Panamanian social organizations today denounced the harassment by powerful business groups seeking to silence the clearest, most dissenting, and protective voices in the environmental field at the national and regional levels.
Lilian Guevara, executive director of the Center for Environmental Incidence (CIAM), stated at a press conference that organizations integrated into the Panamanian Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and more than 60 allied community, scientific, social, and environmental groups reject the coercive use of the Panamanian judicial system.
In this regard, Ricardo Wong, president of the PROMAR Foundation, stated that several leaders of organizations have been targeted by the legal subterfuge known as 'SLAPP' (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), which is a lawsuit used abusively to intimidate, silence, and harass activists from vanguard social movements.
In fact, two disturbing criminal complaints were filed against CIAM and the environmental organization ADOPTA Forest, due to their efforts to raise awareness about the negative impact of the Puerto Barú project, which threatens to destroy an extensive area of mangroves of great biological, geographical, and landscape importance.
Environmentalists close ranks against court harassment.
The environmental organizations base their complaints on independent scientific reports on threatened natural areas.
They also demanded that the Ministry of the Environment (MiAmbiente) enforce the Escazú Agreement, whose Article 9 provides for three types of protection for environmental defenders, lawyers, scientists, or persons dedicated to the defense of the Environment.
In February 2025, the Supreme Court of Justice of Panama found sufficient grounds to admit the Appeal for Nullity against the approval of the Environmental Impact Study of the Puerto Barú project, which is harshly questioned by various social organizations in the country.
The Puerto Barú project is intended to be built 20 kilometers from the city of David, in the western province of Chiriquí, in an area surrounded by 25% of the mangroves remaining in Panama, which house species in critical danger of extinction, such as the hawksbill turtle and the emblematic Central American black howler monkey.
The environmental movements concluded the press conference with an energetic call for unity among social forces in defense of the dignified life of Panamanians, and the cessation of the plunder and intimidating policies.
They indicated that a previous Environmental Impact Study, approved by the government, was not adequately evaluated and that, given this evident fact, the Puerto Armuelles region would be a preferential option for the development of the controversial port project.
The social organizations urged the Public Ministry to prevent judicial persecution.
