David marchers demand reopening of Inter-American highway

A group of protestors including businessmen, poultry farmers, and agricultural producers paraded through the streets of David, Chiriqui on Tuesday, chanting “Freedom, freedom”  to demand the total and immediate reopening of the Inter-American highway.

Several points of the highway, in Chiriquí, have been blocked in recent weeks by indigenous people from the Ngäbe Buglé region who demand answers to the high cost of living, and medicines, among other requests.

On the morning of Tuesday, the indigenous people reopened several points of the Inter-American Highway, at Horconcitos, San Juan, San Félix, and El Salado but closures continued elsewhere.

Felipe Rodríguez, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Agriculture and Tourism of Chiriquí, said that the reopening of the Inter-American “should have been the first condition to start a dialogue” in Coclé.