Hundreds arrested in demonstrations in Panama

[Judi Lynn]

Hundreds arrested in demonstrations in Panama
Posted : Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:49:08 GMT

Panama City - Some 478 workers and students were arrested in connection with violent protests in Panama, police said Thursday. Genaro Lopez, secretary of the construction trade union Suntracs, complained that those arrested Wednesday were being kept in isolation. He said authorities had denied lawyers access to their clients, in a "violation" of the country's constitution.

Relatives of the workers and students arrested in Wednesday's protests demanded information on the legal status and physical condition of their loved ones.

The Suntracs leadership alleged that many arrested workers had not taken part in the protests but were taken into custody when police stormed construction sites in Panama City.

Some 25 people - demonstrators and police - were injured in the clashes, in the capital and the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Colon, Cocle and Chiriqui.

Lopez said Suntracs union members were indignant following the death of worker Iromi Smith, who was shot in the back Tuesday when he took part in a protest in the Caribbean city of Colon to demand rules on health, hygiene and safety in the industry.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185837,hundreds-arrested-in-demonstrations-in-panama.html

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An important way to spend some time would be in watching online the Academy Award winner for best documentary, "The Panama Deception," which concerns _{Bush #41's} murderous attack on Panama, which provides a lot of information our own media didn't feel we needed to know:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446387292666223710

[magbana]

1. Just a "right on" about "Panama Deception" Video

Excellent. Shocking. Must see.

[MinM]

6. Link TV

Is showing it right now

Here's a link if you can't catch it on Link TV:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446387292666223710

[Judi Lynn]

2. Police, construction workers clash during protests in Panama

Police, construction workers clash during protests in Panama
Posted : Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:54:00 GMT
Author : DPA

Panama City - Construction workers clashed with riot police Wednesday in several cities in Panama, one day after a worker was shot dead during a street protest. Television footage showed a group of workers praying for colleagues injured or dead in the clashes as a police officer shot tear gas at them. Other footage showed workers throwing stones, sticks and metal bars at police.

Workers waving red flags and banners blocked streets and roads and shouted slogans against several members of the government.

Thousands of drivers were trapped in the clashes, in which police used tear gas and pellets.

Angry demonstrators barricaded themselves in exclusive areas of Panama City, where many luxury buildings are being built.

Police said in a statement that riot police "used the level of force required to clear roads and restore order."

The protest had originally been summoned by construction sector trade union Suntracs, which accused the government of carrying out a "dirty campaign" against trade-union leaders.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185628,police-construction-workers-clash-during-protests-in-panama.html





Martin Torrijos hosts his American friends _{George Bush} and Robert Gates.

[roody]

3. Isn't President Torrijos the son of the

former President Torrijos that the US killed in a plane crash?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Yeah! I can't figure this out! I didn't know about it until today, when I was looking for a photo of

the guy, and I saw a photo of a contemporary crowd demonstrating, and I saw a photo of the murdered President being held in the air, and suddenly it FINALLY occured to me that they were related!

Did you read the book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins? He worked for the dark side for a long time, and he said that the earlier President was murdered by a bombing in his airplane because he would NOT sell out his countrymen/women.

Perkins said he, himself, was sent there to try to pressure the elder Torrijos into serving the interests of foreign investors in the U.S., and then he was given warnings, and then he was murdered. There is no question whatsoever in Perkin's mind about this fact.

The son looks very MUCH like a sell-out, doesn't he? My GOD! How did this happen?

Here's the photo of Omar Torrijos, on the left, which informed me the two Torrijos are connected, which I got when I looked for images of the son, Martin Torrijos.


Here's what John Perkins said during an interview with Amy Goodwin, of Democracy Now:

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins, talk about your experience in Panama. You had the opportunity to meet the Head of Panama before he was killed, Omar Torrijos. How did you end up there?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, Panama was one of these pivotal countries at the time and Omar Torrijos, who was the President of Panama. He followed a long line of oligarchy dictators that basically were puppets of the U.S. government that we had installed 50 years prior when we took over the country. Omar Torrijos was the first one to break that cycle, and he was a very, very popular president. He was popular throughout much of the world. Many people believed he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize and might have had he not died or been killed. He protected the downtrodden everywhere. And the United States was at the time, President Carter was negotiating a new Canal treaty with Torrijos and ultimately that Canal treaty went through. But it caused a tremendous amount of turmoil in our own country. In fact, it was passed in Congress by only one vote, that won the ratification of the Canal. So, we economic hit men were really looking beyond that process, or how we could win Panama over regardless of what happened to the Canal Treaty. I was there before the treaty was signed in 1972 and I was trying to bring Torrijos around. I was trying to catch him. I was trying to get him. I was trying to hook him the way we hooked everybody else. He arranged for me to meet with him in this private bungalow one day, and this is described in detail, the conversation, in the book. But basically what he said to me is, Look, I know the game you guys are playing. I know what you’re trying to do here. You’re trying to saddle us with huge debts. You’re trying to make us totally dependent upon you, and you’re trying to corrupt me. I know what this game is and I’m not playing. I don’t need the money. I’m not looking to get personally wealthy out of this. I want to help my poor people. I want you to build the projects that you’re supposed to build, that you build in other countries, but I want you to build them for our poor people, not for our rich people. And he said, if you do that, I’ll see to it that you and your company get a lot more work in this country. Good work that will help our people. Well, I was really conflicted at this because, as an economic hit man, I was supposed to get him under our control. I was supposed to hook him. But as a partner in this company and as the chief economist for this firm, I also wanted to get the work for the firm, and in this case it was very obvious that the economic hit men weren’t going to get through to Torrijos, so I went along with him. But at the time, I was deeply concerned because I knew that this system is built on the assumption that leaders like Torrijos are corruptible and they are all over the world for the most part. When one stands up to the system as Torrijos was doing, it’s not only a threat in his country, like Panama, that we’re not going to get our way there, but it also may be seen as setting a very bad example for the rest of the world that once one leader stands up—and at that time there was another leader standing up, too, who was the President of Ecuador, Jaime Roldos. They were both standing up to the U.S. government. They were both standing up to the oil companies and the economic hit men, and it was a very big concern to me. I knew in my heart that if this continued, something was going to give. Of course, it did. Both of these men were assassinated by what we call the jackals, C.I.A.-sanctioned assassins.

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/5/17/confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man

[magbana]

5. Yes, Martin is son of fomer Prez Omar Torrijos

The “economic hit man” guy – can’t remember his name – talks extensively about Omar Torrijos in his book. The “hit man” was assigned the job of “turning” Torrijos to accept neoliberal policies. Torrijos told him he would not sell out the people of Panama. The “hit man” states that Torrijos was one of the leaders he respected and liked the most. Of course, that didn’t prevent the CIA from blowing up his helicopter. I think the bomb was inside a tape recorder.

[Judi Lynn]

7. You get the feeling that Torrijos was the last straw with John Perkins. It seems he was very deeply

affected by how that went, and that he HAD been very impressed with the man's real character, and decency before he was assassinated covertly.

You just have to wonder what kind of numbers you'd be dealing with if all the people immorally killed in South, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, because of underhanded corporate greed and murderous power grabbing by U.S. criminals could be counted. It would probably be astonishing, to put it mildly.

Torrijos sounded like someone who would have really brought life-saving change to his country, had he been allowed to go about the business of his office without murderers butting in for the U.S. right-wing.