Protesters retake control of highway after clashes with riot police in Veraguas

After two hours of forceful confrontations  with protestors  in which injuries were sustained on both sides National  Police Riot Control  units withdrew from a bridge in Santiago, Veraguas.which they had earlier cleared.

A police statement  said: We reject the criminal acts of aggression and violence against seven (7) units of the National Police, which were injured by the actions of these destabilizing groups, as well as the misappropriation and damage caused to the vehicle resources of this institution that are used to guarantee the safety of that population .”

Images that circulated on social networks show a group of people destroying and burning a National Police vehicle, in addition to the arrest of two Crowd Control units.  The  Ministry of Security stressed that they will take legal action for “attempted homicide, personal injury, deprivation of liberty and damage to public property.”

The entity justified the police action in the Santiago district on Tuesday afternoon and affirmed that everything was a plan to guarantee the passage of more than 500 vehicles with food, medical supplies and fuel that remained stranded for more than 10 days without reaching their destination.

The National Police that confronted the protesters, the vast majority of them indigenous, asserted that they did so under the protection of article 38 of the Political Constitution of Panama.