Combats and Barricades on the streets of Panama
Featured image: highway blockade by demonstrators. Source: AP Photo/Matias Delacroix
The Panamanian people has been strongly protesting for months. Protests have intensified, especially in recent weeks, with demonstrators setting up barricades and clashing with various means against the repressive forces.
Mass protests have been widespread in the country since 2023, when the Panamanian people protested massively against a copper mining mega-project in Colón. The large and combative demonstrations across the country led to the cancellation of the project.
The current protests began in March and are against the pension reform, which various workers’ organizations, social movements, and the Panamanian people stated that will lead to the privatization of pensions and an increase in the retirement age. In April, a massive general strike was initiated by large sectors of the working class, carrying out protest actions and large marches. This main protest has been joined by numerous other protests against the military interference of U.S. imperialism in the country and various other issues affecting this semi-colonial and semi-feudal nation.
Participants in the protests include teachers, healthcare workers, workers from different sectors, as well as peasants and indigenous people. They have played a decisive role, particularly in the province of Darién, where members of the Arimae indigenous community have been clashing with the Panamanian police and border guards:
The Yankee monopoly Chiquita laid off 5,000 of its 6,500 workers due to the strike called against the pension reform. The Panamanian president, José Mulino, fulfilled his role by asserting that the strike was illegal and that the mass layoffs were justified. The layoffs occurred in Bocas del Toro, where protests against the pension reform and the mass layoffs by the Yankee monopoly have sparked powerful mobilizations that have blocked the province.
Riot police have been halted at various points in their advance toward different rural and indigenous areas, for example, near Pueblo Nuevo:
On May 27, Mulino declared a state of emergency in the province of Bocas del Toro. Among other measures, an internet shutdown has been reported.
The violence unleashed by the State and the lackey government of Yankee imperialism against the people is brutal. Local media report that in Bocas del Toro, repressive forces have used deadly ammunition against the protesters. Three protesters have been injured, and one has been murdered:
This has not caused the people to stop protesting, but the opposite. Numerous demonstrators have been seen using various means of struggle, from barricades made of logs to shields and slings, defying the State and the monopolies. Latin America, in general, is a powder keg ready to explode, and in this case, Panama has erupted following the spark of the pension reform and the brutal repression by the government.
