LatinNews Daily - 7 May 2025

*Banana company Chiquita Panamá, the local subsidiary of multinational banana company Chiquita Brands International, has urged its workers to resume activities, amid a nationwide strike which began on 23 April by Panama’s leading teachers’ association Asociación de Profesores (Asoprof) and has since grown to include other sectors. The strike is over three key issues: anger over the recently approved social security (CSS) reform, rejection of the recent security agreements signed with the US, and fears that the right-of-centre government led by President José Raúl Mulino is seeking to reopen Panama’s largest mine, Cobre Panamá. In a statement, Chiquita Panamá warns that as a result of the strike action, 450,000 boxes of bananas could not be exported. It highlights that bananas represent the country’s leading export, accounting for 17.6% of total exports in the first months of the year while the company provides over 6,000 jobs in the north-western Bocas del Toro banana-growing province. Chiquita Panamá’s call adds to other concerns raised by the private sector regarding the impact of the strike, with Panama’s chamber of construction (Capac) having previously put daily economic losses at US$100m. Yesterday students, staff, and academics at Panama’s public university Universidad de Panamá, including its rector, Eduardo Flores, joined the protests in the capital, Panama City, while the local media reported that protests were also taking place in provinces including the eastern province of Panamá Oeste, Chiriquí, to the west of the country, and Bocas del Toro, among others.

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