Panama scandals: 3 hour protests block roads
AS PRESIDENT Juan Carlos Varea, continues to be lampooned daily by political cartoonists and denounced by civil society and business groups over inaction on a growing number of scandal issues, students took to the streets on Thursday May 19.
Their protest closed Via Transístmica opposite the University of Panama for over three hours, leading to traffic jams across the city.
Students were waving flags and placed objects and branches on the road and to block traffic.
Police began to divert motorists onto Vía España and other avenuesand recommended drivers to avoid Via Transístmica.
A spokesmen for the university explained that the students closed the road for several reasons, including the recent scandals involving the Waked family and Mossack Fonseca.
They also said that the Panama Canal Authority has not responded to the request filed several months ago to name the new locks after Ascanio Arosemena (the first student to be killed on January 9,1964 when students were killed by American soldiers after entering the Canal Zone and raising the Panama flag. The incident led to the treaty that saw the handing over of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
