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Also in this section:
Scenes from two weeks of turmoil
Fear and loathing over the Social Security Fund
A University of Panama scandal at a most inconvenient time
Around Latin America and the Caribbean
Panama News Briefs

Scenes from a couple of weeks of strife in Panama
photos by Eric Jackson except as noted

Monday May 23

CONATO, the National Council of Organized Workers, was the "responsible" labor federation with whom the government would talk, but the radical wing of the labor movement has more or less run them off the field…
 

The Seguro Social argument brought out all sorts of people with all sorts of complaints about "the system" and powerful people in general…
 

(But on this day elsewhere, students at the Instituto Nacional and Artes y Oficios were doing battle with police, and the government closed down those schools. Didn’t get pictures of those confrontations.)


Tuesday May 24

Program! Program! Can’t tell the revisionists from the deviationists without a program! The following several factions are of the various student groups around the University of Panama.

 

But on this day the police chose to reroute traffic, rather than do battle for the Transistmica in front of campus:

 

And thus, a usually busy street in front of Hospital Santa Fe had no cars but a few pedestrians. One lady who wore inappropriate shoes apparently had to make it the rest of the way barefoot:

 

(Understand that on this day kids from several schools, including private ones, went on a rampage around Calle 50 and Via Israel. They trashed and stole from cars, looted a convenience store, robbed people and fought with police and hundreds were arrested. After that the government shut down all public schools and some of the private ones shut for a day or two as well. But as you can see above, The Panama News was elsewhere.)

The SUNTRACS construction workers from a building in progress on Via Veneto marched peacefully on their lunch hour:

 

Wednesday, May 25

There was a big march on this afternoon. One group that marched and otherwise joined the protests, but did not go on strike because it would be highly illegal for them to do so, represented the Panama Canal workers:

 

The nurses contingent was one of the biggest in this day’s march. They were peaceful…

 

But it didn’t keep them from getting tear gassed along with everyone else:
 

Police shot four people with birdshot and arrested hundreds, including journalist Omar Batista.


Thursday, May 26

After the carefully orchestrated police action the afternoon before, the National Assembly’s Labor Committee not only jammed through the proposal on first reading, but without reading its text or separately debating the amendment, changed the proposal to include privatization --- thus breaking President Torrijos’s promise, which he had made in lots of ads at taxpayers’ expense --- and a coalition of some 60 labor unions called for a general strike. There were street blockades and clashes between protesters and police at many points around the country on this day.


Friday, May 27

On this day, in addition to the chaotic scenes here and there, there was another march past the legislature. It was smaller than the one two days before and peaceful, but afterwards gangs of teenagers threw rocks at police, who eventually responded with tear gas and by arresting people who fit a profile of the sort of people whom they thought should be arrested, without regard to whether they had actually been part of the rock
throwing.

 

One of the leaders of the protest movement was economics professor Juan Jovane, who used to be director of Seguro Social:

 

And one of the people who got hurt when the little gangsters decided to do battle with the cops was actually a protester:

 

photo by Joel Inwood

Tuesday, May 31

SUNTRACS carried on the battle at street blockades like this, and all but emergency public medical services, the public schools and several other sectors (like the Coca-Cola bottlers) were on strike. Most workers, however, went to work.

Wednesday, June 1

On this afternoon and evening there was a huge march and rally. Yes, estimates of the crowd size varied widely, from the police’s 7,500 to some protest supporters’ 150,000. To this observer it was easily over 50,000. One of the biggest contingents was that of the teachers, only a small portion of which can be seen in this photo:

 

Former government worker union (FENASEP) leader Leandro Avila is now a PRD deputy from San Miguelito and head of the National Assembly's Labor Committee, and the protesters reserved special venom for him:

The march ended at a rally in Plaza Catedral, but police blocked the way to keep local residents and others from joining in:

 

photo by LA

 

At the rally SUNTRACS leader Genaro Lopez, a man who says he tries to be a good communist and is now clearly Panama’s most influential labor leader, was the main speaker: