Madungandí

About Madungandí:

Madungandí takes up the upper basin of the Bayano River in the east of Panamá province. It was separated from the Chepo district by Law 24 of 12 January 1996, which created the comarca and made it a corregimiento of its own. Guna Yala lies to the north, Darién to the east, and the corregimientos of Cañita and El Llano to the west and south, along with the Emberá collective land of Piriatí. Most of the surface of Lake Bayano lies inside the comarca, and the Pan-American Highway runs through it at the Bayano bridge, where Akua Yala stands.

The Guna of Madungandí live in about a dozen communities, among them Akua Yala, Ibedí, Pintupu, Ikandí, Piria, Kuinubdi, Nargandí, Ogobnawila, Diwar Sikua, Kapandi and Tabardi. Piria is counted as the first of them. Akua Yala is a relocated village: the land its families farmed went under water in the 1970s, when the Bayano dam filled the reservoir that now supplies power to the capital. The population was 3,305 in the 2000 census and 4,271 in 2010.

Most communities sit along the rivers that drain into the lake, and the Cañazas, also called Narasgandí, has four of them on its banks. Families farm rotating plots of plantain, rice and other crops, and some grow coffee. Fishing on the lake matters just as much: Ipetí, Akua Yala, Pintupu and Aguas Claras all keep boats and fish with harpoons and gill nets. Part of the comarca is forest reserve, and clearing it for new rice fields needs a permit from the environment ministry.

The highest authority is the Congreso General Guna de Madungandí, led by a cacique general and meeting in Akua Yala. Each community has its own sahila and argar, and a community police, the sualibed, keeps order locally. The comarca’s administrative charter was adopted by Executive Decree 228 of 1998, and the congress has since been working on an updated charter that sets out land, hunting and family rights in Guna terms. Decisions about who uses which land are taken inside this structure, not by private contract.

Property in Madungandí:

All land in Madungandí is the collective property of the comarca under Law 24 of 1996, and the Constitution bars private ownership of land inside indigenous boundaries once they are set by law. Because the corregimiento and the comarca share the same boundary, this covers every part of it. No outsider, Panamanian or foreign, can acquire a lot, house or finca here, and no plot can be registered in an individual’s name. For an ordinary market, look to the neighbouring corregimientos of the same district: Cañita, on the western shore of Lake Bayano; El Llano, to the south; and Tortí, further east along the highway, where cattle fincas change hands. Chepo town, the district seat, has houses and lots close to schools, shops and health services.

FAQ:

• Can I buy land or a house in Madungandí?

  No. The land belongs to the comarca as a whole and the law does not allow it to be sold. Any offer of a plot inside the boundary, however it is worded, cannot give you a title.

• Could I lease a plot for farming or build a cabin on the lake?

  Not through a private agreement. Use of comarca land is decided by the Guna authorities under the comarca’s charter, so there is no rental market for outsiders.

• Can I still visit?

  Yes. The Pan-American Highway crosses the comarca at Akua Yala, and boats travel freely on Lake Bayano. Visits to the villages themselves are arranged with each community.

• Where should I look instead, and how do I avoid buying across the line?

  Cañita, El Llano and Tortí all have ordinary property markets, and Chepo town has the most houses and urban lots. The comarca’s boundary was marked on the ground in 2000. If a farm you like sits near it, have a surveyor confirm which side of that line it falls on before you commit.