national

Cell phone protests close highway

Residents of two communities demanded that no towers be built near homes.

The residents of El Limón in the district of La Chorrera closed the Pan-American Highway for three hours yesterday to protest the construction of a cement plant and cell phone towers in the community.

The protesters shouted slogans and displayed placards to draw attention to their cause. The protest turned confrontational, as police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

Jaime Calvo, administrator of Barrio Colón, said that the demonstrators were told to vacate the road, and that police were called in when they failed to do so.

“They were given a deadline that was not met, and that's why we asked the police to evict them,” Calvo said.

One person was arrested in the demonstration.

Also, yesterday, residents of the neighborhood of Villa Nomé in Penonomé marched for the fifth time in the last two weeks to protest the construction of a cell phone tower there.

Juan Carlos Salas, a resident of the area, said that a large number of children, young adults and pregnant women live near the proposed site of the tower.

He said that the protests will continue until the project is abandoned, as those who will be affected by it are the residents, and not the businessmen who are going to profit from the tower.

Claro, the company installing the tower, had started work on Tuesday, but decided to withdraw their machines to avoid problems. The company stated, however, that it has the required permits to build the tower.