For almost two months, Panama has seen a national strike against privatization, mega-mining, and US imperialism. It is the country’s third period of mass civil unrest since 2022. Capital and the government have retaliated through police repression, persecution, and mass firings. Yet this has been unable to stifle widespread criticism of elected officials and mainstream political figures, focused mainly on the defense of Panamanian sovereignty and the government’s disregard of due process.
Without a left-wing party to represent the movement’s demands, there is no clear end to the tug-of-war between the workers and an increasingly authoritarian state backed by big business and the United States. But after previous mass protests in 2022 and 2023, can these past demonstrations teach us something about where today’s movement is headed?
The mobilizations have involved the banana, construction, and teachers’ unions, who called for an indefinite strike on April 28, as well as students, feminists, indigenous populations, and other social movements. The demands carry over grievances from the previous demonstrations: the under-resourced social security fund, now facing imminent privatization after the approval of a new law, and President José Raúl Mulino’s stated intentions to reopen the Canadian-owned Donoso mine.
One of the world’s biggest copper extractors, the mine was declared unconstitutional in 2023. On top of this, there is widespread condemnation of the memorandum signed in April between the government and US secretary of defense Pete…
Auteur: Octavio García Soto
