Darién (1983: Doomsday)

Darién - more properly, Darién-Kuna-Emberá - is an autonomous region of. It encompasses the wild rain forest region that used to be the eastern end of Panama.

Background
The Province of Darién was formed in 1925. That same year, a revolution broke out among the Kuna people, who protested the suppression of their culture by the Panamanian government, specifially the police. Panama relented and granted self-rule to the Kuna by creating the autonomous comarca of Kuna Yala, administered by its own General Congress. Kuna Yala did not include all Kuna communities; several smaller ones in Darién remained without self-government. In 1983, a revolt broke out among the region's other major indigenous group, the Emberá people. By September, plans were underway to create an autonomous comarca similar to Kuna Yala, comprising forty Emberá villages; however, the that month ended such plans.

Aftermath
The swampy Darién rainforest is one of the most inhospitable places in the region - indeed, it is so impassable that the Pan-American Highway could not be built through it, the only gap in the highway's Alaska-to-Chile route. Nevertheless, survivors from the vicinity of the Canal attempted to pass through it and reach Colombia. Few survived the journey. Far more refugees attempted to eke out a living on the forest edge, but the disorganized camps that emerged offered a chance of survival that was little better than the forest.

The Kuna and Emberá societies, still very traditional, attempted to draw back into themselves and rely on their ancient cultural bonds to weather the crsis. But the humanitarian, ecological, and security pressures were too great. The tide of refugees pushed many Kuna and Emberá eastward into Colombia.

Cooperation with Colombia
Panamanian refugees were a great concern to the Colombian government in late 1983 and early 1984. Engaged in crucial negotiations with various guerrilla groups, Colombia could little afford to risk further destabilization, especially in its wild northwest. Camps were established in the vicinity of Turbo to accomodate those who were surviving the journey through Darién. In the meantime, a small complement of Colombian troops were sailed to Kuna Yala to help maintain security. It was reasoned that stibility in eastern Panama would prevent the refugee situation from becoming a crisis.

Kuna Yala authorities and Colombian troops attempted to bring order to the string of camps in eastern Panama. They were unsuccessful, and certainly not for lack of effort. Refugees often would not obey dictates from authorities whom they dismessed as tribespeople or foreigners. Resources were scares, violence was endemic, and sanitation nonexistent. Peace came to Colombia by 1985, so the country was able to send more troops and supplies into Darién. However, conditions in the camps and throughout the Darién region remained horrifying.

For a number of reasons, the situation began to stabilize by 1987-88. For one, Colombian aid was finally making a difference, and conditions began to improve in some of the camps. By then, Colombia had established several permanent bases for its soldiers in Darién, which made the humanitarian project more effective and efficient. Additionally, the staggering death rates of the previous years reduced the population and took some pressure off the region. The biggest factor, however, was that the Colombian army facilitated the immigration of many refugees into Colombia, where they could expect more food and better prospects than in the fracture remains of Panama.

Kuna and Emberá tribal structures were shaken but intact. The Kuna Yala government had survived mainly by being Colombia's go-to organization in the region. In 1988, the Emberá created a local government for themselves modelled on the Kuna. It relied far more on traditional tribal authorities than the planned Panamanian comarca. Other organs of local authority, however, had long collapsed by the end of the 1980s.

The creation of Darién-Kuna-Emberá
The greatest hindrance on the refugee communities was the absence of any authority to organize them. Colombian, Kuna, and refugee leaders hammered out a plan for the Darién Regional Authority in the summer of 1988. The Authority was intended to replace the collapsed governments of Panama and of Darién Province, and to handle such issues as sanitation, land use, and restoring the pre-Doomsday settlements in the Darién region. Security and defense were still to be provided by Colombia, and the Kuna General Congress was given a supervisory role as well, including a limited veto power over Regional Authority decisions.

The territory under the control of the Darién Regional Authority was never clearly specified. No indigenous communities were included, confirming the autonomy that the Kuna communities outside Kuna Yala had exercised since Doomsday. By the early 1990s, the regional government was effective enough that the people resented Kuna supervision, and the region's unclear relationship with Colombia.

Regional coordination was seen as the answer. In 1991 Colombian authorities met with local leaders, both indigenous and Latino, and created a new structure for governing the entire Darién region. The state that emerged was given the combersome name of Darién-Kuna-Emberá, which would function as a Colombian protectorate. The new state, which would quickly be called "Dakuném" by almot everybody, replaced the old Regional Administration and was placed above the indigenous governments, which would remain autonomous but have to follow the laws of the region.

The regional capital was located in El Porvenir, the Kuna capital, for reasons of convenience - El Porvenier had been the center of Colombian activity in the Dakuném area since 1984, and they did not want to change now. The decision was supposed to be temporary, but eighteen years later, the capital has not been relocated.

Annexation
Colombia's Congress voted to formally annex Dakuném, making it Colombian territory, in 1998. The final decision was to be decided in a referendum, but annexation was seen as non-controversial, a mere confirmation of the status quo. Before the new autonomous region was offically created - indeed, even before its boundaries were surveyed - local politicians were campaigning to represent it in Congress. The annexation was accomplished on January 31, 1999.