The Metropolitan Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa reacted on Sunday to the concern expressed by various Catholic entities over actions that threaten to turn Panama into a “mining country” and called for a mortarium on mining.

"The Pope has already told us: 'the exports of some raw materials to satisfy the markets in the industrialized north have produced local damages, such as contamination with mercury in gold mining or with sulfur dioxide in copper mining.' We are poisoning the common house and before this, the Church cannot remain silent ”, said Ulloa.

The Archbishop proposed the opening of a space for broad and authentic dialogue that involves all stakeholders, in addition to not ruling out a total mining moratorium as a result of the process and that the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) suspend the new concession of 25 thousand hectares until the dialogue ends.

"Today more than ever we must be united to take care of our Common Home, it is the only inheritance that we can leave to our children, a country where each of the citizens protects our land, water, and forests," said the archbishop, referring to the June 5 World Environment Day.

Recently, a group of environmental organizations has made known their opposition to the measures of the MICI to “promote” open-pit metal mining in the country.

The demands of environmental groups arise after it became known on May 15 that the MICI added more than 25,000 hectares of land in Colón and Coclé to the mining concession regime. Specifically, an area of ​​24,954 hectares between the districts of Donoso (Colón) and La Pintada (Coclé), and another of 644.9 hectares in the districts of Donoso and Omar Torrijos (Coclé).