By Geraldina Colotti, Resumen Latinoamericano, June 20, 2025.
protests continue across Panama
There is a country in Latin America where chainsaws—literally—are not wielded by “crazy” presidents who are fanatics of Trump and the International Monetary Fund, like Milei in Argentina, but by peasants and indigenous communities, who use them to cut down trees and block roads to prevent the arrival of the military. This is Panama, a region of Central America swept by a wave of strikes and protests that continue despite fierce repression. The unions began to mobilize on April 28, mainly against Law 462, which reforms the social security system (Caja de Seguro Social – CSS), seen as an attempt at privatization and an attack on pensions by the neoliberal government of José Raúl Mulino.
The main driving force has been banana plantation workers (such as those at Chiquita, represented by Sitraibana), but they were soon joined by teachers, construction workers, and other sectors affected by government policies and subordination to an economic model that subordinates national interests to those of large Western monopolies.
Banana trade unionists Francisco Smith and Gilbert Guerra are transferred to a high security prison. Photo: Claridad Panama
The protests also denounce the exploitation of mines and the sale of the country to large foreign companies, mainly US. The organized Panamanian people also reject the agreement signed with the United States on security cooperation during the visit of Trump administration Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
There is opposition to the reopening of the Cobre Panamá mine (First Quantum Minerals Ltd) and to the “multipurpose reservoirs” for the interoceanic canal, which involve plans to build new dams and reservoirs along the rivers that feed the canal, such as the Indio River.
These demands are compounded by other long-standing issues relating to structural problems and indicative of a deep economic, political, and social crisis. These include public education and health care, road infrastructure, the fight against corruption and social inequality in a country that has essentially remained one of the “banana republics” of the 20th century.
This is demonstrated by the importance of Chiquita Brands International, on which the economy of the predominantly banana-growing province of Bocas del Toro depends. Poverty in Bocas del Toro is not only economic, it is structural, historical, and political. Official data from 2024 show that, after the comarcas (autonomous indigenous territories), the Caribbean province has the highest level of multidimensional poverty: that is, problems of hunger, lack of electricity, non-functioning schools, drinking water that never arrives, and a long list of unfulfilled promises.
Although Chiquita Brands International has deep historical roots in the United States (as the heir to the United Fruit Company, a US company founded in Boston) and maintains a strong presence and recognizable brand in the US, its headquarters are currently in Switzerland. After being acquired in 2015 by a Brazilian consortium (composed of the Cutrale and Safra companies), Chiquita Brands International moved its headquarters to Étoy, Switzerland.
However, the multinational remains a leading banana distributor in the United States and maintains significant interests in the country, with major operations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the strikes, Chiquita has laid off almost all of its employees in Panama (more than 6,000 workers) and has declared its intention to cease operations “due to the prolonged paralysis of its operations.”
police struggle to re open roads blocked by protestors
At the forefront of the protests is Suntracs, a historic union (founded on September 10, 1972) and a key player in the Coordinadora de Unidad Sindical (Conusi), the trade union federation considered one of the most radical in Panama. Suntracs is particularly strong in the construction sector, which is strategic for the Panamanian economy (think of the construction of the Canal and all the major infrastructure projects related to it).
In 2014, as part of the Canal expansion project, the union called a two-week strike, securing a significant wage increase. It has also organized important struggles within a broad front against the privatization of public services (such as Frenadeso – National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights), and has made the battle against social security reforms a banner issue, and not just recently.
There is also a constant anti-imperialist commitment against the influence of the United States, which is even more imminent and omnipresent after the threatening statements by Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his intention to “recover” the Panama Canal, or in any case to exercise total control over the area.
It should be remembered that the important commercial and geopolitical hub of the Panama Canal has been under the full control and sovereignty of the Panamanian government since December 31, 1999, as established by the Torrijos-Carter treaties, and its operations are managed by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). With his usual victimizing rhetoric, tending to portray the super-rich in his circle as the eternal victims of an inept progressivism incapable of asserting itself, the tycoon now claims that the transfer of the Canal to Panama, through the treaties signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977, was a “silly gift” and mismanaged, resulting in a commercial penalty for the US.
Trump also points to China’s alleged hegemony over the canal, which he considers a threat to US national security and economic interests. Despite the rhetoric used by President Mulino and some of his officials, who have appealed to the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the sovereignty of another state, Panama is clearly positioned in the camp of governments subordinate to the US in Latin America.
And many remember that Trump’s threat is based on real historical precedents not so distant in time, such as the December 1989 invasion—Operation Just Cause—ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush. With the capture of Noriega, who had dared to turn his back on the US master, the US sent a warning, well received by subsequent presidents, and one that the US was very careful not to let slip again.
The position of the current president, Mulino, elected last year, has left no doubt about the policies he is pursuing on the continent when he rushed to welcome the new self-proclaimed “winner of the elections” of July 28, 2024, in Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia, the cardboard candidate of the coup leader María Corina Machado.
And for this reason, Marina Mesure, a member of La France Insoumise in the European Parliament, has denounced that the European Union, despite Panama being an active partner in EU regional initiatives in areas such as the environment, climate change, and digital transformation, remains silent on events in Panama, on the repression affecting workers’ rights, and on repression in general. Mesure also accused the International Labor Organization (ILO), of which Panama is a member, of remaining silent on the persecution of workers and two well-known union leaders, such as Saúl Méndez, current secretary general of SUNTRACS, and his predecessor, Genaro López.
The former has had to seek refuge in the Bolivian embassy in Panama City, where he is receiving “temporary protection” while his application is being reviewed by Bolivia’s National Refugee Council. The latter, initially arrested and transferred to La Nueva Joya prison, is now under house arrest.