La Ley 8 será derogada en Consejo Extraordinario, un Presidente como yo siempre escuchará a su pueblo
Ricardo Martinelli, today on Twitter.
President Martinelli made a surpise visit to San Felíx today, the epicenter of the battle against the sell-out of Panama to mining giants, and announced that Law 8, the new mining code, would be repealed.
Did he, after weeks of battling it out in the streets with a furious Ngöbe Buglé population, tens of wounded, millions in damages, expelled journalists, an international storm of criticism and polls showing that a majority of Panamanians is against mining, finally see the light? We don’t really believe that.
First of all, the rogue mining outfit known as Petaquilla, headed by a former corrupt governor of Coclé and convicted drug trafficker Richard Fifer, set up shop in Panama without law 8 and under the previous PRD administration – in other words, Martinelli doesn’t really need his law to move forward with his plans to facilitate deals between Inmet and the Korean government.
Second, we’re just days before carnival, and this government is unprecedented in jamming through controversial changes and corrupt schemes when nobody is looking.
Then, Martinelli suffered a similar kick in the balls last year with the Battle of Changuinola, repealed the contested legal mix of the “sausage law”, only to then pass most of its contents again in separate laws.
So, your Bananama Republic is absolutely unconvinced that this is either a victory or the end of this saga. Or, as someone on FaceBook put it: Be careful with that light on the end of the tunnel, it might be a train coming from the opposite direction.
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