Author: Sebastian Pieper
More than 38 million metric tons of previously extracted rock has sat exposed to Panama’s intense tropical weather at the Cobre Panamá facility in Donoso, Colón province since late 2023. Now a portion of that stockpiled material is finally leaving the site. Company officials announced that leftover copper exports totaling roughly 33,000 metric tons of concentrate departed for Spain and Bulgaria between August 18 and 22, 2026, operating under a government-endorsed preservation plan aimed at reducing environmental hazards tied to prolonged storage. Environmental Monitoring Intensifies Around the Mine The shipment window overlapped with a visit from a team of scientists…
Panama has officially launched a comprehensive Panama crocodile control framework to address the growing number of encounters between these reptiles and people in urban, coastal, and river communities across the country. The Ministry of Environment, known locally as MiAmbiente, signed Resolution No. DM-0445-2026 on August 17, and its publication in the Official Gazette on Friday marked the first time the nation has established a formal procedure for managing potentially dangerous crocodile situations. The move responds to a steady rise in reported sightings and negative interactions, particularly along the Panama Bay coastline and in several major river basins. Conservation Success Creates…
Criminal reports for online fraud Panama and other deceptive schemes reached 3,970 cases during the first seven months of 2026, according to preliminary data from the Public Ministry’s Center of Statistics. The figure reflects a 14 percent increase compared to the 3,482 complaints filed in the same window of 2025, translating to roughly 18 new reports every single day. What stands out most in the statistics isn’t the volume of traditional scams, but the explosive growth in computer program manipulation cases, which jumped from just 46 to 190 incidents, a staggering 313 percent surge. Computer Manipulation Crimes Drive the Sharpest…
President José Raúl Mulino has declared that San Miguelito will get its long-promised cable car system, announcing Friday that a technical evaluation commission has finished reviewing the sole proposal submitted for the ambitious cable car construction project. The announcement marks a pivotal moment for an initiative designed to reshape how thousands of residents navigate the dense urban corridors between Panama City and San Miguelito. Doppelmayr’s Sole Bid and Project Scope Austrian firm Doppelmayr Panama Corp. submitted the only offer in the reopened tender, proposing to deliver the complete system for B/.255,163,788.03 before taxes. The company’s bid encompasses far more than…
Panama’s government has activated a Panama purchase exception that allows direct contracting without public tenders through June 30, 2027. The Cabinet approved the measure this week as part of a national emergency declared due to the El Niño phenomenon. But the Ministry of the Presidency said the full resolution still sits in legal review, leaving lawmakers without clear figures on potential spending. Emergency Declaration and Special Procurement Powers The resolution empowers the Ministry of the Presidency to coordinate with requesting entities and the Ministry of Economy and Finance to execute the authorization, according to a Presidency press note. Under the…
Panama’s sweeping metallic mining ban now faces its first major judicial test after attorney Rodrigo Mulino filed a constitutional lawsuit questioning whether the absolute prohibition on mining concessions Panama officials enacted in November 2023 can withstand Supreme Court scrutiny. The case landed before Magistrate Miriam Cheng Rosas, setting up a consequential legal battle over who controls the nation’s mineral wealth and how the Constitution balances environmental protection against economic development imperatives. The legal action targets Law 407, which emerged during a period of intense social upheaval following nationwide protests over the Cobre Panamá copper mine contract. What began as a…
Two adolescent diagnoses are among the Panama New HIV cases pushing Colón province into an early public health alert in 2026. The Ministry of Health (Minsa) has confirmed 36 new infections so far this year, a figure already nearing the 43 cases documented during all of 2025. That pace has unsettled health officials, who fear the Atlantic coast province could surpass last year’s total if prevention and testing efforts don’t accelerate quickly. Officials are not describing the situation as an outbreak. They see it as a persistent pattern of transmission that has resisted years of outreach. The early numbers suggest…
The United States Treasury Department’s decision to sanction two Panamanian businessmen in December 2025 has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on the private financing behind President José Raúl Mulino’s 2024 election victory. Among the 450 presidential donors who contributed more than $3 million to Mulino’s campaign, several names now appear on international watchlists or in foreign court proceedings, raising difficult questions about the company a head of state keeps. The Carretero Napolitano family, whose Comercial Rali enterprise donated $2,500 to the campaign, found itself at the center of this storm after both brothers were designated by the Office of Foreign Assets…
Skywatchers across Panama got an unexpected treat Thursday night when the Panama lunar eclipse broke through stubborn cloud cover, allowing residents in several provinces to capture stunning images of Earth’s shadow sweeping across the moon. What began as a weather-threatened event turned into a memorable celestial show, with the moon taking on a distinctive reddish glow during the peak of the phenomenon. The partial eclipse started at 9:34 p.m. local time, when Earth’s shadow began its slow march across the lunar disk. By approximately 11:13 p.m., observers who stayed up witnessed the moon bathed in that characteristic coppery hue that…
At least nine Panamanian families are waiting for news of loved ones, and one family has already lost a relative in combat, while the dangerous pattern of war recruitment Panama refuses to slow down. Officials say citizens are still leaving for Europe to join the fighting in Ukraine and Russia, despite steady public warnings and criminal probes. Vice Chancellor Carlos Arturo Hoyos confirmed the continued outflow during a recent official event at Tocumen International Airport. He described a situation that has become more serious than the government wants to admit, with Panamanians appearing in both camps of the armed conflict.…