Parliament of Panama approves the repeal of the mining contract

The National Assembly (Parliament) of Panama approved this Wednesday in the second of three necessary debates a bill that repeals the controversial contract with Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM)amid a wave of anti-mining protests in the country.

The plenary session of the Panamanian Parliament, with 71 seats and a pro-government majority, voted article by article, after hours of debate, in an extraordinary session at the request of President Laurentino Cortizo.

“If we see that the people do not agree, we repeal that contract”declared deputy Alain Cedeño, from the opposition Democratic Change party, during his speech.

The deputies will now decide on Thursday, in the third and final debate, whether to approve or not “Project Law 1110, which prohibits the granting of new concessions for the exploration, extraction, transportation and benefit of metallic mining throughout the national territory, and also repeals Law 406 of the contract between the State and Minera Panamá”, FQM subsidiary, according to official information.

During the debate, some deputies urged that the best legal option regarding this controversial mining contract is to wait for the Supreme Court of Justice to decide if it is unconstitutional, in order to avoid a million-dollar international lawsuit.

The highest judicial instance of Panama has already admitted at least six claims of unconstitutionality against that contract. The Panamanian Supreme Court already declared the previous 1997 contract as unconstitutional in 2017, after an environmental group sued it.

Other parliamentarians argued this Wednesday, however, that “hear” to the people, who for more than ten days have been asking for the repeal of this mining pact in massive protests that have plunged the country into a serious crisis, with blockades on the main roads and shortages of food and gasoline in some points.

The debate was accompanied in the streets by a new day of protests, some of which culminated in new confrontations between protesters and the Police.

Corruption accusations

The recriminations between deputies for alleged payments from the mining company have been echoed today in the plenary session by some parliamentarians.

“There are a lot of people here fishing in troubled rivers and it’s not me”said pro-government deputy Zulay Rodríguez in her speech, critical of her own training.

The independent parliamentarian Adan Bejerano pointed out that “(indigenous) leaders are being bought by mining and it is something that should be denounced.”

For his part, the deputy of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Leandro Ávila, denounced that “There are deputies who have economic interests, under the table they are mining to death, but in the (public) discourse they are against.”

These types of accusations have been repeated in previous days in Parliament and have been one of the slogans of the protests, a possibility that could also favor their demands.

The law contract between the State and Minera Panamá establishes in the anti-corruption clause that the mining company “You will not receive any type of payment for compensation for damages” if acts of corruption such as bribes or illegal commissions are demonstrated.