And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 13:02:21 -0500 (EST) >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Panama News) >Subject: Panama: Indigenous leader Arcenio Bacorizo goes on trial next week > >On February 5 in Panama City, Panama, Embera leader Arcenio Bacorizo goes >on trial for murder and illicit association. He has awaited trial in the >squalid and dangerous La Joya Penitentiary for the better part of four >years. > >Prior to his incarceration, Arcenio was the general cacique (elected >president) for the Embera and Wounaan communities outside the >Embera-Wounaan Comarca (semi-autonomous commonwealth), as well as the >cacique for his Darien community of Arimae. > >In 1995 a young Embera man, of Colombian nationality and a drug dealer by >profession, was found stabbed to death in Arimae. The man who did the >stabbing is known and in custody. Arcenio was charged in the case because >he lent the killer his piragua (shallow dugout canoe, the main form of >transportation in most of the Darien), and because police say that nothing >of this sort could have happened in Arimae without the cacique's orders. >This was at first held insufficient to hold Arcenio, but the prosecution >appealed and in 1996 he was ordered back to jail. Arcenio Bacorizo denies >the charges. His family, friends, professional associates, and even many of >his adversaries, say that they don't believe that he ordered the killing. > >This case takes place against the backdrop of a prolonged and ferocious >land struggle, in which the police have supported non-indigenous settlers >trying to take Arimae's land from its collective Embera and Wounaan owners. >At one point the community cleared a patch of land for the small scale >agriculture that's Arimae's main source of sustenance, only to see invaders >take it over and begin to build houses. The youth of Arimae burned down >that would-be settlement, and police blamed Arcenio but were never able to >make the charges stick. > >The case also plays an important role in Embera-Wounaan politics. The >charges against Bacorizo led to his removal as General Cacique and >replacement by less militant leadership, something that the government >wanted all along. > >The divisions are plainly evident in Arimae itself. During a recent >gathering of the Embera-Wounaan Arts Foundation, traditional youth gathered >at the magnificent three-story cultural center that Bacorizo (a gifted >architect in the Embera style) built some years ago, while other >kids---dressed hip-hop style and blasting American rap music on their >ghetto blaster---stood nearby, jeering and drinking beer. The dead man used >to be their cocaine connection. > >Meanwhile, attorneys for the Dobbo Yala Foundation are preparing for >another big trial---the one about Arimae's land claims. (Those of you who >read Spanish can find a good story about this in the Trasfondo section of >the January 21, 1999 issue of La Prensa online. Go to >http://www.prensa.com/ and get into the archive.) > >Eric Jackson >Editor, The Panama News > >PS: Feel free to forward this message, and several others following shortly! > &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
