We knew it. Ruben Blades is a human rights violator and so are these tourists in their Hawaii shirts and baseball caps. Tourism projects (and other projects by friends of Torrijos et al such as mines and hydroelectric dams) mushrooming all over the country cause displacement of citizens and violate their right to a place to live. It also damages the environment, as we're seeing in Tonosi today. We don't make that up, it's in a new report published by the Panamanian Human Rights Network which unites about 32 civil organizations and groups. They made the report because the government doesn't comply with its obligation to file annual reports with the UN about Human Rights. We the People!

The report spans the period from 1992 to 2008 and lists numerous other creative ways the Bananama officials have developed to trample our rights. They don't protect refugees. There is discrimination against the handicapped. Children rights are violated. And of course the famous prisons system. The human rights situation in Panama is, in short, a big fucking mess and they haven't even listed everything. Does anyone in the government care? Ruben Blades has a new album out, did you know that?

Death toll update. Just as Panama is facing scrutiny by the OAS and US government for its human rights violations in the prisons, riots break out. Two dead. Both victims of the war on drugs.

And just as FRENADESO has decided to take back to the streets (protest march today) because the government refuses to negotiate in a serious fashion about safety in construction we have another victim: Guillermo Barsallo fell off the 13th floor of Galera Uno, a project owned by Arco y Asociados, in Obarrio. Now let's see how the wingnuts spin this today.

UPDATE: We didn't have to wait long for the wingnuts: It is not clear yet if the worker had his safety harness attached to a safety line (it could also be that the line broke or wasn't provided), but that doesn't stop our resident wacko union basher from making the following comment:

I've watched and taken pictures of construction workers, high up on ledges and perches, working on dangerous areas of the building under construction, wearing a safety harness but not taking the time to tie-in. It slows them down and many times they simply won't do it.

Without actually providing these pictures, of course. The message is clear: Someone died in construction. Must be his own fault.