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On November 14 and 15 in the Kuna Yala village of Mandi Ubgigandu almost all of Panama's top indigenous leaders met for an unprecedented summit. Absent were leaders of the large Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, any representative of the small Bri Bri population of Bocas del Toro and Tito Santana, the government-recognized claimant to the Naso throne, but nevertheless this was the first national gathering of important spokespeople for most indigenous communities inside and outside of the comarcas.

In any case, the gathering dismissed Tito Santana as the product of the national government's interference in Naso affairs and seated his uncle, Valentín Santana, as the legitimate Naso monarch. Also representing the Naso, an ethnic group of some 3,500 members who live on and near the Teribe River in Bocas del Toro, was Naso Council President Adolfo Villagra. Tito, who supports the Bonyic hydroelectric dam project on a tributary of the Teribe River, was deposed in a 2005 uprising for this reason. Valentín was chosen by the Naso Council as Tito's replacement, but the Torrijos administration sent in the police and the PRD-controlled Electoral Tribunal and carried out a purported election that restored Tito. Many Naso and most of Panama's other indigenous leaders denounced the government's maneuver as fraudulent, while Tito brands his opponents as outside agitators. Among Panama's other indigenous groups there is a fear that if the national government can impose a puppet regime over the Naso it might try to do the same to them. "We recognize King Valentín Santana, unique in the Americas as the maximum authority of the Naso people, in respect of their traditional and political structure and their right to elect their leaders," the summit leaders resolved.

The gathering also demanded that the national government create a Naso comarca and recognize the collective land ownership rights of Embera and Wounaan communities outside of the Embera-Wounaan Comarca.

In recent years the Wounaan, not satisfied with being a minority in an Embera-dominated comarca, have created their own separate institutions. This development was accepted by Embera and other indigenous leaders and manifested by the seating, along with the Embera-Wounaan Comarca's General Cacique Betanio Chiquirama; Lecto Mejia as president of the Wounaan National Congress; Edilberto Dogirama, the general cacique of the Embera communities outside of the comarca; and Bolívar Jiripio as the cacique representing Embera and Wounaan communities in the Upper Bayano area.

The Kunas were represented not only by Gilberto Arias, the Sailadummad of the Kuna General Congress that rules Kuna Yala, but also by leaders from the smaller inland Kuna comarcas of Madugandi and Wargandi, and the organized Kuna communities of the metro area.

While the Ngobe and Bugle groups were not represented by leaders at the summit, the gathering did express solidarity with Ngobe communities that are threatened with displacement by hydroelectric dams and tourist development projects, and demanded that police forces sent in to ensure these developments be withdrawn from indigenous communities. The summit also denounced police violence against protests by indigenous communities that were displaced by the Bayano Dam decades ago and were given little or no compensation for what was taken from them.

The gathering denounced the creation of national parks and protected areas that encompass or encroach upon indigenous lands --- it's not that they're against environmental protection or ecotourist activities, but they do object to the national government asserting control over indigenous territory in this fashion.

A resolution was passed that called for reform of the national government's agencies that deal specifically with indigenous affairs; and for the reorganization, renovation and democratization of COONAPIP, an organization that was created by indigenous leaders but has since become a political patronage appendage of national governments.

"The Original People currently live under threat, trampled upon, violated and as victims of every sort of imposition by the National Government," the summit concluded. It officially backed the complaints of Panamanian indigenous communities that are now pending before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

The caciques called for another summit to be held in the Embera community of Mogue, Darien on January 10. Mogue has a long-running and acrimonious feud with Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, who in his days as director of the National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON) played a role in the creation of the Punta Patiño Park on lands that the community claims and historically used to support itself.