Panama has declared a state of emergency in western Bocas del Toro province over pension protests.
Panama declared a state of emergency on Friday, June 20, 2025.
The anti-government protesters were accused of setting fire to a baseball stadium and of looting businesses, including a provincial airport.
The protests that erupted two months ago in Bocas del Toro, a major banana-producing region, intensified this week, culminating in clashes with police that left one person dead and around 30 people, including several officers, the police said.
Over 50 people were arrested over the unrest.
The clashes came after a huge police contingent was deployed to try to clear roads that the protesters had blocked with tree trunks for weeks.
The violence peaked in the city of Changuinola on Thursday, where groups of hooded individuals looted businesses and partially set fire to a baseball stadium with police officers inside, the authorities said.
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The police said that “vandals” also “took over” the airport, stole vehicles belonging to car rental companies and looted an office and a warehouse containing supplies belonging to the United States banana giant Chiquita Brands.
The minister of the presidency, Juan Carlos Orillac, said that the government had decided to declare a state of emergency and suspend constitutional guarantees” in all of Bocas del Toro, “in order to restore peace and order.”
Orillac said the ban on public gatherings aimed to prevent “radical and criminal groups gathering to organize acts of violence and vandalism which endanger property and people.”
Right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino has been facing protests on several fronts in recent months, AFP reported.
Chiquita workers in Bocas del Toro went on strike in late April over pension reforms adopted by Congress in April, which workers say will force them to work longer.
Chiquita sacked thousands of workers over the strike.
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