Cornered by Progress? An Analysis of the Clash on Panama’s Ngäbe-Buglé Reservation over the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project Plant on the Tabasará River (2010-2016)

Begun in February 2011 and completed in June 2016, the Barro Blanco hydroelectric power plant on the Tabasará River of western Panama, bordering Ngäbe-Buglé Amerindian territory, shows the disadvantages of an ethnic minority being overridden by a majority in the name of progress. By contrasting public perceptions from opinions and editorials in Panama’s main newspaper web portal, La Prensa, during the period of 2010 through 2016, this thesis will describe what can be conceived of as a one-way version of progress by Panama’s economically powerful rulers, in regards to Panama’s Ngäbe-Buglé community with a different world vision