Translated from Spanish by Mike Gatehouse. The article was originally published on RadioTemblor. You can read the original here.
What lies behind the stoppage paralysing parts of the country?
A general strike in Panama, which began on 23 April, has paralysed the health system (except for emergency services), and halted classes in state schools. Throughout the period, there have been meetings, marches, pickets, and mass demonstrations, many of which have been dispersed by riot police and officers of the National Border Service, resulting in injuries, arrests, and criminal charges against the leadership and rank and file.
Podcast (in Spanish): ‘Radiografía sobre la Huelga Indefinida en Panamá‘ from Voces Ecológicas, Panama, 11 May 2025
You can listen to a Radio Temblor podcast (in Spanish) ‘Radiografía sobre la Huelga Indefinida en Panamá’, and other related podcasts.
A profoundly unequal society
Panama is a country with a population of just over four million, a GNP which grew by 2.9 per cent in 2024 to reach US$ 81.289 bn, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). That means that by World Bank standards, it ranks as an upper middle income country.
Nevertheless, if we apply the Gini Coefficient (used to evaluate inequality in the distribution of wealth), it becomes clear that inequalities and social injustices persist, and that it is vital to create inclusive economic policies to guarantee opportunities. The Gini Coefficient for 2023 (the most recent year available) is 48.9 per cent[1], the third highest in the region after Colombia (54.8 per cent) and Brazil (52 per cent). Inequality in Panama is structural, affects all productive sectors and falls hardest on the most vulnerable groups: Indigenous peoples, women, children, and young people in rural and Indigenous areas.
If we add into this equation other factors such as the absence of government and corruption, we find ourselves forced us to reexamine the development model for the country, to prioritize sustainability, transparency and social welfare – welfare which is only possible if we invest the necessary amounts in education, health and employment.
The crisis following Mulino’s inauguration
The inauguration of president José Raúl Mulino in May 2024 made few changes to the way of doing politics in Panama. Rather the opposite, it has implied continuity with the neoliberal and presidentialist governments of the post-invasion[2] period. Ever since 1990 this has meant that political decisions which have important social consequences and deepen still further the gulf of inequality are taken without any real democratic participation. It is in this context that the country finds itself once again in the midst of a crisis which is deepening day by day as demands for social justice multiply and the government’s decisions are tainted by corruption.
Approval of Law 462 (the Social Security Fund)
The current reform of the social security system and the Social Security Fund Law, embodied in Law 462 of 18 March 2025, has led to pickets, marches, and the periodic closure of streets and avenues in different parts of the country, carried out by teachers’ unions, construction workers, students, and groups of young and Indigenous people. The reform reduces still further the public and mutual elements of social security[3] by reducing pension payments and raising the retirement age. The protestors are defending a system based on mutual solidarity, rather than the model of individual accounts favoured by business.
The problem of mining
Protection of the environment has become a central issue in public debate in Panama. The report Perspectives for the World Environment, Panama 2024 identifies the ‘megafactors’ which affect ecosystems and quality of life, one of which is extractive mining.
While Panama is a signatory of the Escazú Agreement, the Environment Ministry has fallen far short in its supposed role as a regulatory body to enforce this and other legal instruments which seek to provide access to information and to environmental justice – and the protection of nature. The ministry has thus permitted the institutionalization and imposition of metal mining in the country. Although, in November 2023, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Mining Concession granted to Cobre Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, the Mulino government has given clear indications that it seeks to reopen the matter, in defiance not only of the court ruling, but of the massive wave of protest which preceded it.
At the beginning of April, a report was published entitled ‘The process of definitive and irrevocable closure of the mining project of Cobre Panamá’. It was the fruit of work coordinated by the Panamanian Committee of UICN and drawn up with the help of civil society organizations. It establishes criteria to be used if a properly planned closure takes place of the mine located in Donoso district in the north of the country. Civil society challenges the government of Panama to use this historic opportunity to close this chapter and move forward to a future free from open-cast metal mining instead of continuing to exacerbate the local situation.
The problem of sovereignty
In April 2025 we learned that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between the United States and Panama. According to the official account, the aim of the MoU is to strengthen cooperation on security matters to confront threats posed by drug-trafficking and migration. Although Panamanian authorities and representatives of the US government have emphasized that Panamanian sovereignty is not at risk, international relations experts and local social organizations have rejected the agreement because it allows foreign military presence in areas specified in the document.
The lack of transparency from the Mulino government and the repeated statements by President Donald Trump, declaring his intention of taking back the Panama Canal, do little to reassure the people. In addition, the signature of this agreement provides a useful means of legitimizing right-wing ideology in the region of the kind Mulino subscribes to, while holding back the nightmare of communism – now coming from China, according to our powerful northern neighbour. It also serves as evidence that Panama subscribes to the new trading order being imposed by Trump.
‘Multipurpose reservoirs’ or damming another river
A multipurpose reservoir is designed to store huge volumes of water. In Panama, these are used to ensure continuous supplies of drinking water, to support hydro-electric generators, to control flooding and to enable the Panama Canal to function efficiently. But the big debate at present is around the proposal to build a ‘multipurpose reservoir’ in the Indio river basin, which spans the provinces of Colón, Coclé and Western Panama.
The proposal is for a main reservoir 840 metres long and 80 metres deep, plus three secondary reservoirs to support the dam at times of low water. The reservoir would cover approximately 4,600 hectares and be able to hold an estimated 1,500 million cubic metres of water. The project includes the construction of an 8.7 km transfer tunnel to connect the new reservoir with lake Gatún[4], which supplies the water required for locks of the Panama Canal. The Coordination of Peasants for Life and Against Dams in Panama, rejects this proposal which is being pushed by the Panama Canal Authority. Eighty-five per cent of the 749 families surveyed in the communities affected made clear their opposition.
Press censorship, hatred and criminalization of social protest.
The demands of Panamanian society and the organized social movements have aroused a campaign of disinformation, manipulation, censorship and hate-speech emanating from fake accounts on social media, influencers paid by the Canadian transnational mining company, the business elite and the present government. This is backed by stories in the traditional press, radio and television which do not allow different points of view.
In this situation, the reaction of ordinary citizens and social organizations has been to make use of the same networks to publicize the campaigns and protests in the streets and communities of the country, showing once again that activism and popular communication are not contrary to journalism and its commitment to report the truth, independent of monopoly domination of the media, consumerism and fear.
Conclusion
Panama faces huge challenges in productivity, social and environmental sustainability. But it also has the opportunity to design a more just and communal future. Citizen participation, institutional innovation with a human face while protecting the rights of human beings and nature are fundamental needs of our country as part of a Fair and Realistic Energy Transition. Options for social change centre on which political instrument is the best option: reform or a constituent assembly whose outcome would be a national consensus, legitimate and transparent, aimed at the Refounding of our Nation.
Olmedo Carrasquilla Águila is a lawyer and journalist and member of the team at Colectivo Voces Ecológicas, COVEC, who write and podcast on RadioTemblor.
[1] Low (0 per cent) is most equal. The world’s most unequal country (South Africa) has a coefficient of 63%. The UK is at 32.4%, the US 41.3% (World Bank data 2025).
[2] The US invasion in December 1989 on the pretext of removing the dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
[3] The pension system was reformed in 2005, introducing a component of private saving for younger workers.
[4] Lake Gatún was created between 1907 and 1913, during the period of construction of the Panama Canal, by damming the Chagres river.
