Panama Update Archives
| November 1999 Back to Panama Update Road to Nowhere: In August 1996, the Panamanian government signed a contract with Mexican transnational Associated Civil Engineers (ICA by its Spanish initials) for the construction of a stretch of highway designed to connect Panama City's eastern outskirts to downtown. The project, popularly known as Corredor Sur (Southern Highway), has been the source of controversy since its inception. Opponents of the project say the filling in of portions of Panama Bay in its design is turning the bay into a cesspool and that tolls planned for the road will make it inaccessible for working people. The contract calls for other forms of compensation which include turning public land over to ICA for its development. Local residents have suffered further inconvenience through forced relocations and noise pollution well above legally acceptable levels at all hours of the day and night. "Three Islands on the Ocean" Recognising the previous government's authority to authorize the project, which it did in the last few days of August - he pointed out that it was the current government's responsibility to ensure the project fulfills its legal obligations and does not threaten the country's future. The Punta Pacifica project is a development project on a land concession made by the Panamanian government to ICA as partial payment for its construction of Corredor Sur, a southeastern stretch of urban highway connecting Panama City's eastern outskirts to downtown. (see "Public Transportation" Panama Update) Controversial Appropriations
Renewed public protest against ICA's activities in Panama in recent months has centered on accusations that it has expropriated lands belonging to the Panamanian Social Security Program for Disability, Old Age and Death, without compensation to the Program or those citizens it is meant to benefit. One branch of Corredor Sur has been built on these lands. The contract between ICA and the Panamanian Ministry of Public Works calls for ICA to provide compensation for lands acquired at $4 per square meter up to a total of $1,772,000. According to La Prensa and La Carta de Panamá, the value of the land in question is at least $24 per square meter. Any quantity beyond this total will be considered part of ICA's investment, to be recuperated through rights conceded by the Panamanian government to fill in the ocean bed between the old Paitilla Airport and the ATLAPA Convention Center. Denying allegations that he defended the interests of ICA rather than the public, former Public Works Minister Luis Blanco gave assurances in July that the Ministry and ICA were negotiating just compensation. He challenged the incoming government to do more for Public Works than he had in his term. Noise and Stink A second set of complaints from residents of these same areas has to do with ICA's insistence on working 24 hours a day, in violation of its own environmental impact statement and permit, which allow work until 10 pm. The noise levels also violate Panamanian legislation, which defines limits for noise pollution from industry near residential areas. Residents say ICA's harassment includes the use of high-powered searchlights and reflectors, "as if it were a concentration camp." Unfortunately, residents feel they are up against more than just ICA's shady business practices. Dionisio Martinez, spokesperson for the Boca la Caja Defense Committee, related in July, "We are organizing peacefully, since we know that ICA-Panama has the support of the public [security] forces, in case of a protest, [an eventuality] which is considered in Contract 96-70 between ICA and [Panama]." For three days in July, the Human Rights Ombudsman's office conducted an investigation into these complaints. Upon the investigators' arrival in Boca la Caja, they learned that the contractors had not been working that day. However, they did confirm that sewage was blocked by the causeway from escaping the bay. ICA says the causeway is temporary and will be removed when the project is completed. On the other hand, in San Francisco, decibel-level tests were conducted each of the three nights on three different floors of a residential building near an ICA worksite. The average decibel level each night was in the low to mid 80s, even on the building's eighth floor, with a nightly high the low 90s. The nighttime legal limit for residential areas is 30 decibels. Still Seeking Justice They called among other things for the immediate suspension of the causeway construction; an official investigation into their complaints; the sanctioning of ICA by ANAM for violating its environmental impact statement, which ANAM approved; and the enforcement of legal noise limits. In a statement issued the same day, Boca la Caja residents remembered the 20 San Sebastian and 70 La Playita residents who, after being promised by ex-President Ernesto Perez Balladares that the Corredor Sur project would not affect them, were relocated with little compensation. Recalling Balladares' similar promise that Boca la Caja residents would obtain legal title to their lands, they pointed out that most residents still held no title. On top of the damages their community is already suffering from the Corredor Sur construction, residents feared the new encroachment of the Punta Pacifica "megaproject," which now threatens to displace them. Residents also reasserted their belief that the Panamanian government's concession to ICA, allowing the construction and operation of the Corredor Sur, was sufficient compensation for its work, without the additional concessions of the old Paitilla Airport and 35 hectares in Panama Bay. Meanwhile, poor people who cannot afford the tolls will need to catch the bus at 4 or 5 in the morning and not even benefit from the new stretch of highway. Sources: La Carta de Panamá 6/25/99; El Panamá América 7/1, 9/30/99; La Prensa 6/24, 6/28, 7/1, 7/17, 8/18/99; Statements by San Francisco and Boca La Caja Residents Committees 8/2/99; El Siglo 8/5/99.
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