By CS STAFF
Since late April 2025, Panama has experienced a wave of social mobilizations led by various sectors expressing their rejection of legislative reforms imposed by the State, particularly Law 462 on the Disability, Old Age, and Death (IVM) program of the Social Security Fund (CSS), the reopening of metal mining, and agreements with foreign powers that would affect the country's sovereignty.
Cultural Survival, as an international organization committed to defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world, expresses deep concern and condemnation of the increasing repression by the Panamanian State against Indigenous Peoples and the general population who are mobilizing in defense of their collective rights.
In November 2025, the Panamanian State's human rights record will be examined again before the United Nations Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This review mechanism examines compliance with human rights in all UN member states.
By Jonathan González Quiel
Before narrating the latest events on the anti-mining struggle, it is relevant to clarify that we are not a mining country, despite the fact that during the time of the colony and the Spanish subjugation, some gold mines were established with the same logic of extractivist dispossession of a foreign power.
By Nati Garcia (Maya Mam, CS Staff) and Jonathan Gonzalez Quiel (Ngäbe)
Keepers of the Earth Fund Grant Partner Spotlight: El Centro de Desarrollo Ambiental y Humano (CENDAH), Panamá
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.