Bananama Republic (http://www.bananamarepublic.com/tag/inmet/)
Petaquilla gets sued and makes senseless contradictory statements about who owns and contracted what and who and where, while we hear more and more stories about bouncing cheques.
The shenanigans of our beloved president Ricardo Martinelli, in his indefatigable drive to promote Panama as a business heaven for financial shysters, have produced accomplishments not seen since Noriega.
Legal trouble has once again been mounting for Richard Fifer, the former drug trafficker behind the Petaquilla gold mine, and we're told he moved to Spain where he runs new sleazy schemes.
As we are entering the third day of street battle and protests after the police started to crack down on Ngöbe protesters with live ammo and teargas, we're blogging events live here as they happen.
While our c̶a̶p̶o̶ ̶d̶i̶ ̶m̶a̶f̶i̶a̶ great president Martinelli was babbling in Davos about how Panama has real press freedom, the immigration authorities at Tocumen International M̶o̶n̶e̶y̶ ̶L̶a̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶C̶e̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ Airport stopped Canadian journalist Rosie Simms from entering the country.
We wrote here yesterday that the repeal of Law 8 would do very little to stop mining in Panama, and today we're proven right by an Inmet press release about Minera Panama.
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.
The authentic protests of the Ngöbes have now accomplished what snotty environmentalists, unions and other "civil society" groups, despite being better "educated" and having more resources, have not: To keep their lands free of open pit mines.
A fake indigenous leader turns out to be paid by the government and possibly Canadian mining interests while sectarianism and ego-pumping further divide anti-mining protests.