Clashes with Suntracs Leaves 9 Uniformed Officers Injured, 2 Seriously
Protesters significantly damaged four patrol cars, private property was damaged and streets were littered with debris.
‘They will pay the price of the law’: Mulino calls Suntracs a ‘mafia’ after clashes with the Police. The president announced a series of audits that the Comptroller General’s Office is carrying out on all unions, including Suntracs, and said that no more funds will be approved until the results are known. The director of the National Police, Jaime Fernández, said that the clashes with the workers of the Single Union of Construction and Similar Workers (Suntracs) left nine police injured. Of these, two are in critical condition, while the others are under observation, the director said. According to Fernandez, there were around 200 people and all of them will be prosecuted, so they have had to set up a special prison to take them and continue the judicial process. The director indicated that this type of protest is not the way to show patriotism and added that these demonstrations cannot continue as they have been taking place nationwide.
He said protesters significantly damaged four patrol cars, private property was damaged and the streets were littered with debris. “These people attempted to take the lives of more than 200 uniformed officers today. We will not allow this and we will take the matter to the ultimate consequences,” he stressed. They are reinforcing security with the National Aeronaval System (Senan), the National Border System (Senafront) and the Institutional Protection Service (SPI). Construction workers demonstrated against Bill 163, which reforms the Organic Law of the Social Security Fund (CSS). The protests were mainly recorded on Avenida Balboa, where the clashes were reported, on Via Tocumen, Via España, Via Ricardo J. Alfaro and in some parts of the interior of the country, causing a traffic jam. Mulino attacks Capac: ‘Stop being accomplices of Suntracs’. Capac responds to Mulino: ‘Neither today nor ever have we been complicit in the actions of Suntracs’. The construction union issued a statement condemning the acts of violence and vandalism that occurred on February 12, involving the construction site of the children’s hospital.
