In October, seven months before Panama’s general election, thousands of young environmentalists marched through the streets of Panama City demanding the closure of an open-pit copper mine, one of the largest in the Americas. They chanted “Panama’s gold is green” and “PRD trash” – a reference to the governing Partido Revolucionario Democrático (Democratic Revolutionary party), which has long dominated politics in the country.
Soon, they were joined by others from across Panamanian society: Indigenous people, workers, students and Instagram influencers.
What began as environmental protests against the deal with a local subsidiary of the Canadian conglomerate First Quantum Minerals became a mass rejection of the government and institutional corruption.
With the country gridlocked and the economy crippled, the government panicked and expedited a supreme court decision that ruled the mine was unconstitutional, shutting it down for good. The closure took with it 5% of GDP, as well as thousands of jobs and 70-80% of exports.
But the young conservationists who forced the closure see it as just the first step towards a new Panama that embraces the country’s national parks, jungles and beaches and its potential as a tourism destination and green energy hub.
On 5 May, election day, they hope to begin building that future.
Serena Vamvas, 33, is one of those environmentalists. Last year, she was hit in the head by a rubber bullet fired by police as she protested against the mine. Now, she canvasses on the same streets seeking election to represent the town of San Francisco.
“After the social outbreak in October, many more young people agree that we have to exercise our vote,” Vamvas says. “Those who govern us are from older generations – and many do not know the importance of caring for natural resources. There is a long history of a shameful and corrupt political class.”
Panama’s modern democratic era began after the overthrow of Manuel Noriega’s dictatorship in a US invasion in 1989. However, the political system that emerged has been rife with corruption.
Independents such as Vamvas hope to change this by filling local councils, congress and mayoralty positions in May, appealing to the 83% of Panamanians unhappy with their political representatives.
They will follow in the footsteps of independent candidates such as Juan Diego Vásquez, who was elected to congress in 2019 as a 22-year-old criminology student. One of only five unaffiliated legislators at the time, Vásquez received more votes than any other congressional candidate in the country.
Since then, he has become a household name for his passionate attacks on corruption. He is standing down this year, abiding by his promise to serve just one term, but has built a coalition, Vamos, of almost 100 independent candidates.
He hopes this new generation can fix a weak democracy with “deep inequality” and a corrupt system of “clientelism”, in which political support can be bought.
He says: “We have people, even in our cities, in a grave state of poverty. Some of those citizens, who are forgotten by the state’s social policy, are tempted to trade their vote for a bag of food, $20 or maybe a job offer in the public sector.”
But he adds: “Most Panamanians are decent working people. We just need to promote and decide to take a different path.”
Nearly half of Panama’s electorate are under 40 years old, and almost a third are under 30. Vásquez says these young voters are crucial to ending corruption.
“If, as happened during the protests last year, we stand united against corruption and demand a new, decent country, full of opportunities, we are going to achieve a positive change,” he says.
The presidential race, too, has an anti-establishment challenger. Ricardo Lombana, a former diplomat, came third in the 2019 election, running as an independent on an anti-corruption platform. Since then, he has built a political party, the Movimiento Otro Camino, or Other Path Movement (Moca), and is promising wholesale structural change.
His challengers include the current PRD vice-president, José Gabriel “Gaby” Carrizo, who is met across the country by protesters shouting “Gaby no vas” (Gaby, you’re not going).
Rómulo Roux, a former minister and partner at the law firm that represented the copper mine, and Martín Torrijos, a former president and son of the late Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos, who founded the PRD in 1979, are also running.
Another ex-president, Ricardo Martinelli, had his candidacy disqualified after a money-laundering conviction and was given asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy. He has been replaced by his running mate, José Raúl Mulino.
The winner will face a host of environmental and economic problems. The Panama canal, the economy’s engine, is running short of water to power its huge locks amid lower rainfall, exacerbated by the El Niño weather pattern and the climate crisis.
Further east, Panama’s jungle border with Colombia saw 520,000 refugees from across the world traverse its dangerous mountains in 2023 as they made their way through Central America to the US.
The closure of the copper mine has worsened unemployment in a country where nearly half of all workers are in the informal sector. Insecurity is also rising, with an increase in murders in 2023 linked to the drug trade.
There are structural problems, too. According to Transparency International, Panama is in the lower half of a global corruption index, and according to the World Bank, it is the 12th most unequal.
Carlos Guevara Mann, a political scientist at Florida State University-Panama, said the country’s political system was “weak and progressively eroding” with “highly corrupt” elections.
“As a result of mounting corruption, now including narco-corruption, the political system’s incapacity to respond to popular demands is generating increased frustration,” he says. “Panama’s ‘democracy’ is dangerously backsliding.”
Mann sees significant hurdles for independent candidates hoping to change the system in May.
“Although there is anger and frustration among voters, the final result may not be as overwhelming as some expect,” he says. “A skewed electoral system, clientelism, corruption and impunity operate to the advantage of the traditional party system.”
Despite this, Panama has great potential. According to the Panamanian government, it is one of only three carbon-negative countries (along with Bhutan and Suriname), and despite deforestation still has 68% forest cover. GDP growth has averaged almost 6% over the past two decades. The canal has powered a robust logistics sector, tourism is growing and a green energy industry is growing.
Vamvas says she has no illusions about the difficulties of realising this potential. “Some things are going to change progressively,” she says.
“The re-engineering of the government and the system will take several years. We have to be patient but firm. We have to have hope but not illusions.”
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