By Olmedo Beluche
July 24, 2025

Panamá

Beluche is a sociologist, professor and anti-imperialist organizer in Panamá, writing here about the current class struggle in his country. Translation: John Catalinotto

At a time when activities affected by the protests and strikes that have rocked the country since last April should supposedly be returning to normal, the government of José R. Mulino, acting with total dictatorial impunity, has ordered through the Minister of Labor the dissolution of the Single Union of Construction and Related Workers (SUNTRACS); and through the Minister of Education, it has continued the process of dismissing 700 activists and teachers’ leaders, using the police to prevent them from returning to their schools.

To round off the attack on labor rights and freedom of association, on the same day that they “ordered” the dissolution of SUNTRACS, the transnational banana company Chiquita Brands, acting with the full complicity of the government, confirmed the dismissal of more than 1,000 workers from its plantations in Changuinola, in the province of Bocas del Toro.

In all these cases, as well as in the serious human rights violations committed in Bocas del Toro and Darién, the government headed by Mulino is acting in violation of the Constitution, international human rights and labor treaties and national laws.

The government “investigates” (or fabricates accusations), judges and punishes with complete disregard for due process, in a country where the attorney general (prosecutor) is the president’s personal lawyer, the Supreme Court and judges are at the service of large “Panama Papers”-style law firms and the Legislative Assembly is bought with dubious financing and favors, under the “watchful eye” of the Comptroller of the Republic (according to the newspaper La Prensa).

These criminal acts by the government are made possible by three internal factors: the unwavering support of the Panamanian financial bourgeoisie, which guarantees the servitude of the major local media outlets and the military-police establishment. Among the external factors are the ultraright-wing and neo-fascist current to which Mulino belongs (like El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Argentine President Javier Milei) and the backing of U.S. imperialism led by Donald Trump, to whom Mulino and his government have surrendered themselves as faithful servants.

In Panama, the assertion by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin that “bourgeois democracy” is the “dictatorship of capital” has never been clearer than it is today. Even people without much political education comment that Mulino’s goal is to benefit the business community by crushing all workers’ rights. Destroying SUNTRACS would mean destroying the most comprehensive and best-paid collective labor agreement in the country.

The prosecutors and judges who order arrests and expedited trials against union leaders on trumped-up charges are the same ones who, with the complicity of President Mulino, facilitated the escape of former President Ricardo Martinelli, who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption, embezzlement and money laundering.

They are the same authorities in the prosecutor’s office and the judicial system who have done nothing to ensure that Martinelli pays the $19 million fine imposed on him in that conviction, despite the multiple properties he owns in Panama. Not to mention former President Laurentino Cortizo and his vice president, José G. Carrizo, who are suspected of embezzling large sums of money from the public administration.

The working class faces a difficult situation but is not defeated. That’s even though two of the workers’ leaders are in asylum in embassies, including the union’s secretary general, Saúl Méndez. Another leader is in a maximum security prison, and the historic leader Genaro López is under house arrest, along with several dozen activists facing legal proceedings. Despite this, SUNTRACS is mobilizing.

With the support of other union sectors, SUNTRACS has called press conferences,  brought together its intermediate structures and will soon hold a General Assembly. It has organized pickets at the main construction sites in the country, called elections for its leadership and announced the start of a new collective bargaining session with employers.

The teachers’ leadership also remains mobilized and has received the support of the students, which has prevented classes from returning to normal in many schools. Human rights organizations continue to gather reports on abuses committed by the security forces in Bocas del Toro.

Added to this is the support of the labor and popular movements in many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and even in Europe, which identify with the struggle of the Panamanian trade unions and popular movement for respect, for freedom of association, for the defense of pension systems against neoliberalism, for the fight against extractive exploitation of nature and against the remilitarization of the world through military bases (Memorandum of Understanding) and increased NATO military spending.

In Panamá, there is no honest defender of democratic freedoms who can remain silent in the face of these new abuses by the Mulino dictatorship. No trade union or association can fail to defend SUNTRACS and the educators who have been sanctioned. We must all be ready to take to the streets in the demonstrations that will be called in the near future.