Beach at municipio Santa Clara, provincia Coclé, Republica de Panamá
The quiet community where I grew up, municipio Santa Clara, provincia Coclé, Republica de Panamá, suffers from an invasion by money-hungry developers and cash-flush rabbiblancos or Arab oil magnates. The idyllic community with its pristine sugar sand, its towering banyan trees within 200 yards of the high water mark, its rampant collections of coconut trees, its vast sections of mangrove trees and its endless miles of sand vine and tough wire grass have been consumed in the name of “progress”. The picture above is of my family’s person collection. The red, sandy clay dirt roads, that, admittedly, needed continuous repair resulting from the run-off of the deluges during the rainy season, have been paved over with warm asphalt applications that now run-off oil due to the volatile oils in asphalt. The resulting oil slick on the once pristine waters of the Pacific Ocean that I swam and surfed in and the algae that feed on the oily materials have clouded the once crystal clear waters. The three towering banyan trees under which a parking lot adequately served, have been cut down and a paved parking lot constructed. The fishing village that was deeded to the fishermen in common as well as the right of ingress and egress right-of-way that was also deeded to them in common is in the process of trying to be summarily expropriated from them. And the outlaw government of one President Ricardo Martinelli has not used the resources of the State to protect the property rights of the fishermen, but has sent his armed thugs of the policía nacional assist the outlaw developer’s attempted expropriation.
I know for a fact that they had these rights given to them and the deeds properly recorded in the provincial capital of Coclé province of Penonomé by the owner who owned a derivative kings deed on the property of some 50,000 hectares that began at the Pacific ocean and ran to the foothills of the mountainous spine that divides Panamá in half. From the 3050 m. runway built by the US Army Air Corps on land leased to it from Mr. Kierov,
The Ecological Wonder That Is El Valle de Anton
you could see the mountains containing the environmental wonder that is a world-wide attraction for environmental tourism: El Valle del Volcán. This enormous tract roughly straddled Punta La Venta, municipio Santa Clara, provincia de Coclé, Republica de Panama and ran along that point a straight line to the foothills of the range of mountains that bisects Panamá. I can say that I know this for a fact, because the owner of that land, one Oskar Kierov, a dané of panameñeo ciudadano y danés ciudadano, was a dear friend of my parents. He owned a beautiful, 3-story inn that overlooked Punta La Venta and also owned that massive tract of land along with all the rights of a kings grant deed.
The family was visiting one day and the subject turned to the two fishing villages on either side of Punta La Venta, municipio Santa Clara, provincia Coclé, Republica de Panamá and located some 1/2 km distance up the beach in both directions. Mr. Kierov admired the industriousness of the fishermen, who had saved their money and bought a communal refrigeration unit for their village to refrigerate the fish until a refrigerated truck would come and buy the cache of fish for transport to Ciudad Panamá and thereafter for transshipment internationally. They continued saving and bought their own refrigerated truck, transporting the cache of communal fish to market in Ciudad Panamá where they got a better price, even considering the cost of operation of the truck. He therefore deeded sufficient land to them to have the village and a communal school (the Kierovs were big believers in education) as well as the communal refrigeration area and parking and right of ingress and egress to both villages. My parents, my brothers and sisters and I were all very impressed with the generosity of the Kierovs and better understood why they always gave us overly generous presents at Christmas. As an aside, the Kierovs were very traditional and every year their Christmas tree, which was flown in from Denmark, after decoration, was lit around the perimeter with white candles. The effect was stunning and I am still impressed today, even as a jaded 60-year-old man.
Santa Clara Beach looking towards La Venta Point in the distance
All of this by way of screaming about the planned construction of a 25 story, twin tower condominium complex down on the sands of the beach at the foot of Punta La Venta. A greater environmental rape for the sake of capitalist money-grubbing is hard to find in history. This environmental monstrosity will have a large, asphalt-paved parking lot with no environmentally safe run-off ponds. It will destroy nearly 2 hectares of mangroves in the building of an asphalt road that will cut into the limestone shield wall that runs along the back of the beach again with no capture of the volatile oils that will run off from the asphalt during a thunderstorm during the rainy season. And all of this will cut off the ingress/egress right-of-way deeded to the fishermen by Oskar Kierov.
Por este medio comunicamos que comunidades costeras de Santa Clara de Coclé estan en ALERTA, ya que están sitiado por antimotines. Las causas responden a los intereses por el acaparamiento de las tierras para fines privados del Sr. Artur Marol, cuyo objetivo es la implementación de una vía de acceso a su propiedad en detrimento del bienes están y seguridad de la comunidad.
Hacemos un llamado a las organizaciones de derechos humanos y medios de información nacional e internacional sobre estos hechos que comunidades costeras en Panamá estan siendo amenazadas por proyectos de desplazamiento. Cabe destacar que las autoridades locales lejos de propiciar el bien común, se encuentran de parte de intereses privados.-Radio Temblor por Voces De La Colectiva Ecolotiva. (Radio Temblor Por Colectivo Voces Ecológicas)
We are communicating to you through this media that coastal communities located near Santa Clara of Coclé (Province, Republica de Panamá) are on alert, because they are besieged by riot police. The cause of these hoards (sic) (or, hordes, modern usage) are in response to the attempts by Mr Arturo Marol to use (his property) for private purposes, with his objective being the implementation of an access road to his property to the detriment of the property and safety of the community in general.
We appeal to the human rights organizations and national and international media on these facts that coastal communities in Panama are being threatened by displacement projects. It should be noted that local authorities are turning away from promoting the common good, rather are taking the wrongful part of private interests. -Radio Temblor Por Colectivo Voces Ecológicas (Translation mine)
So, once again, the capitalist system is trying to steamroll over the indigenous population, for the fishing village population is composed of indigenous people, destroying the rights promised under the UN Charter, The UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous People, the treaties with the Ngöbe-Buglé people, the laws of the Republica de Panamá relating to the rights of the Ngöbe-Buglé, the private property rights of any other person in the Republica de Panamá, all carried out by the outlaw tyrant Ricardo Martinelli. He has repeatedly disregarded the environmental laws of Panamá as if the laws weren’t even on the books because he know he could never get those laws repealed even with his stooges in control of the Asamblea. There is a general election coming up in just over 2 years and they won’t take the heat of the political fallout. You see, politicians are as venal and self-serving in Panamá as they are in the US. And everywhere else, I suppose. I can name on both hands the leaders in the Post-WWII era who I consider not in this category. None of them were leaders of capitalist countries. Socialism removes most of the worst causes and motivators for venality and corruption. They still exist, but not nearly to the extent that they do in capitalist systems. Capitalism is inherently corrupt and for this reason, will eventually consume itself.
The Comarca of the Ngöbe-Buglé People
In the meantime, I sincerely that my friends and comrades in the fishing communes survive this latest assault on their livelihood and way of life. And while these villages are outside the comarca Ngöbe-Buglé, nevertheless, the indigenous people were the actual rightful possessors of all of the Western Hemisphere. But yet again, the filth that is capitalism is trying to, and may yet succeed at, work yet another barbarity upon the indigenous people. And this from people who had the nerve to call the indigenous people “barbarians.” Not that the rights granted the Ngöbe-Buglé people establishing their autonomy in their comarca has ever stopped Ricardo Martinelli and his sniveling thugs. For example, he had his thugs invade the comarca last year and murder two of the indigenous people and beat 15 others so badly that they were hospitalized, some in critical condition.
And yet, this thug, this Ricardo Martinelli, is under the sheltering wings of the Empire’s wings. He made the obligatory groveling haj to Washington to kiss the asses of President Obama and the Hell-cat Hillary Clinton. His prayers were answered when he got the Panamá Free Trade Agreement rammed through the US Congress over the objections of the labor unions in the US because, like Colombia, Ricardo Martinelli loves to hire thugs to murder union leaders, organizers and members. But Barack Obama, that recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Hillary Clinton, turned a blind eye to this ongoing pattern of murder of union leaders and members.
In return for this abomination of an agreement, an agreement that will only benefit the wealthy industrial and commercial robber barons, permission was granted to the US Department of Defense to begin locating bases in Panamá, among other outrages, returning portions of that training facility of terror, the US School of the Americas, to the country where it was founded. Leon Panetta, the CIA spy and ostensible head of the Pentagon Hydra, is in the process of setting up facilities, with the infrastructure largely in place, having been built by the Empire during the previous conquest and occupation of Panamá, to begin the conquest of the socialist countries of Latin America. With the overt permission, no, the outright assistance and permission of that vile Ricardo Martinelli’s never-ending dreams of power and narcissistic entitlement beliefs. However, as every dead tyrant who chose acting the puppet for the US, Ricardo Martinelli will soon find out that his reign of terror lasting only so long as the Empire finds him a useful groveling creature. Such a humiliating result is justice delayed but not denied.
The Scarlet Pimpernel 