Panama City, July 1 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Indigenous Ngabe Bugle people in Panama have launched a hunger strike to protest the contentious Barro Blanco hydroelectric project slated for their territories, Prensa Latina reported.

The hunger strike comes as the latest stage of ongoing protests against the hydroelectric project, including occupations and road blockades to stall the final stages of dam construction and pressure the government to cancel the project.

Ngabe Bugle leadership also denounced the Barro Blanco dam before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, calling for an investigation into alleged irregularities in the project, local media reported. “They're leaving us without options and the next step could be to block the Inter American highway indefinitely, which so far we have done only for short periods of time of one or two hours,” an indigenous leader told Prensa Latina.

According to the movement representative, the last blockade of the major international freeway to demand repeal of the project was several thousand people strong.