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The signing of a legal contract granting a Canadian company’s subsidiary a concession to exploit the largest open-pit copper mine in Central America for 20 years has sparked unprecedented protests in Panama, leaving several people injured, dozens arrested and clashes between police and protesters and the closure of major roads across the country. The cries of rejection have reached the doors of the Marriott Hotel in the capital, where environment ministers, members of NGOs and decision-makers from the region are meeting for Climate Week in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Climate change and mining kills,” read one of the banners of the demonstrators who approached the event, rejecting the mining contract signed and recognized as law between the state and the company Minera Panamá – a subsidiary of the Canadian company Firts Quantum Minerals. by the government of Laurentino Cortizo last Friday. “The document points to violations of the Panamanian state in virtually all of its clauses,” criticizes Raisa Banfield, director of the Sustainable Panama Foundation.
The reasons that most outrage those who oppose the project are two: first, that the contract appears to have been concluded behind the back of the community. The law was discussed, approved and sanctioned by the government in a record time of just three days. Furthermore, according to Banfield, people were not allowed to properly consult the document from the beginning and before it entered the debate. “The platform made it impossible to download the document or find out what opinions people expressed, let alone know where what someone had to say would lead. Only when this document reached the first debate in the National Assembly did a discussion with citizen participation take place, at the suggestion of MP Juan Diego Vásquez,” explains the activist.
For lawyer and former diplomat Roberto Ruiz Díaz, this represents a violation of the Escazú Agreement, to which Panama is a party. Especially because greater citizen participation is necessary to continue a project of this magnitude. It is an approximately 12,000 hectare copper mine in the Panamanian Caribbean, in the province of Colón, on the Mesoamerican biological corridor. That is, over a protected area. Although the mine had been operating since 1997, the government approved a new contract for 20 years, extendable to 40 years.
A demonstrator holds a Panamanian flag during one of the protests against the mining deal in Panama City on October 25. Welcome Velasco (EFE)
For this reason, the impact on the environment is also worrying. “In terms of water, they will be able to divert, store and create their own reservoirs from natural water sources, thereby jeopardizing the water for the consumption of the surrounding population and, in the future, the possible expansion of sources for the canal. from Panama,” says Banfield. In addition, media outlets such as Bloomberg have found that the project, which operated under an old contract, has six ongoing investigations into possible damage to the environment, historical heritage and public administration, in addition to receiving eleven complaints. The Minera Panamá company did not respond to América Futura’s request to comment on the matter.
For his part, Roberto Cuevas, president of the Chamber of Mines of Panama (Camipa), believes that the company’s presence on this protected land has contributed to its protection since, as he assures, the state had never allocated resources for it before the company’s arrival its preservation. “It’s not just about declaring protected areas, you also have to invest money in it,” he said in statements to América Futura. In addition, he guaranteed that the company has an environmental management plan of more than 100 points that must be fully respected, recalling that if the contract had not been approved, more than 7,500 jobs related to the mine could have been lost.
A long story
Panamanians’ relationship with this large copper mine, the largest open-pit mine in Central America, is not new. The first activation agreement was signed in 1997, but in 2008 it was sued for unconstitutionality by the Environmental Advocacy Center. In 2017, the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, but this decision was not published until 2021 in the Official Gazette. , the platform in Panama that publishes public and official documents after objections from the company’s lawyers. During this period, explains Ruiz Díaz, Minera Panamá began exporting copper in 2019.
The negotiation of the new contract between the company and the government began in 2022 and it was only in March 2023 that people found out about it. “The previous contract [el de 1997] “It has brought a lot of benefits to the company,” says Cuevas, explaining that the approved version is a big improvement. For example, it requires the company to pay taxes – which the old company did not have – and mandates a plan to close and dismantle mines. There is also agreement that the company must give the state at least $375 million a year to exploit the mine, even if the price of copper falls. So, according to Cueva’s calculations, in a different scenario it could remove much more from the country.
Riot police during a day of protests in Panama City on October 24. Welcome Velasco (EFE)
But for many it is still a contract that requires further discussion, which is why the new document already contains three demands. “This is not just about a mine,” says Serena Vamvas, an environmental activist, “but about whether the country wants to open the doors to the other 130 concessions that are being sought.” It’s about whether we move away from a transit economy want [con el canal de Panamá], to an extractivist. And that’s what you have to think about.”
Amid the marches and protests against it, President Cortizo expressed his opposition to the project on Tuesday, attacking the demonstrators: “Panama is in the process of economic recovery, but the road closures affect the economy, they hinder it.” prevented from reaching their workplace, they disturb the peace of the population, medical appointments are lost and the care of vulnerable patients is made more difficult,” he said in a speech delivered on television channels and repeated on X (formerly Twitter). The President also once again defended the contract law, saying that it would save 9,387 jobs and that the money it would bring would allow better payments to retirees and retirees.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the streets and shouting: “Panama is not for sale.” On Wednesday, for example, the doctors’ union and public educators joined in and suspended classes this Thursday and Friday. Local media reported product shortages in supermarkets, tight security measures and the use of tear gas to disperse protesters.