Vatican newspaper highlights Panamanian villagers’ opposition to reservoir
May 21, 2025
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, devoted the most prominent front-page article in its May 20 edition to the opposition of residents of a Panamanian village to a reservoir’s construction.
“A peaceful demonstration in defense of their lands, to ask to be included in the decision-making process: the government wants to start work on this project in 2027, considering it crucial for the water supplies of approximately 2 million Panamanian citizens,” Valerio Palombaro wrote in “In difesa del fiume“ [In defense of the river].
“The fears of local indigenous communities—with more than 2,000 people at risk of having to leave their homes due to the construction of the water reserve—clash with the specter of the drought crisis, which in 2023 seriously threatened the population’s water supply and traffic through the Panama Canal, an essential element of the Central American country’s GDP,” he continued.
The Vatican newspaper’s coverage drew extensively on a recent AFP article, which Palombaro cited.
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