Panama, November 4 (EFE).- At least 948 people were arrested during the 13 days of massive protests in Panama against a controversial mining contract between the state and a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, which caused a internal crisis. as the authorities reported this Saturday.

The Ministry of Public Security of Panama reported this through a publication on the social network

The Security portfolio also specified that “some 62 companies, 51 government institutions, 28 CCTV cameras, metro stations and 4 vending machines were vandalized.”

The director of Panama’s Environmental, Rural and Tourist Police, Elmer Caballero, said in a video published on this social network that the arrests took place “through police actions carried out to control public disorder during these demonstrations.”

The commissioner added that “a legal advisory team pursued these cases before the Public Ministry (Procurator’s Office) and justices of the peace, particularly in the province of Panama (where the capital is located), Panama Oeste (near the capital), Chiriquí (border with Costa Rica), Veraguas (inside the country) and Colón (Caribbean)”.

For almost two weeks, Panama has been going through an internal crisis with street demonstrations against mines, the most massive in recent decades, and blockages on the country’s main roads, which gave rise to acts of vandalism, clashes with police and shortages of food and gasoline in some areas.

At least two people have died after being crushed during road closures, according to local media and police. Although there is no official casualty report, a photographer lost an eye in the first days of the protests during a clash between police and demonstrators.

The protests are against a controversial contract law that renews a 20-year extendable concession to Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of FQM, to operate Central America’s largest open-cast copper mine, in operation since 2019.

From now on, the future of this mining contract is in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice, which must declare whether it is unconstitutional or not after Parliament gave up on repealing it through a bill.

Environmentalists and lawyers say a ruling of unconstitutionality by the Court, the highest judicial body, would put the state in a more advantageous position in the face of a possible international lawsuit brought by the mining company for breach of contract.

On Friday, a mining moratorium law was enacted, which prohibits the granting of new metal mining concessions and rejects current ones, which was one of the protesters’ demands.