Gunayala opens consultation on the Electrical Interconnection with Colombia after almost two decades

In the year that the Guna people commemorate 101 years of the Dule Revolution, the Guna General Congress wrote a historic page with the approval of the roadmap for prior, free and informed consultation on the Colombia-Panama Electrical Interconnection Project.

This is the first time the Congress has formally authorized a consultation with the Guna communities regarding the project. Resolution No. 2, adopted by consensus during the ordinary session held from October 21 to 26 in the community of Dadnaggwedubbir, empowers the commission appointed by the Congress to initiate and carry out the process according to the phases, methodologies, and procedures defined by the Guna people themselves in accordance with their regulations.

The resolution is signed by Sagladummad Adriano Pérez, Lorenzo González and Celio De León, and by Siggwi Kisabel Núñez.

"This roadmap stems from the Guna people's own norms and reflects their decision-making process. The Secretariat's role is to support the process with clear information, respecting their timelines and autonomy," stated the National Secretary of Energy, Rodrigo Rodríguez J.

"This step is the result of mutual respect between national and traditional authorities. That's how we got here, and that's how we're going to continue working," he added.

The decision ends years of estrangement between the project and the Guna people. The interconnection was suspended in 2012.

In 2015, the General Congress denied the government's proposed route for the power line, and although traditional authorities authorized studies in December 2018, the agreement did not come to fruition. In March 2023, through Resolution No. 1, the Congress rejected the Environmental Impact Study and the project. In July 2025, the Executive Board publicly distanced itself from the government's overtures.

The change began in March 2026, when the Congress, meeting in extraordinary session in Assudub, repealed Resolution No. 1 of 2023, which had rejected the project. In June, during its regular session in Dubwala, it created its own commission tasked with drafting the consultation roadmap. It is this roadmap that the Congress has just approved.

The approach was led by the National Energy Secretariat, which has maintained a direct dialogue with the traditional authorities of the region since October 2025 and coordinates the Inter-institutional Roundtable of the project, which brings together fourteen State entities.

With this decision, Gunayala joins Wargandí, which has already begun its process of free, prior, and informed consent. Of the three indigenous territories linked to the project in Panama, two currently have consultations underway.

The Colombia-Panama Electrical Interconnection will link the electrical systems of Central and South America for the first time via a nearly 500-kilometer high-voltage line, including a submarine section in the Caribbean, with an initial capacity of 400 megawatts. The project is part of the Sustainable Environmental Corridor, which integrates road infrastructure, rural electrification, and interconnection.