Panama campaign)

and here:

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/membership/panama1.cfm

 
Thank you for reading and I will have a little bit more info and some video to post soon.

Also, know that there is a lot more information about the dam and that this blog has merely scratched the surface.  Please leave a comment if you would like to know more and I would be glad to go into more detail.  

Viva Nance y Charco La Pava!

Dawn