Graffiti group takes over election clean up chore

THE ARTISTIC group El Kolectivo which had a running battle with President Ricardo Martinelli  when they wanted to paint a giant mural honoring the January 9, 1964 students who died in confrontation with U.S. troops, have turned the other cheek to their “persecutors.”

The mural was condemned by President Ricardo  Martinelli who ordered it to be painted over.  The Ministry of Public Works complied twice, but the group defied the government in the name of artistic expression, staged demonstrations and “paint ins” and  rallied support from opposition deputies and the public.

Now, El Kolectivo,,with  Manuel Quintero taking the lead,  is engaged in its own “paint over “campaign, to eliminate messages painted by political parties in the run-up to the May 4 elections.

Nearly two months later, hundreds of facades of Panama continue to show messages put there by  political parties of all stripes.

On Thursday. Quintero, armed with a ladder and brush and a canister of green paint “recovered two walls in   Curundú and National Avenue.

He said: “The electoral law says that politicians have a month to remove all propaganda, including that on the walls, but there seems no initiative to remove the slogans

“Panamanians have forgotten their human, social, political and civil rights. With this initiative, we also want to educate people and to inform the entire population of their basic fundamental rights.”

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