Police use tear gas on students protesting mining talks

Agents of the Crowd Control Unit of the National Police and students clashed on Thursday, evening September 7, 2023.

Panama University students went out again to express their rejection of the project of the mining contract that is being discussed in the National Assembly.

They blocked the Transístmica highway and Manuel Espinosa Batista Avenue.

“This fight is not one, this fight belongs to everyone,” the protesters chanted. “Long live the martyrs of January 9, long “Unity” was also heard. The police responded with tear gas;  the protesters, with their faces covered, threw stones.

On  Thursday the cycle of citizen consultations with the communities that could be most impacted by the proposed law contract between the State and the company Minera Panamá SA ended. The project is being debated in the Commission of Commerce and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly.