LatinNews Daily - 27 October 2023

*Panama’s supreme court (CSJ) has admitted an appeal filed against the new contract between the government led by President Laurentino Cortizo and Minera Panamá S.A. (MPSA), the subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) regarding copper mine Cobre Panamá. The new contract was approved on 20 October and has prompted widespread protests amid fears over the environmental impact, among other things. In a statement, the court said it would issue an opinion on the legal case within ten working days in response to the appeal which was filed on 23 October by a local lawyer, Juan Ramón Sevillano Callejas. The protests continue to draw alarm from the private sector amid the impact on trade. Yesterday, a leading business lobby Asociación Panameña de Ejecutivos de Empresas (Apede) released a statement calling for the government to act against those preventing free transit in the country as well as rejecting police repression of protesters. It suggests several actions, including calling on the CSJ to consider the legal case against the mine as well as urging the government to table a bill calling for no more exploration and exploitation concessions to be authorised until an exhaustive revision of the mining code has been carried out. Apede’s president Temístocles Rosas was cited by the media earlier this week as warning that the protests were causing daily losses of US$80m.