Demonstrators gathered in the vicinity of the W Hotel, in this capital, where the 2nd Forum of Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters “is being held without representation of Panama’s civil society,” they claimed.

Prensa Latina reported members of the United People for Life Alliance had been shouting, “No to the mine, yes to life” to demand the Executive for sealing a deal with the Minera Panama Company, a subsidiary of the Canadian transnational First Quantum, which exploits copper in Donoso, Colon), causing damage to nature and to the health of the population.

Saul Mendez, belonging to the Constructors Union Marcos Andrade from the National Confederation of Independent Trade Union Unity; and Jorge Guzman, representing the National Front in Defense of Economic and Social Rights, recalled that the mining company continues to operate despite a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice that stated such deal unconstitutional in 2017.

This system is immoral and so is the role of Concepcion. The minister, on the one hand, speaks of caring for the environment and even of achievements in this area, such as decarbonisation; while, on the other hand, the authority supports agreements capable of destroying 20,000 hectares of forests and sowing death on our lands, as part of open-pit metallic mining, protesters assured.

ef/omr/rgh/ga