Stuck in the middle of a riot; Part II; reliving my past trauma

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

It was complete chaos.

I stood there breathing deeply. Everything was happening so quickly. I looked outside, and women were running around all over the place. I saw some correctional officers on their walkie-talkies, yelling directions in Spanish, so of course I had no idea what they were saying.

In the house, I saw girls gathering their things together. I searched the chaos for Angela or Andrea, but I could not see them anywhere. I quickly made my way over to Angela’s bunk, and looked to see if she was there. It was empty, so I went out to the main corridor. The girls had already started looting, and fighting with each other. The beds had been pulled out, and I saw the officers trying to fight off some of the women at the gate door. It was crazy. Just pandemonium.

It just so happened that while I was locked up in Panama, there was civil unrest happening outside of the prison. Apparently, there was political drama happening surrounding the Panama Canal.

There had been frayed relations between the U.S. and Panama, and it began almost immediately after the signing of the 1903 Hay-Banau-Varilla treaty that allowed the U.S. to build and maintain the Panama Canal on the Isthmus of Panama.

Assisted by the U.S., Panama was established as a country shortly before the treaty was signed. Over the years, Panamanians have sought to obtain equitable provisions from the original treaty signed with the U.S. The two countries addressed these issues through adjustments to the original agreement during the treaty negotiations of 1936, 1942, and 1955.

Many Panamanians felt that the United States did not deal with them fairly, and were frustrated with Panama’s failure to obtain adjustments to the treaty that would favour Panama’s interests. They objected to the exercise of sovereign powers by the United State in the Canal Zone, and considered the situation as a way of the U.S. infringing on their national dignity.

The U.S. wanted to improve their relations with Panama, and declassified records began to focus on whether or not the U.S. needed to make concessions, and what type of concessions were needed. It had to be determined to what extent Panama needed to be involved in the Canal’s operations, and Panama’s economic link to the Canal Zone. The back and forth between the two countries created tensions; tensions that spelled over into what I was experiencing that day.

What I learned was at that time, there was legislation signed into law that would let export-import businesses buy land that they were leasing in the duty-free zone, an area that city residents consider their patrimony.

Critics of the law said that the lease charges should be increased and the money invested in the impoverished Caribbean coast province of Colon. The duty-free zone houses, about 2,000 companies lease land next to Colon, a city of about 50,000 people. The province is home to several Atlantic ports that service ships using the Panama Canal and supply the country’s only oil refinery. It is economically the second most important province of Panama, where the capital is.

In October 2012, riots were breaking out all over Panama, especially in Colon. Prisoners in the prison must have caught wind of this, and this is why the riots had started in the prison. The protesters feared the legislation would have cost jobs and cut incomes in the lucrative free trade port area at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal.

I always wonder why I have been put in certain situations in my life. Why would there have to be a riot that breaks out when I was there? I know now that it was to toughen me up; give me the strength to deal with what was going to come in my future. Of course, at that time, I was just trying to survive.