By International Socialist League

In Panama, after several weeks, the struggles do not stop and are deepening. We are witnessing real pitched battles with dead and wounded, entire provinces blocked with barricades, especially in Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, Changuinola, Colon and Darien, heroic strikes by teachers, construction workers organized in SUNTRACS and banana workers.

Since April, trade unionists, environmentalists, university students, women, teachers and indigenous peoples have been taking to the streets, demanding:

1. The repeal of the new social security law, which cuts job and retirement benefits for hundreds of thousands of workers.

2. The reversal of the executive’s proposal to reopen a copper mine, in violation of a Supreme Court ruling that ordered its closure in 2023, after massive demonstrations. This includes the rejection of the memorandum of understanding for the Rios Indio dam, which implies terrible environmental destruction and an attack on sovereignty.

3. Dismiss the signing of a memorandum that allows the United States to return to its former bases near the Panama Canal and increase its military presence in Panamanian territory.

In the streets, the corrupt political class is denounced as responsible for the current situation and the demand for the resignation of President Mulino is growing. The government has lost control of two provinces, Bocas del Toro and Darien, currently controlled by the strikers and in the capital there are marches every day.

Mulino has responded by unleashing violent repression and persecution against students, teachers and workers. There have been reports of injuries and recently the murder of a young man from the Ngöbe people. They have frozen the accounts of SUNTRACS (Construction Workers Union) and imprisoned its leaders in order to dismantle the organization. This obliges us to incorporate, together with the accompaniment of all struggles, the demand for the immediate release of all detainees, the defense of SUNTRACS and unrestricted respect for union autonomy. While we deploy the broadest unity of action to advance towards the general strike until we achieve the fall of the government. As a consequence of the deterioration of the situation, even the International Labor Organization (ILO) this week incorporated Panama in the list of the 24 countries “that most violate freedom of association”.

We must take into account that today health, education and justice do not work. Panama is one of the most unequal countries in the region, with unemployment at around 9.5%, high informality and lack of basic infrastructure such as water. All of this is controlled by a rigid, patriarchal and elitist political system. While the government is determined not to repeal the law, and the social movement does not back down and calls for Mulino’s resignation, even business sectors such as the National Council of Private Enterprises distances itself from the government and proposes to rediscuss the retirement law in order to calm the climate of crisis.

Trump’s new threats further polarize the situation and open a profound debate about how to find substantive solutions. If the unity of all sectors in struggle can be achieved to advance in the general strike, the possible fall of Mulino can become a reality.

That first step, if achieved, should not lead to a new cycle within a capitalist institutionality absolutely in crisis, but it is indispensable to discuss a fundamental solution. It would be necessary to call for a Constituent Assembly to re-found the country, arising from below, to debate how to rebuild the country and at the same time achieve a government of the working class together with the native peoples and all the sectors in struggle.

The International Socialist League, commits its international solidarity with the Panamanian people and has initiated a campaign with a series of actions demanding the resignation of Mulino and the freedom of all political prisoners. In Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil we have already taken initiatives in this sense and we invite the activists of the whole world, and above all the Latin Americans to redouble our efforts until the triumph of the workers and the Panamanian people is achieved.