The Panamanian government agreed to allocate $1.8 million to face a lawsuit filed by National Liberation Party (PLN) presidential candidate Antonio Álvarez Desanti, in a dispute over a purchase of land in Ngäbe Buglé County, a Panamanian indigenous territory.
The case is recapitulated as follows: the dispute is for a property of four farms that, according to the Panamanian government, are located within the indigenous region and were sold to Álvarez in 2009 by a group of Panamanian lawyers.
After initiating permits for tourism development, the Panamanian government determined that the farms acquired were located in a different territory than previously stipulated.
Faced with this situation, Álvarez complaint about a “covert expropriation” as the Panamanian government took the land from the investment group -made up of Costa Ricans and Dutch- without compensation. Likewise, the investor group filed a $100 million lawsuit (about 57 billion colones) for damages against the Panamanian State.
The company represented by the candidate is called Cañaveral Ecotourism Development and the disputed farms are in the Kusapín District, in that region. The goal was to build a hotel.
According to the newspaper La Estrella, the agreement allows the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to use this money for the contract signed with the company Hogans Lovelles US LLP.
Panama requested the arbitration body to carry out a series of field tests to strengthen the country’s position in the process… For this they must show documents and other evidence to maintain the defense of Panama’s interests,”
cites the publication of La Estrella, dated Wednesday.
Apparently, according to the newspaper, the purchase of Álvarez would go against Panamanian Law 10 of 1997, which is focused on protecting a wetland located in the territory that is in dispute.
Article 10 allows the sale of land as long as the Indians are offered first, if they do not accept, they can be sold by third parties,”
cites the publication.