Panama government and protesters strike deals to clear key highway
Panama's government and indigenous leaders reached a second deal to clear all remaining demonstrators from the Panamerican Highway in exchange for lower fuel prices, ending a two-week blockade that had stymied food deliveries.
The government released footage from the signing of an initial agreement in far-west Chiriqui province, where most of the Central American country's food is produced, and of a blocked section of the highway being cleared.
Angered by high prices and corruption, protesters had clogged the highway linking Panama to the rest of Central America over the past two weeks. Large trucks and banner-waving demonstrators paralyzed the strategic route, making it hard for the country of 4.4 million to feed itself.
"Many Panamanians have suffered from these stoppages," said Vice-President Jose Gabriel Carrizo after signing the agreement. "This is a huge government effort."
"The traffic of cars and heavy equipment in Veraguas is free," Eduardo Cortés, who participated in the demonstrations on the highway, said by phone.
The proposal of 3.25 dollars per gallon (3.78 litres), was better than the 3.30 offered in the deal made earlier in the day with the indigenous community of the Ngabe-Bugle Comarca in Chiriqui.
