Cultural Survival partners took the fight over a Panamanian dam to the company responsible in April, challenging executives of the AES Corporation over Indigenous rights and environmental violations at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Ngöbe community member Bernardino Morales joined representatives of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic in condemning the company for its failure to follow through on promised compensation plans for Ngöbe communities that will be flooded and destroyed by the dam being built on the Changuinola River. Cultural Survival has pursued a case against Panama in the Inter-American human rights system for the past three years, passing the case to the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic in 2010.
When it became clear that the dam would be completed despite calls from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to halt it, community members decided to negotiate for compensation. The company has promised a number of things, including resettlement assistance and community centers, but has not followed through on them, and the company’s lawyers have refused to meet with community lawyers to discuss negotiations. The representatives at the shareholders’ meeting called AES executives to task for this failure, and the executives promised to rectify the situation. Cultural Survival will continue to monitor the situation to be sure they do in fact follow through on compensation promises.
To read the Center for Biological Diversity’s press release on the meeting, click here.
