Union leaders’ meeting at Soloy Hotel raided – UPDATE: police gives up!
Police outside the Soloy hotel
As we are writing this, the Soloy hotel in Panama City is being raided by the police. Union leaders who were having a meeting there have been arrested.
Other union people who were marching towards the Plaza 5 de Mayo were also arrested by the police.
Details are still sketchy, but it is certain that various unions will initiate a nation-wide strike starting Monday (Update: La Critica says it’s Tuesday, and in Veraguas activists have closed the highway).
We suspect the arrests are to negotiate a hostage exchange with activists who took three or four policemen hostage in Bocas. After all, police chief Gustavo Perez has a proven track record of taking hostages.
UPDATE: It looks like there is still a large group of civic leaders inside the hotel, which is under siege by the police. They didn’t break any law, they were just having a meeting to coordinate a national strike.
UPDATE: La Prensa reports that the police has given up and is withdrawing from the area.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Including Rev Roberto Bruneau of the Ecumenic Council
There is no such a thing as Freedom of Reunion, Constitutional Guarantees and Rights ignored = Welcome Dictatorship
10 July 2010 @ 1pm
and is RM still MIA?
10 July 2010 @ 2pm
sadly he is…
10 July 2010 @ 3pm
[...] Opus Dei member Lucy Molinar, who declared on television that Martinelli had asked her to go to the Soloy Hotel and the police headquarters in Ancon to make sure that those activist leaders who had been detained [...]
12 July 2010 @ 7pm