A dispute over a Canadian mining contract has sparked the largest demonstrations since the 1980s dictatorship of Gen. Manuel Noriega. At issue, then and now: What kind of country does Panama want to be?
PANAMA CITY — On the surface, the protests that have shaken Panama the past two weeks are about a government contract that allows a Canadian company to expand its copper mining operations here.
“It’s a resource that can bring a lot of good to the country if it’s well exploited,” he said. “It’s a resource that Panama needs.” President Laurentino Cortizo, whose government negotiated the contract, describes it as a problem he inherited.“When I took over the government in 2019,” he told Panamanians last month, First Quantum “was operating in our country exploiting copper and its associated minerals.”
“For the first time, it became a space where the arguments were making it to national TV,” said longtime environmental activist Raisa Banfield, a former vice mayor of Panama City. “And when a lot of people listened to the environmental, climate, economic, judicial technical arguments, they woke up.”
Opponents aren’t interested in Cortizo’s better contract. Among its provisions, it allows First Quantum to make offers on land it deems necessary for its operations. If the owner declines the offer, the contract states, the company can ask the government to seize it on its behalf.
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