Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Organized workers have denounced the police’s brutal treatment of demonstrators before and after the protest. President Mulino has called them “terrorists”.

Over 480 people were arrested in Panama on February 12 during a national demonstration called for by trade unions and social movements. Workers and protesters took the streets to raise several issues in the country:

• To protest a law intending to privatize social security (Law 163)
• To honor the memory of Al Iromi Smith Rentería, a worker killed by Panamanian police on February 12, 2008
• To protest Donald Trump’s expansionist statements regarding the Panama Canal
• To protest the pro-US attitude of the government of José Raúl Mulino

Police repression was extreme. After the police descended on the protests in Panama City, more than 100 demonstrators were injured and 15 policemen were wounded. 

The Director of the Panamanian police, Jaime Fernández said, “We managed to capture 450 people,” for which reason they had to improvise “a special jail” due to the long lines of handcuffed demonstrators. Other sources report almost 480 detainees. The right-wing president, José Raúl Mulino, labeled the trade union which led the protest, the National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS), a “terrorist” organization and like a “mafia” and announced that “the full weight of the law” will fall on them.

SUNTRACS denounces police brutality and demands release of detained workers

In a press conference on February 12, a representative of SUNTRACS, and a participant in the demonstrations, denounced the actions of the police. The representative stated that without trying to mediate the situation, the police “began to brutally repress” the demonstration. The workers then sought refuge in the hospital under construction. Reportedly, the police began to indiscriminately arrest workers from the construction site.

Regarding President Mulino’s statements, the SUNTRACS representative said “It’s outrageous that because we go out to protest they call us “terrorists”, as the disrespectful President [of Panama] said. [Mulino] does not respond that way to Donald Trump, despite all the threats he has made against our national territory and our country.” 

Finally, he demanded the immediate release of the detained workers: “We will defend our comrades to the last consequences.”

In a press conference on February 13, a representative of SUNTRACS said that the police have not released any information about the detainees, except to certain relatives of the wounded, one of whom has undergone surgery for his injuries. He also denounced the beatings that several prisoners suffered after their apprehension.

Controversial Law 163

The law in question, which is being debated by the National Assembly, has been baptized as Law 163, which seeks to reform the current legislation on social security. SUNTRACS, along with other trade unions and social movements call the bill a clear attack on workers from the business and neoliberal groups. 

Under the pretext of an economic deficit of the Social Security Fund, Law 163 seeks to:

• eliminate the autonomy of the Social Security Fund
• increase the retirement age by three years (60 for women and 65 for men)
• increase the requirements for retirement
• transfer millions in Social Security funds to private companies
• and various other measures

According to SUNTRACS, one of the project’s objectives is to take money from the insured, put it in private hands, and give the elderly a very poor retirement. 

“We will not allow this. We are in our legitimate right to have a promising future, and not the future they want to give us. We are going to resist.” In addition, he called for the solidarity and organization of the Panamanian people in the face of Mulino’s neoliberal onslaught.

For his part, Saúl Méndez, Secretary General of SUNTRACS, said that the bill seeks “to impose the theft of insurance money, increase the retirement age, rob pensioners and workers of their money to give it to the banks. We all want peace, but not the peace of the cemetery, the peace of misery and hunger that they want to impose on us. That is why we need unity, firmness and discipline in the face of this problem.”

Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.