Overview

• The state of emergency now applies provincewide and suspends rights to assembly and free movement for five days
• Demonstrators have looted Chiquita facilities, attacked Changuinola airport and set fire to a local baseball stadium
• Protests began nearly two months ago with banana workers joined by teachers, indigenous groups and construction laborers opposing pension reforms and a U.S. security pact
• Chiquita announced it will lay off about 6,500 employees and move its administrative offices to Costa Rica in response to ongoing unrest
• Officials say the broader emergency follows an earlier May decree that covered only part of the province and failed to halt violent demonstrations