WNU #1068: Indigenous Panamanians Protest Open-Pit Mining

Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1068, February 20, 2011

1. Panama: Indigenous Groups Protest Open-Pit Mining
2. Puerto Rico: Bar Association Head Jailed in “Rights Crisis”
3. Honduras: US Cable Blasts Coup Leaders’ “Backroom Deals”
4. Mexico: Rebels Reemerge to Denounce “Drug War”
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti

ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate [at] gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

*1. Panama: Indigenous Groups Protest Open-Pit Mining
On Feb. 15 some 5,000 members of Panama’s Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group held a day of national protests against changes to the Mining Resources Code that they said would encourage open-pit mining for metals by foreign companies. The protests, organized by the People’s Total Struggle (ULIP), started at 10 am in San Félix, in the Ngöbe-Buglé territory in the western province of Chiriquí. Demonstrators interrupted traffic on the highway leading to Costa Rica and reportedly attacked Deputy Labor Minister Luis Ernesto Carles, who had been sent to talk with them. At noon there were demonstrations in front of the Banco General in Santiago, Veraguas province, and the Aquilino Tejera Hospital in Penonomé, Coclé province. Actions continued in the afternoon with protests at the Central Avenue in Changuinola, Bocas del Toro province, and at Vía España in Panama City. [...]

Read the full Update:
http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/2011/02/wnu-1068-indigenous-panamanians-protest.html