News
Tuesday 17th June 2025.
June 16, 2025
Martín Torrijos Espino, president of the Republic between 2004 and 2009, confirmed that the government of Donald Trump , president of the United States of America (USA), canceled the visa that allowed him to travel to that country.
In a press conference at the headquarters of the Omar Torrijos Foundation, the former president described the decision as political retaliation for his critical stance on recent bilateral agreements, which, he said, compromise national sovereignty.
“I have been informed that my entry visa to the United States has been canceled,” Torrijos said.
Although he acknowledged that the visa is a sovereign prerogative of each country, he assured that he has not committed any fault that justifies this measure, so he pointed directly to his position on the Ábrego-Hegseth memorandum , the Mulino-Hegseth joint declaration and the Icaza-Hegseth declaration – agreements signed between the government of President José Raúl Mulino and the US Department of Defense, headed by Pete Hegseth – as the reason for the cancellation of the document.
He claimed that his opposition to these diplomatic instruments, as well as his adherence to the “National Unity and Defense of Sovereignty” document , had cost him his immigration status.
“This is not just about me […] it’s a warning to all Panamanians: criticism of the Panamanian government’s actions regarding relations with the United States will not be tolerated,” he warned.
The former president, son of Omar Torrijos , recalled the signing of the Torrijos-Carter treaties of 1977, which led to the return of the Panama Canal, and warned about what he considers a “historic setback . ”
“Defending our sovereignty is fulfilling a national duty. If defending my country’s interests and rejecting foreign military presence leads to the revocation of my visa, I accept it with pride,” he declared, while mentioning his commitment to the memory of the martyrs of January 9, 1964, and to the patriotic cause.
The document, entitled National Unity and Defense of Sovereignty, was signed on April 30 by a group of politicians and civil society representatives, as a sign of rejection of the agreements signed by the governments of Panama and the United States regarding the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas.
At a press conference, the manifesto was read. At the main table were Martín Torrijos ; Ricardo Lombana , former presidential candidate for the Another Way Movement; former deputies and leaders of the Vamos coalition, Juan Diego Vásquez and Gabriel Silva ; internationalist Alonso Illueca ; Guillermo Willy Bermúdez , vice president of the Panameñista Party; Crispiano Adames , deputy for the Democratic Revolutionary Party; Ana Matilde Gómez , former attorney general of the nation and former deputy; and environmentalist Raisa Banfield , among others.
Lombana has already reported that the United States has also revoked his visa. “A young democracy like ours is a disservice when measures like this are used to punish those who dissent from agreements that violate national sovereignty,” he wrote in the note announcing the news.
Former congressman Juan Diego Vásquez, for his part, announced on the social network X that he has not been notified of the revocation of his visa.
“I remain focused on proposing solutions to help the country move forward from this current situation and improve everyone’s lives,” he wrote.
Torrijos Espino has had a close and long relationship with the United States, both personally and professionally. He lived in the country from a very young age, where he attended secondary school at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Wisconsin, and later earned undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Economics from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
After completing his studies, he settled in Chicago, where he worked for several years as an administrative manager at McDonald’s, under the mentorship of Panamanian businessman Cirilo McSween . This period consolidated his connection to American culture and institutional structure before returning to Panama to begin his political career.
Former presidential candidate for the Another Way Movement (Moca), Ricardo Lombana , announced this Monday, June 16, that his visa to enter the United States of America (USA) has been canceled.
“A young democracy like ours is doing a disservice when measures like this are used to punish those who dissent from agreements that violate national sovereignty,” Lombana wrote in the letter announcing the visa revocation.
The former presidential candidate was notified of the revocation by the U.S. State Department via a letter. He will not be able to enter the United States, where he served as Panama’s consul general in Washington under the administration of former President Martin Torrijos , whose visa was also revoked.
Lombana, along with other political leaders [including Martín Torrijos], signed a document rejecting the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Panama on security matters on April 30.
The opposition-leaning document, titled “National Unity and Defense of Sovereignty,” had around twenty supporters who rejected the agreement signed between the Minister of Security, Frank Ábrego , and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth , on April 8.
The memorandum was classified as “harmful to national sovereignty,” a label that led to the cancellation of Torrijos and Lombana’s respective visas, according to reports.
But the U.S. ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera , had already warned: ” A visa is a privilege, not a right .” He stated this during his first press conference with the Panamanian media on May 9.
On that same occasion, Marino Cabrera called those who oppose the memorandum allowing the presence of U.S. military personnel at three Panamanian bases in the area adjacent to the Panama Canal “intellectually dishonest. ”
Since December 2024, US President Donald Trump has repeated a series of accusations about the interoceanic waterway. The alleged “Chinese influence” over the Panama Canal’s operations is one of them, which has been repeatedly denied by the Panamanian government, calling it a “falsehood.”
President José Raúl Mulino signed into law Special Law 471 for banana industry workers on Monday, June 16.
The regulation was agreed upon by the Banana Industry Workers Union (Sitraibana) , representatives of the Executive Branch, and the National Assembly, following a work stoppage at the Chiquita Panama company and road closures in the province of Bocas del Toro , which began on April 28.
The union argued that Law 45 of 2017 , which governed their pensions, was overturned by the most recent reform to the Social Security Fund (CSS) , through Law 462.
Consequently, workers and the government negotiated Law 471 , making the lifting of the closures in the province a condition.
The new special law affects Law 462, which covers sickness benefits for banana workers.
While Law 462 establishes a daily sickness benefit equal to 80% of a banana worker’s average daily wage, the new Law 471 specifies that the same special benefit will be considered when the illness causes a 30% inability to perform work (in Law 41 it was 50%).
Despite the commitment to reopen roads, other groups maintain road closures in Bocas del Toro, prompting the Ministry of Public Security (Minseg) to deploy an operation called “Omega” to “reopen the province.”
The intervention has led to clashes between protesters and security forces.
Two days after Bill 290 was passed, on Sunday, June 15, Sitraibana leader Francisco Smith was arrested by authorities.
The Ministry of Security reported that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Smith for allegedly committing a crime against the administration of justice in the form of apology . The union leader was also charged with allegedly committing crimes against public safety.
At 7:06 a.m., three children were walking along the side of the Pan-American Highway. The June sky, still gray, was just beginning to clear over Guacuco, a rural community in the Tortí district of the Chepo district. They were wearing uniforms, carrying worn backpacks, and the steady pace of those with a clear destination: the María Elena Díaz bilingual school.
On the other side of the gate, a group of women waited under a tin roof. They are mothers of some of the students, and that morning, like many others, they were ready to help out in the school kitchen. They help with snacks, lunch, whatever is needed. Here, teaching is also a collective act.
The scene might seem ordinary, were it not for the fact that in other regions of the country, such as Colón, West Panama, Veraguas, Chiriquí, Coclé, and Bocas del Toro, public schools and colleges are closed, with teachers on strike in protest of Law 462 , which reformed social security. In Guacuco, however, classes never stopped.
In the middle of the school, children lined up to enter their classrooms. Voices, greetings, and a few laughs could be heard. Everything indicated that it was a normal school day, oblivious to the climate of social tension prevailing in much of the country.
Guacuco is one of more than 60 communities in the Tortí district, a large rural area in eastern Panama near the Darién border, home to 10,387 people. Most live off agriculture, subsistence livestock farming, or informal work. Official figures show that Tortí has a high rate of multidimensional poverty, with limited access to healthcare, continuing education, and basic services. Despite this, the community has kept its school running.
The María Elena Díaz School offers classes from preschool through sixth grade. According to the school’s management, it currently has 208 students enrolled . And, according to the principal, all of them have continued attending.
“We haven’t closed a single day,” says María Leidis Arroyo , the school’s principal. She acknowledges that the national context is complex, but insists that the commitment to the students was what tipped the balance.
“We know the law is affecting everyone, but we’re also clear that our children need us,” she explains. “Here, the doors have been open every day.”
The decision to continue classes wasn’t the result of an external order, he asserts. “There are two intersecting lines: the right to education and social demands. We have to decide which is the priority.”
Although they haven’t stopped, they’ve opted for alternative ways to express their rejection of the national situation. “We’ve held symbolic walks, and some parents and teachers have participated, but without closing the school,” the principal adds.
The Guacuco community knows what it means to be out of school. Here, where many households have limited incomes and where children often rely on school meals as their primary source of nutrition for the day, closing the school not only suspends learning, it also suspends social support.
Arroyo sums it up in a phrase that he repeats as a guiding principle: “Empty classrooms, empty minds . ”
In Guacuco, for now, the classrooms remain full.