| May 1989 |
Guillermo Endara wins the presidential elections with the support of both the middle (white) classes as well as the lower classes, including the Black populace. |
| Dec 1989 |
The U.S. military intervenes in Panama to oust Panamanian dictator General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Gen. Noriega eventually surrenders to U.S. forces and is taken to the U.S. on drug and racketeering charges. Guillermo Endara, the opposition candidate who presumably won the previous election, was placed in office as the President of Panama. |
| Jan 1991 |
Elections for the National Assembly are held and a conservative coalition forms the government. The government is headed by Arnulfista supporters. |
| Oct 1991 |
Following a series of armed clashes between indigenous people (mainly Guaymies) and settlers around Veraguas, nearly 1,000 Guaymies march from Panama's western region to Panama City in protest. |
| Jan 1 - Jun 30, 1992 |
5,000 members of indigenous groups in eastern Panama use force to remove approximately 200 families who settled in the Alto Bayano National Park since 1990. The Park encompasses 400,000 acres and was given to indigenous ethnic groups by the Panamanian Government in 1977. |
| Feb 1992 |
The government of Panama assures Kuna leaders that it will keep settlers out of Alto Bayano National Park. The park has been set aside for the Kuna and other indigenous groups. |
| Jul 1992 |
The government of Panama enacts agrarian reform laws which distribute land to 2,300 farmers, leaving many Guaymi disgruntled. The Guaymi General Congress claims the land is ancestral land and this act is a breach in previous agreements made between the Guaymi and the Panamanian Government. |
| Nov 1992 |
Bayano Dam, constructed to aid in the development of Panama City and the surrounding area, is reportedly placing severe stresses on the environment and local Indigenous population. The project opened roads into jungle which brought settlers into Kuna-occupied lands and increased tensions and isolated clashes between the Kuna and settlers. |
| Apr 28, 1993 |
Kuna and Choco Indians stage an "armed rebellion" near the Alto Bayano National Park demanding the expeditious passing of a bill guaranteeing land reserves for the Indians. The group also is protesting the influx of settlers into their traditional lands. They take two government officials hostage, one of whom is the Governor of the province, and they set up roadblocks on the Pan-American highway. The hostages were released unharmed after police were called in to restore order. |
| May 1993 |
Following indigenous demonstrations in Darien and Chiroqui, protesters complain about the rough handling of protestors and the indiscriminate use of tear gas by police. Indigenous leaders claim that the death of protestor Satamino Aguirre was caused by a blow he received from police. The Panamanian congress votes on, but fails to pass a bill establishing comarcas for mainland Kuna and another small indigenous group. |
| Sep 1, 1993 |
Ernesto "Toro" Perez Balladarez is sworn in as President after a internationally monitored election. The election was endorsed by international observers as free and fair. |
| Nov 1993 |
The National Coordination of Indigenous peoples of Panama sponsored a convention, the first since 1978, to discuss strategies to compel the government to create reserves and foster general development. |
| 1994 |
The Panamanian government has increased the number of land concessions being granted to mining corporations significantly over the past three years. Only 10 land concessions were granted for mining in 1991, whereas in 1994 there were over 95 granted. The effort to generate capital and employment is likely one of the major causes of the increased tensions with indigenous groups as many of the mining operations are on lands claimed by indigenous groups. |
| May 1994 |
New National Assembly elections are held and the Arnulfista coalition is ousted by a left-leaning coalition headed by the Democratic Revolutionary Party. |
| Jun 1994 |
Indians claim the U.S. has taken cell strains from Guaymi Indians without consent for AIDS and leukemia research. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce withdraws an application to patent the human cell of a Guaymi Indian, which may have helped in the research of the AIDS virus and Leukemia. The withdrawal came after pressure from the World Council on Indigenous People, World Council of Churches, the Rural Advancement foundation International and a number of groups in Australia, Canada and the United States. |
| Sep 1994 |
Continuing the anti-right trend, Ernesto Perez Balladares Gonzalez is elected president of Panama with only 33% of the vote. The election was complicated by the candidacy of third-party candidate Ruben Blades. |
| Nov 1994 |
Indigenous groups from several Latin American countries -- including those of Panama -- sign a letter denouncing the NAFTA agreement. They claim such agreements will only benefit MNCs at the expense of the poor in Latin America. |
| Apr 1995 |
Police and Guaymi protesters clash on a road leading to a mining operation in western Panama. The protesters were blocking the road, which they claimed cut through their ancestral lands, to halt mining operations. The violence occurred when protesters reportedly moved to take a police sergeant and some mine workers hostage after one of the protest leaders was arrested. Separately, the Inter Press Service reports that the Kuna leadership is one of the few groups in Panama who want to see United States servicemen leave Panama in 1999. Reportedly, they have accumulated a large development fund from the salaries of Kuna employed in and around the canal zone. They plan to develop eco-tourism in the area once the U. S. leaves. Such unified action among the Kuna does not appear out of the ordinary as their social structure is rigidly hierarchical and most property is considered communal. |
| May 1995 |
The Guaymi have further clashes with mining operations in western Panama and with police. The group reportedly blocks the roads to mining operations on a regular basis, bringing about arrests of Guaymi protesters and, not infrequently, violence with mining operators and police. |
| Sep 1995 |
The Kuna threatened to clash with the officials of Colon province, which demanded that they vacate 18,000 hectares of coastal territory to make way for a hotel. The government saw the land as unproductive; the Kuna and various environmental groups maintained that the hotel would damage the environment. (Inter Press Service 9/29/95) |
| Feb 1996 |
Non-indigenous Panamanian farmers questioned the passage of a law granting autonomy to 5,000 Kuna and Embera Indians in 1,800 square kilometers of jungle land. The farmers feared the Indians would resort to violence once granted power, and asked President Ernesto Perez Balladares to veto the bill. It passed. (Latin American Newsletters 2/29/96) |
| Mar 1996 |
Panama granted mining concessions to the Cerro-Colorado mine despite a lingering dispute with the Ngobe-Bugle people, who claimed 11,000 square kilometers in the western Veraguas, Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro regions. (Inter Press Service 3/15/96) |
| Apr 1996 |
The Coordinadora de Pueblos Indigenas de Panama announced it would sue the government before international human rights bodies for having signed a mining contract on Indian territory in Chiriqui without prior agreement. The dispute concerned the Canadian development of the Cerro Colorado copper mine. (Latin American Newsletters 4/4/96) |
| Aug 1996 |
According to Panama’s Mining Chamber, government delays in granting mining contracts to foreign companies were stalling, risking the elimination of about $2 billion in foreign investments. The government was stalling the contracts while waiting for environmental studies and negotiations with indigenous tribes claiming the proposed mining tracts as autonomous areas. (Inter Press Service 8/30/96) |
| Oct 1996 |
Panamanian newspapers printed several unrelated stories relating to the indigenous population. One exposed the problem of illegal mining by Colombians in the San Blas Indian Comarca; another related that two intoxicated Indians had gotten into a fight with an official from the Cerro Colorado mines. According to the Panamanian President, 200 AK 47 rifles were confiscated from the Indians upon their arrest, a claim that native spokespeople denied. (Latin American Newsletters 10/31/96) President Ernesto Perez Balladares announced that his cabinet would produce a draft bill granting autonomy to the Ngobe-Bugle or Guaymi people, in an effort to defuse the conflict over the Panacobre Cerro Colorado mines. The Guaymi refuted this claim and organized a 440-kilometre blockade to protest in the capital. Some 300 turned up in Panama city, threatening to go on hunger strike if their demands for autonomy were not heeded. (Latin American Newsletters 11/14/96) |
| Nov 1996 |
Several hundred Ngobe-Bugle Indians marched on the presidential palace to protest against official approval for copper mining at Cerro Colorado. (Mining Journal 11/24/96) |
| Dec 1996 |
The government of President Ernesto Perez Balladares submitted to congress a draft bill to create a Guaymi comarca, or semi-autonomous region, which would cover about 600,000 hectares surrounding the Cerro Colorado mine and inhabited by some 127,000 members of the Ngobe-Bugle people. The Guaymi called off their protest campaign to allow congress to deal with the matter, but warned that delays would cause them to resume their strikes and demonstrations. (Latin American Newsletters 12/19/96) |
| Mar 1997 |
Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares passed over the text of the new autonomy law to Ngobe-Bugle leaders last week at a ceremony in the tribal village of Chanquintu. Seven thousand square kilometers of Bocas de Toro province were ceded to the indigenous community for its exclusive use. In addition, the Ngobe-Bugle people had the right to demand an environment study be conducted in advance of any commercial exploitation of their lands, including land in adjacent Chiriqui and Veraguas provinces. However, the tribe did not gain the right to be consulted in advance of any commercial projects on their territory, nor the right to a share of the profits from natural resources found on their territory. The Ngobe people were split on the law, and 300 of them protested it in Las Palmas. (Inter Press Service 3/14/97) |
| Jun 1997 |
A year and a half after the creation of Madungandi autonomous zone the territory still lacked officially designated borders and a development plan. The leaders of the village claimed that nothing had been done to remove non-Kuna farmers from the zone and that they were not consulted in any matters concerning their community. (Inter Press Service 6/20/97) |
| Jul 1997 |
Panama rushed more than 1,200 police special forces to the Darien border area on 8 July, in an attempt to stop incursions by Colombian paramilitary groups and guerrillas. Over 1,000 Colombian refugees fleeing violence in the Uraba and Choco regions had set up camps near the Panamanian border, though most had been repatriated within several months by the Colombian government and the Red Cross. These attacks, which had occured since April, drove Panamanian villagers to seek refuge in areas further away from the border, notably in Puerto Obaldia, in the Indian comarca of Kuna Yala. There were no all-weather roads through the region and no regular police posts along most of the border. (Latin American Newsletter 7/15/97) |
| Oct 1997 |
The Darien border area became a virtual no-man’s land as continued incursions by Columbian guerrillas forced many, including Kunas and Ember Indian groups to abandon their homes rather than risk death. (Inter Press Service 10/2/97) |
| Oct 1998 |
While unveiling a new government program to invest $1.1 billion in health, education, rural and urban poverty and housing through the year 2003, the Panamanian government recognized that the indigenous population was most in need of aid. According to ministry of health statistics, around 94 percent of Panama's 200,000 indigenous inhabitants lived below the poverty line, with 87.7 percent of them falling into the category of extreme poverty. They blamed unequal land distribution and the linguistic divide which kept many indigenous children from attending school. (Inter Press Service 10/28/98) |
| Jun 1999 |
Panamanian television crews filmed and interviewed a group of Colombian rebels in Kuna Yala, where they forced the native population to flee. Some Panamanian politicians insisted that the scene was an American CIA trick to force Panama to ask the US to stay in the country after the scheduled Dec. 1999 handover of the Panama canal. (Latin American Newsletters 6/8/99) |
| Sep 1999 |
An Indian from Kuna Yala was elected President of Panama’s Legislative Assembly. (British Broadcasting Corporation 11/24/99) |
| Dec 14, 1999 |
The United States surrendered control of the Canal Zone to Panama. |
| Aug 1 - Dec 31, 2004 |
In Chiman, there were reports of violent land disputes between the indigenous Embera-Wounaan and settlers. About 55 additional police were temporarily sent to the region to quell the violence until the situation stabilized. (US Department of State. 2/25/2005. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2004: Panama." Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.) |
| Oct 20 - 22, 2006 |
Fifty observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) were present in seven provinces and one indigenous community to oversee voting on a referendum regarding the Panama Canal expansion. The referendum would add a third set of locks to the Canal. (US Fed News, 10/20/2006, “Presence of international observers in Panama strengthens confidence in democratic process”) |
