Iudex locuta, causa finita…ma non troppo

PANAMA - In Brief 28 Nov 2023 by Marco Fernandez

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After a week of demonstrations in front of the Supreme Court building in Panama City, road blockades, and media pressure, on the early morning of Tuesday (a holiday in Panama), the CSJ declared Law 406, which approved the contract between the government and Minera Panama (a subsidiary of Canada's First Quantum), as unconstitutional. This decision was unanimous and without any disclaimers or minor objections. The copper mine in Donoso is from now on an illegal operation. On Saturday, the office of the Ministry of Commerce, had published a communiqué informing that the operator had the intention of starting an arbitrage process under the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Panama, thus suggesting that this verdict was forthcoming, although later the company softened the message. The purpose of the notification, according to the company, was merely to "comply with the legal formalities required by international treaties, with the aim of initiating a 90-day dialogue period between the parties." We will wait for the response to the Supreme Court verdict. What follows is not yet clear. Various radical groups, including environmentalists, labor unions, teachers, the native population, university students, and independent citizens, have been protesting against the law for over a month. While some participants express overt ideological motivations, others are also driven by their perception of the Cortizo Administration's inadequacy in addressing high unemployment, growing poverty, and the deteriorating social and economic situation. Some of them might not be satisfied with their expectations until a de facto shutdown of the productions is in place. Analysts more conscious ...