Panama — Serious trouble unfolding
17 July 2022
The Hague, Netherlands
Panama source:
This is an account of trying to get to the airport by some people who had rented xxxxxx’s place in El Valle, but were trying to get to the airport from Boquete:
We would really like to inform you of our situation and everything that happened to us to get to the airport.
Out trip back to Panama City from Boquete lasted from tuesday morning at 8 o’ clock till friday 15 o’ clock. FOUR days we had to live in our car at the blockades. Some of the protestors were threatening and were throwing rocks at the people who attempted to pass. 80 full hours of misery.
We’ve seen some really sad things. People with kids who had to sleep on the side of the road, people who went through the blockades by horse, protestors with sticks in the ready to attack, police who just stood there and took pictures.
We’ve gotten through 8 blockades. The first two took us 50 hours, only to drive 18km between the two.
Hot as hell both day and night, no toilets, often no shade, sleeping in the car was too warm and sometimes the protestors also made noise at night so we barely had any sleep. Luckily there was food from the stores and sometimes a fondo but at some blockades there was nothing. We could also buy fruit from the fruit vendors who were stuck with us. It was heartbreaking to see how there loads stood rotting in the sun.
Eventually we heard rumors that the San Felis blockade had been stuck for three days straight so we took the small roads through the mountains and even through a riverbed. We had no 4x4 cars, so we had to push the car uphill many times. We had two more blockades after this and then we did the same offroad backroads to avoid the Santiago blockade. We drove to a place called Ocù at night on terrible roads. From there we could take a bigger street back to the highway. One of the guys with us lost a tire and had to continue driving on his rim.
The nearer we got to city, the shorter the blockades were. And the protestors were less hostile.
We saw a lot of really tragic things but also a lot of bravery, friendship and perseverance. Everyone who took the Ocù backroad helped and waited for the guy who lost his tire, people were giving and trading all sorts of things, we banded together at the frontline when things got heated, we put out burning tires with dirt together. It was crazy.
I feel the media is not covering how bad it is right now. They say the blockades open every 4-5 hours but this is only near Panama City. In the centre of the country it is sooo much worse. We now heard that abandoned cars have been stolen and even that people have even died.
We made it to the airport and we will be able to catch our flight. We have never been so happy to sleep in a bed and take a shower.
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Separately, a large protest is scheduled for Sunday. This is extraordinary because Panamanians don’t like to protest on Sundays.
Any disruption of Panama Canal can have massive disruptions. With someone like China offering to ‘help.’
