Geico, I personally like what Martinelli is doing in Panama. My political views are aligned with what he and his party are trying to do there, but I think he tried to do too much, too fast with law 8. IMO he had to repeal law 8 to call the dogs off and as you say try to gain back political favor with everyone that was raising hell after it passed. I'm sure if the man had to do it all over again he would do it differently.
As I recall Cerro Colorado was in the original law 8 that passed, then after it passed and the Indians started blocking roads and protesting. Martinelli then said he would write it out of the law.
That wasn't good enough and he finally buckled and repealed the law altogether. Somebody correct me if I've misspoken, but that's how I remember it went.
Regardless, I think we can agree that the repeal of the law has held up Cobre Panama, but I believe there's more than one way to skin a cat and Martinelli has a game plan to get it done.
