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Protests extended into a second week Monday over a long-term copper mining concession for a Canadian company, as Panama’s government sought to calm anger by promising to let Panamanians decide in a referendum whether to scrap the deal.<\/p>\n
A broad cross-section of society has joined in demonstrations across the country for more than a week demanding the government rescind the contract with a local subsidiary of Canada\u2019s First Quantum Minerals. Critics say the concession puts Panama\u2019s environment and water supply at risk. <\/p>\n
President Laurentino Cortizo\u2019s administration proposed Monday to send congress a bill that would schedule a referendum in December. But the country’s top electoral authority said such a vote couldn’t be held before next May’s presidential election.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Roger Tejado, who submitted the proposed legislation, called on electoral authorities to \u201ccarry out your historic role.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contract has real economic implications for the country. Panama Mining, the local subsidiary, employs more than 9,000 people, and the company says its operations accounted for 4.8% of Panama\u2019s gross domestic product in 2021.<\/p>\n
Cortizo\u2019s administration says the new contract guarantees a minimum annual payment of $375 million to Panama, 10 times more than under the previous contract.<\/p>\n
The new contract extends Panama Mining\u2019s concession over 32,000 acres (12,955 hectares) for 20 years, with the company having an option to extend it for another 20 years.<\/p>\n
The scale and scope of the deal have raised nationalist anger as well as environmentalist objections.<\/p>\n
Critics say that at a time when drought has forced reductions in Panama Canal traffic, giving the company control over the water it uses is a mistake. The company says it uses only rainwater that it collects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re almost out of water,\u201d protester Omayra Avenda\u00f1o, a real estate broker, said during a march. \u201cAll the money in the world will not be able to make up for the lack of water, which is already critical.\u201d<\/p>\n
First Quantum Minerals has not commented since the protests began other than issuing a brief statement condemning protesters who arrived by boat at a port the company uses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails Protests extended into a second week Monday over a long-term copper mining concession for a Canadian company, as Panama’s government sought to calm anger by promising to let Panamanians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n