Territories in conflict: identity and resistance

Abstract

As we commemorate the bicentennial of Panama's independence from Spain in 2021, it is essential to reflect, from a long-term perspective, on the process that indigenous people have faced at different social, administrative, political and economic moments. This paper aims to build a timeline that recovers the cycle of violence in which the communities located in western Panama have been resisting. To achieve this objective, we worked with documentation from historical archives, gazettes, press, review of secondary sources and some interviews and conversations with key informants. As a result, it was possible to propose a cycle of violence composed of three phases or moments: the colonial experience, the complex republican experience (Colombian and Panamanian) and the present of marginality, displacement and poverty.