Panama negotiates an urgent solution to the crisis generated by protests

Organized groups and Panamanian authorities resumed this Thursday the negotiations to end more than two weeks of protests and street closures against escalating food and fuel prices that have plunged the country into a social and economic crisis and caused shortages of goods, including in the capital.

President Laurentino Cortizo announced that the government would join the single dialogue table made up of the movements that develop the protestswhich after several days of meetings agreed on an agenda with the mediation of the Catholic Church, which contemplates the core points that they seek to negotiate.

“I ask Panamanians to come to an agreement, with a sincere dialogue, a respectful dialogue, we can reach viable solutions,” said Cortizo, who traveled accompanied by several ministers to Penonomé, in the west of the country, about 150 kilometers from Panama City, where the organized movements have been meeting since the beginning of the week.

In statements, the general secretary of the Construction Union, Saúl Méndez, said that “the presence of Cortizo and his government is vital to give concrete answers to the demands of the population that has seen the need to maintain actions in defense of the right to a dignified life, to fair wages, food, medicine and cheap fuel”.

The protests initiated by the teachers’ sector in Veraguas, which attracted different sectors from all over the country, originated from the increase in the cost of living, but as the days went by, the popular movements added more demands.

The current proposal, in addition to requesting that fuel, energy and food prices be frozen, without affecting the national producer, includes the problem of corruption, greater transparency and that 6% of GDP be invested in education.

In previous days, the government established a price cap on a dozen popular consumer food products and froze the price of a gallon of diesel and gasoline at $3.95, which later fell to $3.25, which remains in force.

The government also announced a series of austerity measures to contain public spending, including reducing 10% of the state payroll and starting a voluntary retirement program for public servants, and eliminating trips, except in the case of official representation. of the country, with all this, it failed to stop the protests that have intensified in recent days with damage to trade, the supply of goods, and in general in all sectors.

The main business associations agreed that a single dialogue table should be the way to reach agreements that address the country’s social and economic situations.

“It is necessary that in addition to meeting the demands of the cost of living, we also face once and for all the structural problems of the country,” according to a statement read by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, industries and agriculture of Panama, Marcela Galindo.

After two years of the pandemic, different sectors complained about the increase in unemployment and the closure of companies that could not survive the prolonged quarantine, and the increase in public debt and corruption, situations that exacerbated the population.

street blockade

Panama, which was heading towards economic recovery after a 17.9% drop in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, is facing one of the worst protests in recent decades with street closures that have triggered product shortages nationwide. .

intermittent crashes in some areas, and longer closures on the Pan-American highway that connects with the rest of Central America, affected traffic, especially of agricultural products that stopped reaching the capital and the main cities.

Alicia Jiménez from the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the Republic of Panama, said that the losses caused by the closures in the first 15 days of protests are around 500 million dollars for the entire productive sector.

On Wednesday, a caravan of vehicles transporting some 50,000 tons of food from the province of Chiriquí, on the border with Costa Rica, remained stranded for almost noon, despite the negotiations that had allowed the establishment of a humanitarian corridor that would facilitate the movement of the food.

At midnight this Thursday, it still had not arrived at the main market for agricultural products that supplies the Panamanian capital, a situation that also affects prices.

At the beginning of the week, in the face of complaints, the police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters who were blocking a section of the highway in the province of Veraguas, to allow traffic, after several hours the protesters who burned tires resumed the closure.

“We are in the street because of the police repression of our people in Veraguas, it is also the only way the government listens, if we open the street they will not negotiate, we are tired,” said a university student who participated in the protests in the capital.

President Cortizo said that due to road closures, more than 140,000 medical appointments have also been lost, with a greater impact on people with limited resources.

“Vandalism and actions contrary to the law will be sanctioned, this is a country of law and order, vandalism cannot be allowed,” added the president.

Days before, the director of the Social Security Fund, Enrique Lau Cortés, had already warned of the danger that hospitals would be short of medical supplies and oxygen. Lau described as “criminal act” not allowing the passage of supplies and health officials.

For his part, the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa, who participates as facilitator of the dialogue at the “single table”, stated that every crisis is an opportunity to move forward.

“We are all part of a historical moment that leads us to lay down particular interests to put the people first and give way to a transformation,” added the Catholic prelate.

Meanwhile, the population continues to wait for the negotiations at the single table, since the stability of the country that paradoxically has led economic growth in Latin America in recent years depends on these agreements.

Analysts fear that this crisis will set back the recovery achieved at the beginning of this 2022, and that this threatens the investment grade, which had been strengthened with the country’s competitive advantages to do business, including the Canal, the banking center and the air hub that connects with the world.

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