News
Tuesday 10th June 2025.
June 9, 2025
Julia Suira , general secretary of the Workers’ Central Casa Sindical , made an urgent call this Monday, June 9, to free the closed roads in Bocas del Toro , especially in critical sectors such as Changuinola and Chiriquí Grande, where the blockades have caused serious effects on workers and communities in the region.
In an interview with La Prensa prior to a meeting between banana leaders and representatives, Suira expressed her deep concern about the deteriorating working and economic conditions resulting from the closures, which she described as unsustainable. “I ask those who are closing the streets to open them, because they are affecting all the country’s workers, not just those in Bocas del Toro. When a producer cannot transport their goods, that also affects a worker,” the leader stated.
Suira recalled that the Trade Union House represents more than 30 unions nationwide, with a strong presence in provinces such as Panama, Colón, Chiriquí, and Bocas del Toro, where they represent six local unions. He emphasized that protecting jobs should be a priority for every union leader: “A union isn’t a union if all its workers are fired ,” he maintained.
Suira also lamented the direct impact the blockades have had on vulnerable sectors, such as water transport, agricultural trade, and healthcare. “I have colleagues who can’t transport merchandise by boat, others can’t export cocoa or vegetables, and workers who can’t get to the hospital or attend a family member’s funeral due to lack of transportation,” he said.
Referring to the recent dismissal of some 7,000 workers by the Chiquita company, Suira said: “If we were defending those workers, they wouldn’t have been fired. I don’t know of any union for the unemployed.”
The union leader called for negotiations with the government and church representatives to move toward concrete solutions that include reopening roads as an essential step. “After spilled milk, you can’t clean it up. I don’t think Chiquita will return, but we can still prevent more companies from closing,” she warned.
In response to reports of union persecution, Suira responded that he does not feel like a victim of repression and appealed to the legal and ethical responsibility of union leaders. “I have always worked within the law. If anyone feels persecuted, they should report it,” he added.
He believes that everything happening in the union movements also has a political undertone. “Well, analyzing everything that’s happening, I think politics is involved,” he said.
He reiterated his call for unity among the union movement to defend the country and prevent workers from continuing to be the most affected. “Panama doesn’t belong to one sector; it belongs to everyone. And what’s doing the most damage right now isn’t the government: it’s the closed streets,” he said.
Leaders of the Banana Industry Workers Union (Sitraibana) left the province of Bocas del Toro on a bus to Panama City around noon on Monday, June 9, with the intention of speaking with members of the National Assembly .
The leaders were expected to hold the meeting with the Legislature this Monday, but their departure from Changuinola took longer than expected. The meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 .
The union delegation traveling to the capital is made up of 17 people , including union leader Francisco Smith . The meeting in the capital will be with the Assembly’s board of directors.
Regarding the deputies’ participation in the meeting, Representative Janine Prado , head of the Vamos coalition, mentioned that she is waiting for the Legislative Board of Directors to summon them. Prado participated in a meeting with the President of the Republic , along with other party leaders, on May 20, to address Sitraibana ‘s requests .
Sitraibana has maintained a work stoppage and road closures in various parts of Bocas del Toro since April 28.
However, following the news that the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa, would deliver a letter from President José Raúl Mulino, the union decided to temporarily suspend the closures in the province. The intention is to seek dialogue that will achieve a definitive cessation of the protests in Bocas del Toro.
On the other hand, the Archdiocese of Panama announced that it will only deliver the letter, but will not play an active role as mediator between the union’s requests to the government, which rejects Law 462, which reformed the Social Security Fund ( CSS ), and demands a review of Law 45 of 2017, which establishes pension regulations for the banana sector and which, according to union members, was overturned by Law 462.
The union workers’ strike prompted Chiquita Panama to announce multimillion-dollar losses and its withdrawal from the country.
Sitraibana’s meeting with Archbishop Ulloa is also expected to take place this Tuesday, June 9, in Panama City.
Benicio Robinson , a representative and president of the opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) , justified the paltry amount he paid four years ago for 42.6 hectares in Bocas del Toro, claiming that those were the “titling costs established by law.”
This Monday, June 9, La Prensa reported that, in exchange for giving Robinson these lands in Almirante and Chiriquí Grande, the National Land Administration Authority (ANATI) received only $276. Therefore, Robinson would have paid $6.48 per hectare and 0.065 cents per square meter.
It doesn’t end there: the congressman is currently processing the titling of 132.8 additional hectares to those he already owns in Chiriquí Grande.
Robinson responded on his X account that the La Prensa report “is riddled with errors,” that the note is “false and inaccurate,” although he did not indicate what information is supposedly wrong.
He insists he has not “purchased” any land. The news article Robinson refers to never mentions a sale, but rather an “allocation,” emphasizing that it was done under the terms of ANATI’s massive titling program.
The truth is that, thanks to this benefit, Robinson holds title to 42.6 hectares that were once national property, which he could even sell now or transfer to a third party if he so chose.
Robinson warns that there have been more dispossessions, since, as he points out, he and his family have been requesting land titles “for more than 50 years” in Bocas del Toro. In fact, more than 20 years ago, he was already sued for the alleged crimes of ideological falsification and fraud, specifically for the titling of some properties in Chiriquí Grande. The case, however, was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014, citing statutes of limitations.
“My family and I have owned land in Bocas del Toro for more than 50 years. The procedures we have followed over time have been to formalize our properties and homes, just as any citizen would do,” he wrote in X.
He also regrets that La Prensa is presenting “recycled information in the midst of a national crisis” in order to “stir up” the atmosphere and “divert attention” from the political and social crisis in Bocas del Toro, its electoral district, where the banana union leadership has declared a strike (considered illegal by the Ministry of Labor) since April 23.
Although it was already known that Robinson had requested 42.6 hectares in Bocas del Toro, the registration of 40 of those hectares took place last year, coinciding with the change of government. As a result, an ANATI official was removed from his position.
At the time, it was unknown that Robinson was simultaneously requesting an additional 132 hectares, which the MP did not mention on social media.
During a tour of the construction project for the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, carried out this Monday, June 9, the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino , stated that the unilateral change in the original concept of the bridge, without planning, would have generated a loss of more than 1.8 billion dollars for the State.
The changes to the original idea for the fourth bridge were made during the previous administration, at the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) , under the direction of Rafael Sabonge.
President Mulino toured the construction site where the fourth bridge over the Canal is being built , which has shown a physical progress of 21.23% and whose total investment now amounts to $2.137 billion.
During the tour, Mulino revealed that the previous government—led by Laurentino Cortizo —had caused harm to the state by unilaterally modifying the project’s original concept without any planning.
He also reported that the Ministry of Public Works, headed by José Luis Andrade, will soon present a full report to the Public Ministry. “$1.8 billion of the Panamanian people’s money was squandered here, but the Minister of Public Works will soon submit that report to the Public Ministry,” the president said.
Mulino also emphasized that these “squandered” resources represent money that could have been used to build many schools, roads, and hospitals.
“We’re going to finish it, but those are the costs of rescuing abandoned projects without any kind of planning or organization. They just wanted to make the contracts, collect payments, and leave the country in the lurch,” the president said, recalling that the previous administration’s argument was that the bridge’s original design would be changed to save between $500 and $600 million. “But we ended up spending $1.8 billion more. This is unspeakable,” he lamented.
The fourth bridge over the Canal project is scheduled to open in August 2028. This project currently generates 1,077 direct jobs, a figure that will increase to 3,000 during the peak phase.
The bill seeking to suspend Law 468, which established a new preferential interest rate regime, advanced in its first debate in the National Assembly’s Economic and Finance Committee.
This would seek to reinstate the preferential interest rates established by Law 3 of 1985 , with all its amendments, which had expired on April 24, 2025.