The Actual Natives Are Restless in Panama

Cruisers Warned To Stay Away From Islands Until Rioting Is Curbed

Peter Swanson Jun 18

Did you know there is rioting in Panama? Neither did I. Because it hasn’t been reported outside the country. I learned of the unrest and violence only because Noonsite—an online information source for international cruisers—recently broke the story.

It’s always been a good idea to hire an agent to transit the Panama Canal. Erick Galvez of Centenairio & Company is an agent who specializes in recreational vessels, as opposed to commercial shipping. Galvez was the source for Noonsite’s warning about Panama, published a couple weeks ago:

For the moment, yachts should avoid stopping in San Blas to check or check out. There are no authorities and they are saying their are breaking relationships with the central government. San Blas is an Indian eservationarea. Another Indian reservation in Bocas del Toro has vandalized the Port Authority office in Almirante, Bocas del Toro, and roads are being blocked to Bocas. I would say avoid visiting San Blas until the situation is back to normal, and avoid mainland travel in Bocas del Toro.

Galvez said the warning still applies, although the Panamanian goverment is engaged in talks with the strikers.

The indigenous peoples of Panama and the rural poor in general are angry at a new law passed by the legislature in March. The law changes the Panama social security system from one which uses contributions from working people to subsidize pensions of retirees to an individual account scheme. Protesters say this is a form of privatization that will lead to “starvation pensions.”

Share

Bocas del Toro is an archipelago that has attracted it’s own expat cruising community. The region which includes the islands has been particularly active against the government. On the mainland, the resistance has blocked roads, attacked goverment offices and even kidnapped a tourist.

Islanders Under Pressure

The San Blas Islands with its self-sustaining indigenous islanders is considered one of the finest Caribbean destinations. The San Blas archipelago—which calls itself Guna Yala—recently issued a defiant proclamation reminding the central government that its people had once engaged in an armed rebellion back in 1925, and they just might do it again.

This is how the Guna leadership began it’s June 3 declaration:

Our country is currently under threat under a dictatorship. Our leaders are currently being persecuted, criminalized, and threatened. Our communities are being indiscriminately harassed, overpowered, and massacred by the police force under the orders of President José Raúl Mulino. Therefore, the Gunadule people of the Gunayala region repudiate and denounce before the country and the world the vile and cowardly abuse of the indigenous population of Panama, violating all national and international law and the norms that protect the rights of indigenous peoples.

The Guna have shut down Panamanian goverment offices, so even if cruising vessels were to arrive on its main island, they could not clear in.

There are more than 360 islands in the San Blas archipelago, 49 of which are populated. In its account of the crisis, Noonsite has reminded readers that the Guna people have been under stress because a rising sea is reducing the number of their islands one by one. In 2024, about 300 Guna families from the island of Garid Sugdub had to be relocated to the mainland.

“Every time I do a survey…I have to take islands off the maps that are now nothing but shoals,” wrote Eric Bauhaus, author of The Panama Cruising Guide.

Bocas a ‘Cruiser Haven’

Bocas de Toros has coagulated into more of an expat community along the lines of Grenada and Luperon in the Dominican Republic, or what author Ray Jason calls “cruiser havens.” Here’s what Jason wrote in 2013:

Located on the Caribbean coast of Panama near the Costa Rican border, this unspoiled archipelago of nine big islands and many smaller ones creates an inland sea where the breezes are so tranquil the waves rarely exceed knee height. And because Panama is south of the hurricane zone, there is no “season.” You can safely cruise here all year round…

There are over 100 anchorages here: most completely empty, none completely full and absolutely zero with pay-to-stay moorings. From the water, layers of breathtaking hills, mountains and volcanoes are visible in the background. In the foreground, exotic toucans, sloths and parrots live amidst the bananas, cacao and bamboo. Truly, it is other-worldly.

The locals are a friendly mix of Latin, Indio and Caribbean that blend seamlessly with visiting sailors, backpackers and surfers, none of whom you’d find at your local mall. There is also a sizable group of ex-cruisers who were so dazzled by this unspoiled water world when they first arrived that they now live in homes along the shore.

Now, the dockmaster recommends that people with boats at the Bocas Marina stay stay put and avoid the chaos of blocked roads on the mainland. Fabiano Pereira quoted the Bocas Breeze, a local news outlet:

After four days of Operation Omega, 22 roadblocks have been opened and another 22 points remain closed, with one partially open, according to last evening’s press conference with Vice Minister of Public Security, Luis Felipe Icaza…

So far there have been 48 people apprehended and one fatality. Yesterday a protester was found lying on the road in Rambala (Chiriqui Grande). He was given first aid and then taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed. Local residents say he was hit by a bullet.

The Breeze then quoted a foreign woman who made it from the islands to the Costa Rican border by a somewhat circuitous route:

I made it to the mainland today. It is safe to go. I went with Torres water taxi. The fares however are not cheap. And they go through the Changuinola river. They stop at Finca 44, avoiding Changuinola center and Almirante’s protests. Upon arrival, there are mini buses waiting there for visitors to go to the border. No roads blocked as for today. Who knows tomorrow.

A Final Word

The final word on security comes from Erick Galvez, who says:

Listen now · 2:10

© 2025 Rio Charters
411 Walnut St. No. 1944, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
Unsubscribe