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Western Watershed farmers debate the Panama Canal expansion question

Town meeting
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

With the aims of being able to inform and converse, discuss and debate about what is called the expansion of the Panama Canal, a town meeting was held by CARITAS and the Farmers' Coordinator Against the Dams (CCCE). The event was attended by more than 200 farmers from the areas affected by Law 44, who among them had many years of experience defending their rights in the face of civic apathy, the hostility of authorities and censorship by the majority of the communications media.

After the presentations by Jesús Ruiz, Humberto Reynolds, Roberto Méndez and Antonio Aledo, who provided important elements of judgment about the diverse effects and consequences of the expansion, those present debated among themselves, for more than two hours, a proposed agreement about the expansion of the Panama Canal, and here I share with you the principal points that they approved:

1. The Panama Canal needs to be part of a vision of the country, of an idea that responsibly articulates the canal, its resources and its capacities within a national development strategy arising from, for, by, and with the Panamanian people, which is capable of rising above the limited vision of "transitism" and its sequel of dependence upon the world of commerce.
2. We can not permit our destiny and the decisions about the canal to come from other latitudes: New York, London, Washington, Madrid, Tokyou and Paris, or from within the offices of multinational shipping companies, shipowners and shipbuilders. We need to spread the new skills and knowledge throughout society, going beyond the canal area and the Internet cafes.
3. It's a contradiction that, while each ship that passes through the canal "uses" 52 million gallons of freshwater that flows into the sea with each transit, in many neighborhoods of the cities of Panama and Colon, and in many homes in the districts of San Miguelito, and of Las Minas in Herrera province or Donoso in Colon province, people don't know when they'll be able to have potable water. While studies and designs are being prepared to improve transits through the canal, the design and planning for an adequate infrastructue for the country continues to be deficient.
4. The nearly one billion dollars that has come from the canal to the Panamanian government, which has over these past four years lacked a clear strategy, has not stopped the national debt from increasing, nor has it been able to diminish the country's 40 pecent poverty rate, nor has it allowed us to stop being one of the countries with the wost distribution of wealth in all of Latin America.
5. Although now the possibility of dams is denied, the threat to more than 500 farming communities, comprising 213,112 hectares, remains present so long as Law 44 of August 31, 1999, which abitrarily added them to the Cana Watershet, remains in effect. The reason given for this was a proposal for dams which would direct into the canal waters which naturally flow into the Caribbean Sea along the country's northern littoral. Law 44 makes the rivers and lands of a nonexistent "Western Watershed" part of the Panama Canal, even though that characterization is devoid of legitimacy including from the technical point of view, and now even more so that it has been announced that the retaining ponds leave exclude the dam plans. If this is so, why maintain Law 44 in effect?
6. The first and foremost creator of uncertainty was the surprise and lack of consultation with which this law was approved with brief debate in the National Assembly in the final minutes of the 1994-1999 legislature's term.
7. With the presentation of this law the construction of water transfer canals was announced, and later the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) obtained a concession for hydroelectric dams on the same rivers. It thus expanded the threat against the ecosystems with the greatest variety of flora and fauna in the whole region, and put  hundreds of farming communities on the defensive because of the threat to the rivers and lands that are the sources of their lives, their work, their food and their shared existence.
8. Let's not forget the enormous, historically unprecedented indebtedness this country would incur if this project of more than $10 billion goes ahead --- it would mean the doubling of Panama's current national debt. The effects in terms of costs are also significant. According to an article that appeared in El Panama America on January 3, 2006, the ACP has paid more than $42 million for the studies about the financial viability of an expansion of the waterway, as well as the best option of modernization for the locks.
9. It's impossible to accept the holding of a referendum while hiding the studies, or releasing them on the eve of the vote without time for responsible analysis and comparison with other alternatives that they haven't wanted to hear.
10. The shadow of doubt persists in light of the refusal to repeal Law 44. The Farmers Coordinator Against the Dams is justified in its skepticism as this is the key proof about whether the dams are or are not part of the plan.
11. You must be decidedly prepared to exercise your equal and democratic rights in the debate about expansion --- before, during and after a referendum --- and if these rights are lacking to vote "no" in a referendum.
12. It's necessary to participate in the construction of a big "National Dignity Front Against the Expansion.

Thus the moment has come to defend our national dignity, our right to exist as Panamanians first, and to not permit the abuses of authority, the exceeding of powers and the authoritarian, autocratic and anti-democratic way that the neo-Zonians of the ACP and the government are acting in everything related to the so-called canal expansion. It's nothing but a big scam by the "Patria Nueva" crowd, for the pawning and sale of our Panama.

Also in this section:
US State Department, Human rights in Panama
Jackson, A corrective gloss on the State Department report
Human Rights Watch, Milosevic escaped judgment but not justice
Crowley, AIDS in Latin America
Lai, India - South Africa - Brazil: the new southern trade powerhouse?
Reporters Without Borders, Two Mexican journalists killed in less than a day
Amnesty International, Mandatory death penalty struck down in the Bahamas
Sanchez, The military issue in Peru's election
Greenpeace, Let's have reliable food and animal feed labels
Bernal, Farmers and the Panama Canal expansion
Leis, Once upon a time...
Sirias, "Folklore" that Panama can live without