Road closures hit Pacora as dialogue stalls

Panama’s indigenous communities continue  to put pressure on the government over the lack of progress in discussions over the mining  and hydroelectric issues.

While President Ricardo Martinelli  met with Catholic Church leaders on Wednesday afternoon, seeking ways to keep the dialogue moving on mining and hydroelectric developments by Thursday morning protests moved nearer the capital with road closures in Pacora, a few kilometers  from Tocumen International Airport.

The Martinelli meeting  came late afternoon yesterday after the the latest proposal from the district leadership, calling for the exclusion of hydroelectric construction in their homelands  and adjoining areas, including those already under  construction at Barro Blanco, Tabascara II and Chan ll.

Meeting this requirement would mean the payment of compensation for the suspension of contracts in progress.

Martinelli, accompanied by Demetrio Papadimitriu, Solomon Shamah, Ricardo Jorge Ricardo Fabrega and Quijano, met behind closed doors with the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa, and the mediator in the dialogue Jose Luis Lancuza, bishop of David.

At the end of the meeting, Martinelli said he recognized the need to safeguard the dialogue as a way to overcome the conflict.

Meanwhile, indigenous groups raised the of pressure on the dialogue with intermittent closures of 30 minutes to an hour of the Interamerican Highway up to Vigui and El Salado. and closed wo lanes of the road between Boquete and David.

By early Thursday morning the road to Pacora was closed.