The President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, presented the National Decoration of the General Order of Division Omar Torrijos Herrera in the degree of “Commendation with Plaque” to Mr. Julio Bermúdez, who is an example of a social fighter and patriot, by consecrating his life to peasant causes and national sovereignty.
Cortizo Cohen said he felt honored to honor an exemplary human being and a great patriot, who, with his great contributions, collaborated in the construction of the nation. “This award is a symbol of gratitude from our people.”
Bermúdez, born in Panama City, in the Chilibre community on December 10, 1936, is the son of Marcial Bermúdez and Rosalía Mosquera.
Transferred from his youth to the peasant community of Salamanca, he became director of the Farmers’ Association in the early sixties of the 20th century and later its main leader.
A farmer, rubber tapper and rancher, Bermúdez Mosquea dedicated his efforts to the right of peasants to land, initially in the Panama Canal basin and later expanding throughout the country. That cause took him to jail in 1969, the place where he least expected to meet the person who would be his leader and friend for the next 12 years, General Omar Torrijos Herrera.
In the summer of 1970, Torrijos invited Don Julio to a tour in the district of Barú, in the province of Chiriquí, in the banana area, where Bermúdez Mosquera was able to verify on the ground the poverty and misery in which thousands of people lived. , as well as Torrijos’s great sensitivity to scenarios like that. From that date, there were many Domestic Patrols to which Bermúdez Mosquera attended with General Torrijos.
It is in the midst of this battle that Don Julio founded, on January 9, 1970, the first peasant settlement in the country, and in March of that same year he became the top leader of the National Confederation of Peasant Settlements, the historic CONAC. .
From there, it organizes 234 settlements and agrarian cooperatives that gather support for the process in the first years, as never before in the country’s history.
In the eleven years of close friendship, Bermúdez Mosquera was the protagonist of the battle led by General Torrijos for the rescue of national sovereignty and the recovery of the Panama Canal.
Despite his octogenarian age, Don Julio Bermúdez Mosquera continues to be a trench fighter, defender of the interests of the country and the rights of peasants.
The Vice President of the Republic and Minister of the Presidency, José Gabriel Carrizo Jaén, and family and friends of Bermúdez were present at the event.
