Constitutional rights are suspended for five days in the Bocas del Toro province after mass looting.

Panama has declared an emergency in its main banana-producing region, after shops were looted and buildings vandalised in ongoing protests over a pension reform.

The government says constitutional rights will be suspended for the next five days in the north-western Bocas del Toro province.

The measure restricts freedom of movement and allows the police to make arrests without a warrant.

Troubles in the region began a month ago, when the local banana workers union joined a nationwide protest against proposed pension cuts and declared a strike.

  • Crankenstein@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 days ago

    Couldn’t be more proud of every one of those workers. Take back what is yours, boys!

    Fuck the Panama State for, as expected, employing authoritarian violence against workers standing up to oppression from a soulless corporate entity.

    Goes to show who the state really cares about. It isn’t the people.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    “In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace,” said Juan Carlos Orillac, minister of the presidency.

    It is telling that the only direct quote in the article comes from the side of the state, not from the side of the workers.

    Journalists, do a better job. Report on people’s view, not company’s point of view of things.

  • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 days ago

    Chiquita wanted to save a few bucks. Chiquita is willing to let everyone living in the area suffer, go broke, go homeless, and starve. That is a sacrifice Chiquita knew it would make to save a few bucks on labor.

  • Gerudo@lemm.eeEnglish
    14·
    2 days ago

    The government says constitutional rights will be suspended for the next five days

    Please don’t give the US any ideas…