Panama president calls in archbishop, rabbi in bid to mediate with striking banana workers

Panama’s José Raúl Mulino appeals to a higher power, calling in an archbishop and a rabbi to deliver a message to striking banana workers after nearly two months of social protest that have roiled the country.

Mulino has said he won’t reverse controversial changes to Panama’s social security system. Courts have deemed the strike illegal and top banana Chiquita Brands fired nearly 5,000 striking workers last month in the western Bocas del Toro province.

But nothing has stopped the protests.

So at his weekly news briefing, Mulino says he had met with Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa and one of Panama’s leading Jewish figures, Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, to enlist them as intermediaries. He gave Ulloa a personal letter to bring to Francisco Smith, the leader of the striking banana workers’ union.

In the letter, Mulino says he committed to sending proposed legislation to the Congress that would be favorable for the country’s banana sector, above all its workers. But he conditioned the proposal on former workers lifting their protest.