Panamanians crawl to reach the Black Christ of Portobelo in Panama every year during the festival of the Black Christ of Portobelo. The statue is considered one of the largest Catholic pilgrimages in the Central American country and dates back centuries. Thousands of pilgrims arrive at the church of San Felipe, which houses the Black Christ on an altar. After …
Heat, flash floods and bandits: Migrants risk it all on the treacherous Darién Gap TONYA MOSLEY, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Last winter, she and photojournalist Lynsey Addario took three trips over six months to the Darien Gap, a 60-mile stretch of rainforest on the border of Colombia and Panama that's the only land route connecting Central and South America. …
Eight hopefuls are seeking to succeed President Laurentino Cortizo in Sunday’s election, with corruption a top issue. “Panama’s great inequality fuels great patronage,” Nevache said. “One of the accepted realities is that the state will have to chip in.” Cortés also noted that the international agency Fitch recently downgraded Panama’s credit rating over issues like “party fragmentation” and “institutional weakness”. …
For weeks, Panama was shaken by its largest protest movement in decades as residents decried a mining contract given to a Canadian firm, saying it risked their sovereignty. The country’s Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Panama’s new mining contract with the Canadian company First Quantum was unconstitutional. “The contract ensures a minimum payment to the state of $375m dollars …
CNN — Anti-mining protests that have roiled Panama for the last two weeks turned deadly on Tuesday when a man allegedly shot and killed two demonstrators, according to police. Teachers march to protest the deaths of two people during a demonstration against the government's contract with Canadian mining company First Quantum and its subsidiary Minera Panama in Panama City on …
