Prohiben en Francia manifestaciones frente al Consejo Constitucional

First debate about mining contract in Panama, protests among the population are increasing

The Legislature’s Trade and Economic Commission, led by Roberto Ábrego of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), will evaluate this text, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (CSJ) in 2017, without the power to approve it and adopt it it. To the second debate or reject it.

Parliamentarians face a more complicated analysis after last week even the President of the Republic himself, Laurentino Cortizo, announced that an alternative to the controversial pact with the subsidiary of the Canadian transnational First Quantum could be to withdraw it.

During a community work tour, the president revealed to journalists that he preferred to wait for the report with the results of citizen surveys and a visit by deputies to the Donoso (Colón) copper mine.

For Cortizo, there are precedents for legal contracts being withdrawn in order to make adjustments, and on the mining pact he stated that he does not believe in the issue of a non-binding consultation as it makes little sense.

This text is being questioned by social organizations during street demonstrations and protest rallies.

The day before, members of the Alianza Pueblo Unidos por la Vida rejected the double discourse of Environment Minister Milciades Concepción, who attended the second annual Forum of Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Affairs in Latin America and the Caribbean, where he defended the achievements in nature conservation.

At the event, prominent environmentalist Raisa Banfield denounced the non-invitation of Panamanian organizations, which speaks of the government’s hypocrisy in dealing with these problems.

We are experiencing a great contradiction, he explained, because in front of the world we defend that we are carbon negative, and the reality is that we mine metals with a contract that allows us to advance beyond the current concession.

The big inconsistency, he said in a dialogue with Prensa Latina, is that although we are told about climate change, we are attacking Panama’s biodiversity, which is crucial for the region.

The social organizations, which called for new protest demonstrations around the Legislative Assembly, previously filed a criminal complaint against Cortizo and the current head of the CSJ, Judge María Eugenia López, who had maintained the operation of the mine despite the Supreme Court ruling on the illegality of the operation pact.

Speaking about the agreement, academic and economist William Hughes, who has been studying these issues for more than 30 years, said he agreed with popular and environmental groups calling on MPs to reject this text and insisted that the Authorities should aim for a growth model that proposes real and non-predatory development.

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