Protests break out in Panama over unionists' arrests
Protesters thronged Panama City's main coastal avenue in a sea of red, white and blue Panamanian flags. (AP pic)
PANAMA CITY : Thousands of people took to the streets in Panama today to protest against the arrests of two trade unionists who had been leading demonstrations against the government of President Jose Raul Mulino.
Two leaders of the powerful Suntracs construction union have been detained over the past week and are being held on money laundering charges, which they reject.
Today, protesters marched peacefully, thronging the capital's main coastal avenue in a sea of red, white and blue Panamanian flags, as police looked on.
'Our leaders have been brutally repressed by the government because it doesn't tolerate us raising our voices against all these neoliberal policies,' unionist Hector Hurtado told AFP.
Suntracs is fighting the Panamanian government on several fronts, including pension reform.
Genaro Lopez, the former leader of the union, was arrested yesterday, a week after another union member, Jaime Caballero, was detained.
The two have denied the accusations against them, maintaining they are the victims of political persecution.
The head of the leftist union, Saul Mendez, meanwhile scaled the fence of the Bolivian embassy to seek asylum on Thursday.
Masked police also raided several Suntracs offices, including its headquarters in Panama City.
Mulino has branded the left-wing union 'a mafia'.
The organisation often leads protests against his right-wing government focused on issues ranging from social security reforms, an agreement allowing US troops to deploy to bases along the Panama Canal, and moves to reopen a contested copper mine.
Suntracs is one of the organisers of an indefinite strike by construction and banana workers launched almost a month ago.
Public school teachers have also observed work stoppages.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
19 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Klang villagers up in arms over columbarium project
Kampung Raja Uda village committee chairman Azhar Ibrahim with fellow residents at a peaceful rally today to protest against the columbarium project. (Bernama pic) KLANG : Residents of Kampung Raja Uda near here are considering submitting a protest memorandum to the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, regarding the construction of a four-storey columbarium adjacent to the mosque in their area. Village committee chairman Azhar Ibrahim said that most of the 5,000 residents in the village oppose the construction of the columbarium on a one-hectare plot of private land. He said the project had not been discussed with the residents, who only became aware of it two weeks ago. 'Many residents are worried that the village area may become polluted by ashes generated from the cremation process, particularly for homes situated less than 10 metres from the site,' he told reporters after participating in a peaceful protest on Persiaran Raja Muda Musa in Port Klang today. Dozens of village residents were at the protest, expressing their opposition to the construction of the columbarium. Azhar said that in the last two days, residents have submitted over 300 protest notices online to the Klang city council regarding the planned project. He said the villagers want the construction of the columbarium to be cancelled, to ensure the comfort of residents, especially Muslims. The imam of Kampung Raja Uda mosque, Bazaireen Baharuddin, said: 'We strongly oppose the construction of this four-storey complex' less than 50m from our place of worship. 'I am concerned that once the columbarium begins operating, it will host many religious ceremonies, making the Muslim residents here feel uncomfortable,' he said. He said the villagers hoped the MP, state assemblyman, and Klang mayor would listen to their concerns.
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Malay Mail
Panama's first climate exodus: Gardi Sugdub left empty as rising seas claim Caribbean homes
GUNA YALA ARCHIPELAGO (Panama), June 4 — Streets once filled with children's laughter have fallen silent on a Panamanian island where almost all residents left a year ago due to the threat of the sea swallowing their homes. The evacuation of around 1,200 members of the Indigenous Guna community to a new life on the mainland was one of the first planned migrations in Latin America due to climate change. The exodus from Gardi Sugdub in the Caribbean left those who remained with a sense of sadness, said Delfino Davies, who has a small museum on the island with spears, jars and animal bones. 'There are no friends left or children playing,' he told AFP. Gardi Sugdub now has the silence of a 'dead island,' he said. An Indigenous Guna woman walks through a street at Gardi Sugdub island, in the Guna Yala Archipelago, Panama on May 27, 2025. — AFP pic Dusty desks and empty classrooms are all that remain of a school that once bustled with children. Many of the island's wooden houses are padlocked. 'There's no one here. Sometimes I get sad when I'm here alone,' Mayka Tejada, 47, said in the small store where she sells bananas, pumpkins, clothes, toys and notebooks. Like Davies and about 100 others, she decided to stay. But her mother and two children, aged 16 and 22, moved to one of the 300 houses built by the Panamanian government in a new neighborhood called Isber Yala on the mainland, a 15-minute boat ride away. Gardi Sugdub, the size of around five football fields, is one of 49 inhabited islands in the Guna Yala archipelago – also known as San Blas – which scientists warn is in danger of disappearing by the end of the century. 'I'll die here' Sitting in a hammock in her earthen-floor house filled with the aroma of medicinal herbs, 62-year-old Luciana Perez said she had no intention of leaving. 'I was born in Gardi and I'll die here. Nothing is sinking. Scientists don't know, only God,' she said. Perez said that she was not afraid because since she was a child she had seen big waves and rising waters flooding houses at times. Steven Paton, a scientist at the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, said climate change meant that sea levels were expected to rise by up to 80 centimeters. 'Most of the Guna Yala islands are about 50 centimeters above sea level,' he told AFP. 'They'll be underwater.' Ana Toni, CEO of the United Nations' COP30 climate conference, told AFP that the mass evacuation 'shows the reality we already have to face on the planet.' An aerial view of Gardi Sugdub island, in the Guna Yala Archipelago, Panama taken on May 27, 2025. — AFP pic Sidewalks, water, electricity The arrival of the rainy season has left puddles dotting the dirt roads of Gardi Sugdub. In contrast, in the new settlement of Isber Yala – 'land of loquats' in the Guna language – the streets are paved and have sidewalks. The nearly 50-square-meter (500-square-feet) concrete houses have flushing toilets and there is a plot of land to grow vegetables. On Gardi Sugdub 'we lived crowded together, and I had to go fetch water from the river in a small boat,' said Magdalena Martinez, a 75-year-old retired teacher. In Isber Yala, water is available for an hour in the morning, she said. 'I can fill the buckets. And I have electricity 24 hours a day,' said Martinez, who lives with her granddaughter in the new neighborhood. Tejada's children also have no regrets about leaving the island, she said. 'I miss them, but they're happy there. They have a place to play football and walk around,' Tejada said. An aerial view of the new mainland neighbourhood of Isber Yala, meaning 'land of loquats' in the Guna language, in the Guna Yala Comarca, Panama on May 27, 2025. — AFP pic While the island's school relocated to Isber Yala, its dilapidated clinic remained in Gardi Sugdub. 'Before, people came on foot. Now, they have to travel by land and sea to get here. There are fewer visitors,' said 46-year-old doctor John Smith. Some of the islanders divide their time between the two communities, while others visit occasionally to check on their homes. This week, there will be more activity than normal: seven jars of chicha – a fermented corn drink – are ready for Isber Yala's first anniversary. Martinez is looking forward to the celebration, even though it will be bittersweet. Although she may not see it herself, 'the islands will disappear because the sea will reclaim its territory,' she said. — AFP
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Malay Mail
After 42 years, El Salvador convicts ex-military over Dutch journalists' deaths in civil war ambush
CHALATENANGO (El Salvador), June 4 — A former defence minister in El Salvador and two retired colonels were found guilty Tuesday of the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the country's civil war, a lawyer for families of the deceased said. A five-member jury sentenced the defendants, now in their 80s or 90s, to 15 years in prison after an 11-hour session on the first day of the trial, attorney Pedro Cruz said outside the courthouse. In a crime that shocked the world, Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed while filming a television documentary. More than 75,000 people were killed in El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war pitting the US-backed military against leftist guerrillas. The Dutch reporters worked for IKON TV, a Dutch channel founded by several churches. The accused are General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85. None of them were in court for the trial, which was conducted with press and held in the northern city of Chalatenango. 'The fight against impunity took a long time, but it was won,' the Dutch ambassador for all of Central America, Arjen van den Berg, said outside the courthouse. In 1993, a UN-sponsored Truth Commission found the journalists had walked into an ambush planned by Reyes, who lives in the United States, and with the knowledge of other officers. The Salvadoran Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Reyes in March, but there has been no progress so far. Garcia and Moran are under police surveillance in a private hospital in San Salvador. The defendants had faced up to 30 years in prison but got less time because of their age and ill health, the lawyer Cruz said. The NGOs Fundacion Comunicandonos and the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights hailed the trial as a 'decisive step' in the search for truth and justice. 'We trust that this trial sets a historic precedent in the fight against impunity,' they said in a joint statement. The case remained unresolved for decades after the presiding judge received threats in 1988, prompting her to seek refuge in Canada. It was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared an amnesty law for civil war crimes unconstitutional, but relatives of the victims still had to wait years for the main hearing. Evidence such as a statement from a former US military attache and a military expert's report 'directly points' to the defendants' responsibility, said lawyer Pedro Cruz, who represents the victims' families. Garcia led the Armed Forces from 1979 to 1983, when the worst massacres perpetrated by the military took place. — AFP
