Protesters and police clash in eastern Panama
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/06/2025 (296 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ARIMAE, Panama (AP) — Authorities and protesters were injured Thursday in eastern Panama when border police tried to open a highway blocked in an Indigenous community as part of monthlong demonstrations against changes to the country’s social security system.
Border police in riot gear launched tear gas and fired rubber-coated metal balls to disperse balaclava-wearing protesters firing rocks from slingshots and throwing Molotov cocktails.
The National Border Service said in a statement that three of its members were taken for medical treatment. Among the protesters, at least one man’s back and arm were studded with a constellation of wounds from pellets fired by police and another appeared to suffer a serious injury to one eye.
An Associated Press journalist saw at least one home burned when police fired a tear gas canister onto its thatch roof.
The roadway was covered in felled trees.
A resident who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation, said they feared one protester was going to lose his eye after being struck in the melee.
The small community is in the Darien, the remote province that borders Colombia and that has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants pass through until the flow effectively stopped earlier this year.
Protests have persisted in parts of Panama for a month and a half. They’ve covered a range of issues including the changes to social security and opposition to a security agreement giving U.S. soldiers and contractors access to some facilities in Panama.
President José Raúl Mulino has said he will not reverse the social security changes, nor will he allow protesters to obstruct roads.
__
AP journalist Alma Solís in Panama City contributed to this report.