Our Panama Problem

As I write this we are comfortably parked in Nicaragua having a very enjoyable time. 

I will write about our travel experiences as the week progresses but today I feel compelled to discuss the overarching problem that is never far from our minds. Panama is closed to traffic and we have to go through Panama to load our van in a container to ship our vehicle to South America to bypass the notorious Darien Gap where the road ends. In the map below note the location of Santiago a city critical to todays post: 

The situation in Panama has deteriorated rapidly over the past three weeks with roadblocks cutting the country in two. Travelers from Costa Rica cannot reach Panama City. Indeed the protestors are not allowing anyone through on the PanAmerican Highway so that food fuel and medical supplies are running out across the country after three weeks of blockades. Panama City, the capital on the Pacific Coast is dealing with street demonstrations and riots, and random street closures which  are annoying powerful people, very much limiting supplies and reducing movement within the capital itself. The powerful people are calling for force to clear the crowds and riot police have been having street battles with the protestors. 

In the middle of the country at the city of Santiago twenty four hour blockades have cut the country in two for three weeks. There is no way to get past this choke point if you are coming from Costa Rica. Farmers and ranchers for example cannot get supplies to the capital and attempts to run blockades have ended in injury and damaged vehicles as protestors stop vehicles. The newspapers report 150,000 people have missed their medical appointments in the Public Health Service across the country. Schools are supposed to be open but with teachers picketing no one is showing up. Two teachers were shot dead at a blockade two days ago by a local protesting the blockades and he had a handgun. Here he is shooting the peaceful protestors as photographed by a reporter. I guess it’s alleged but judge it as you like. 

His name is Kenneth Darlington Sala and he’s 77 years old, a lawyer and a dual national of Panama and the US they say, and faces up to thirty years in prison or, owing to his age, house arrest. I can only imagine how well that news will go over in Panama. House arrest for a double murder of protestors. 

You have heard nothing about all this as Panama doesn’t rate a mention compared to Israel and Gaza and even the Ukraine has been bumped off the limited headlines we are allowed to see in our monolithic press. However Panama seems headed for the headlines sooner or later as violence is probably going to get worse and violence is what makes the headlines unfortunately. Frankly I’m surprised the protests have been this solid this long but for us the bad news is they aren’t letting up not even to let ambulances through, never mind food and fuel or tourists in RVs sightseeing. It’s terrible news for the suffering people of Panama but it’s giving us a headache. How do we get to South America?

So here’s the background to all the trouble. 

A few months ago the president of Panama presented the National Assembly with a bill -Law 407- that would benefit the country (not him he insists!) by billions of dollars by opening up hundred of thousands of acres of forest for strip mining. It took three days with no public comment and the National Assembly passed Law 407 so when the news got out the unrest began. Since then the National Assembly met in special session three times and managed to pass a law banning any future mining lease sales but they declined to rescind Law 407 which is the mining contract that  is causing the problem. They say breaking the contract  would leave Panama open to massive damage lawsuits if the country tried to back out of the contract with the excuse of buyers remorse. 

So the only way out of this mess now is for the Supreme Court to meet and declare Law 407 unconstitutional as it was not approved with proper public input etc. Such a ruling would protect Panama from being sued for breach of contract. Problem is the Supreme Court is nowhere to be seen and the current President, Laurentino Cortizo running for  re-election next May firmly supports the contract, so he’s not pushing the court to act. A couple of lower court judges have spoken up saying they think the law is unconstitutional and the government promptly attacked them in the papers. The president has offered the people a vote on Law 407 in December but the protestors don’t trust him and say they are holding the line and continuing the blockades. This is a grade A mess. 

Minera Panama, a Canadian corporation gets a 40 year contract to open strip mine vast areas of Panama for anything it can find of value and pays Panama $375 million a year for the privilege. The protestors argue the contract wipes out vast areas of preserved rainforest and threatens water supplies for the entire country. Even the head of the Panama Canal commission has weighed in saying he’s concerned they may mess up the already low supplies of water needed to operate the canal. Beyond all that the people are enraged because the contract was never debated and was approved practically in secret. Unless the Supreme Court steps in and declares it unconstitutional there is no easy solution here. 

We have to be in Panama City by the end of this month to get police clearance on December 1st to put our home in a container on December 6th for shipping to Colombia December 12th. How do we do this? I have no idea. Gas is being smuggled across the Costa Rican border and is selling for $15 a gallon in northern Panama for people who think they need gas. Legal gasoline is being rationed to five gallons per car in the capital. Rice and beans -the staples!- are rationed wherever they are sold. There are no eggs or milk for sale anywhere.  

The town of Ocotal in the Nicaraguan highlands where we are now all nice and normal! 

The woman who operates the American expatriate news link in Panama has shut down saying she is trying to get her family and her dogs out of Panama while she can. Our biggest source of news is bugging out: 

We have two back up plans and neither involves us putting ourselves in harms way! Friends of ours stuck in northern Panama are unable to return to Costa Rica or go forward  and are waiting and hoping for the best telling is not to take the situation lightly. Others have parked their vehicles and have flown back to Canada and the United States. 

Beautiful Nicaragua where we have a permit for sixty days. 

Plan A is in effect and we are in contact with a shipping agent in Puerto Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. He is currently researching options to flat rack our van to Cartagena Colombia. Flat rack is an open sided container that can accommodate our tall van.  He’s not used to this kind of attention but he told us he has been overwhelmed by requests for shipping from travelers.

So here we are on the blue dot (above) figuring out how to fly Rusty from Costa Rica to Colombia…if it comes to that. 

Plan B) is to return to Mexico for some winter relaxation and see what happens. We have visa limitations on how long we can stay in Central America so if we can’t get to Panama we have to go back to Mexico.  We could try to ship from Veracruz to Colombia but the flights for Rusty get longer and longer and I’m not a fan of shipping from Mexico for that reason. Panama to Colombia is an hour long flight and there are ways to have him fly in the cabin with us as they allow emotional support dogs in Panama. But putting him in the freight compartment for several hours freaks me out. 

In short we’re up shit creek  with several possible options but no clear choices. This we did not expect and you can imagine my frustration! If it seems like we are dawdling in Nicaragua this is because we are. Costa Rica is expensive and rather boring so we don’t plan to enter that fresh bureaucracy until Panama opens up. 

If Panama’s mess continues and if we can’t easily ship from Costa Rica we shall go north and spend time in Guatemala until our Central America permit (we get 90 days total within the customs union of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua together known as the Central American Four- C4) runs out in January when we will return north to  Mexico and regroup. We are even prepared to wait a year and try again if we have to but whatever we do we will travel and have as much fun as we can where we can.