On Monday, in San Felix and Vigui, at the mobilizations carried out against the reform there were strong confrontations between indigenous Ngäbé Bügle people and anti-riot police officers, when more than 1500 indigenous people tried to have a peaceful protest.

Celestino Mariano, a traditional community leader, said in an interview with local radio Temblor that the demonstrators were going to protest peacefully for one hour, but they were attacked by the police that was trying to prevent the protest from happening.

“They started attacking us with tear gas with no warning, they threw tear gas bombs and shot at us. We have evidence of that. They injured nine people who had to be taken to the hospital, and there were 22 people arrested”, he said.

The community leader said that the police chased 500 demonstrators for five kilometers throwing tear gas bombs and shooting at them, and the leaders had to meet with police authorities to ask them to put an end to the repression.

The actions of the police aimed to prevent the crowd from carrying out the peaceful protest. Children were participating in the mobilization, who were affected by the tear gas, said Mariano in an interview with Radio Temblor. Even three of them were taken to the police headquarters.

The leader said that the current Mining Code is not beneficial for the people of Panama, but highlighted that the reform promoted by right-wing Martinelli will only worsen the situation.

“I call the people to act to prevent the Mining Code reform which we know will bring negative consequences”.

A poll published by EFE shows that Martinelli’s popularity fell by 7.3 % in February with reference to January. The researchers state that this could be a result of his attempts to modify the Mining Code since only 20.9 % of the voters agree with the development of mining activities in Panama, and 67.7 % reject mining operations. 11.4 % chose not to answer.

Photo: Radio Temblor