Panama, November 2 (EFE).- Losses of the Panamanian tourism sector amount to 200 million dollars due to road blockages due to the refusal of the renewal of the operating concession of the largest open-cast copper mine of Central America, the Panamanian Hotel Association (Apatel) reported this Thursday.

More than 68,000 tourists have canceled their visits to the country until next January, including those who would come to congresses and conventions, said Apatel, who estimated losses for the hotel sector alone at $13 million.

The protests, the largest in decades in Panama and recorded continuously since October 23, take place as the country prepares to celebrate its national holidays in November, one of the periods of greatest domestic tourism.

Reservations for these dates were canceled in the main tourist provinces: 90% in Chiriquí, 60% in Bocas del Toro and 100% in Valle de Antón, a mountain town near Panama City, the hotel union said.

In the capital, hotel occupancy “has fallen by 25% in some hotels, with cancellations through January 2024, well into what is expected to be Panama’s peak season,” Apatel said.

“This stop worries the tourism sector, mainly due to the announcement of an increasing number of hotels forced to suspend their operations, with direct effects on suppliers and collaborators,” he added.

Losses to the Panamanian economy are estimated at between 70 and 90 million dollars per day due to the roadblocks, which have interrupted the transport of goods in the country, where shortages of food and fuel are already being felt, as well as ‘in Central America.

Apatel defended the right to demonstrate peacefully, deplored the excessive police force against the demonstrators and asked the Supreme Court of Justice to rule as soon as possible on the unconstitutionality or not of the mining concession, the solution the most plausible reason for this crisis, according to Divers. unions and lawyers agree.

The National Assembly (AN, Parliament) is about to approve a law to repeal the legal contract between the State and the company Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Mineral, which extended the exploitation of the Cobre Panama mine for 20 years, renewable. years. , approved in an express process and contested by the Executive and Parliament on October 20.

Environmental groups that have fought the concession for years warn that the repeal leaves the state virtually defenseless against the company’s claims given the leonine terms of the legal contract, and recommend that the Supreme Court decide whether its future through its ruling on the various appeals for unconstitutionality already filed.

Activists say the new contract law suffers from the same flaws that led to the previous one being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2017.