One person was arrested in connection with the incident, Panama’s attorney general said on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
Officials did not say how the demonstrators died while blocking a road in the east of the country, but local reports suggested they were shot by a driver attempting to get past the protest. A video circulating on social media appeared to show the alleged attacker carrying a gun and removing a tire from the road blockade, while a body lies on the road nearby.
The deaths followed local reports that a demonstrator was run over and killed Nov. 1 by a foreigner attempting to cross a roadblock during a protest in the west of the country. The contract, given final approval Oct. 20, allows the local subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals to continue operating an open-pit copper mine in a richly biodiverse jungle west of the capital for the next 20 years — with the possibility of extending for a further 20 years if the mine remains productive.