Community airs serious concerns while grappling with new threat: 'In 10 years, our people might cease to exist'

Iniquilipi Chiari, the international coordinator for the Four Worlds International Institute, spoke the shadowy words of the lost and hopeless: "In 10 years, we may cease to exist on Earth." Not the epitome of optimism, but he has good reasons for sharing his despondency.

For more than five centuries, the Guna people have withstood one incursion after another. Once, it was the flashing of falchions, the loading of muskets, and the steely-eyed gleam of conquistadors coming ashore.

Now, as the Guardian reported, it's the flashing of camera lights, the loading of fanny packs, and the empty eyes that see little and understand less. The Indigenous Guna in Panama are no strangers to movement, always riding the wave of strange faces and foreign tongues.

Though they celebrate the 100th anniversary of their independence this year, it comes with a caveat. Independence brought no reprieve from the invasive attitude of the world — in the form of a substantial tourism industry, and the encroaching waters fueled by the planet's overheating.

One is the dark threat of a distant, prophetic dream, closing in like the jaws of an unseen trap. The other is here and now. If you've ever stood on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, watching the construction of massive condominiums, you have a semblance of understanding.

The importance of this moment in history cannot be overstated. Tourism may drive the economic engine the Guna people rely on, but the tourists will vanish over a blue-green horizon when the rising inshore waters flood the archipelago.

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According to Chiari, "We will still be considered poor Indigenous people by the U.N. because we have no drinking water, no toilets, no electricity." It's a ticking time bomb — a rare moment when an entire people can see their long history drawing to an absolute end, vanishing into the ether as the tourism boom moves on to other shores.

In 2023, 300 families moved from Gardi Sugdub to the mainland, following a resettlement plan of their creation, Science News reported.

Though the Panamanian government has been less than expedient, while also mowing down acres of trees and disregarding the natural environment, there will eventually be homes waiting for this next migration.

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Some are more optimistic than others, especially where the salvation of their culture is concerned. Carlos Arenas, a retired Guna, was clear in his optimism in speaking to Science News: "Individuals may change out of choice, but our culture is eternal. It will never die."