Protests will continue in Panama despite government announcements this Tuesday

The foods that are part of the list are: babilla meat, sausage, macaroni, lentils, vegetable oil, sardines in tomato sauce, lentils, tuna in water, national mortadella with pepper, coditos and michita bread.

The Authority for Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition (Acodeco) recommended that the Price Adjustment Commission include these products in the list of the eight foods that were already being regulated, to reach a total of 18.

According to government estimates, with the price readjustment made to these foods, Panamanian families will have considerable savings in the basic basket from this month until December.

The Council also approved a series of austerity measures within the Government: 10% reduction in the state payroll, suspension of salary increases to the public sector, approval to create a voluntary server retirement program or the restriction of cell phone allocation within the government, among others.

The trips of officials to attend congresses or internships are also prohibited and only those that are part of official missions sponsored by organizations or governments will be authorized. In that case, the authorities may not be accompanied by protocol personnel or press teams, for example.

Measurements are not convincing

However, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Panama (CCIAP) stated that the freezing of food products will not achieve long-term changes.

The president of the CCIAP, Marcela Galindo, assures that the measure generates a distortion of the market, assuring that the controls, rather than encourage savings, encourage greater consumption, and that they have also been applied for eight years without achieving the expected results. .

Galindo also alleges that the measures only provide temporary relief to the population and that if the government really wants to address the problem, it must generate employment through support for micro and small businesses.

“There are funds already approved and earmarked for this purpose, access to credit must be facilitated for these companies through joint guarantee plans backed by the State, multilaterals and private banks,” Galindo pointed out.

He also urged the Executive led by Laurentino Cortizo to make other adjustments, among which are measures to contain public spending, freeze hiring of non-priority officials, suspension of paid leave, vertical spending cuts, among others.

“It is unacceptable to contract more public debt to finance the current operating expenses of the State, especially in a situation of an increase in the payroll without justification. The debt must be prioritized for investments that translate into jobs, productivity and competitiveness,” the president of the CCIAP indicated in a press release.

The protests continue

The NGO Transparency International Panama declared that the protests in the country are the result of a management “characterized by a dramatic public indebtedness that is destined for what appear to be discretionary uses motivated by political objectives, and not to provide public services and less to creating jobs and opportunities.

The organization called on the government to take real measures to convince the various sectors of society that, given the “weakness in the control institutions, the increase in the state payroll, and the impudence of political-clientism schemes with public money and various forms of corruption” no longer believe in the measures they are trying to apply.

And it is that, indeed, the announcements made by the Executive this Tuesday and the one made on Monday by President Cortizo on the freezing of the price of fuel at 3.95 dollars per gallon did not manage to stop the actions of the various sectors to continue the protests. on the streets. This Tuesday, road closures continued in different parts of the country.

To the protests initiated by teachers and students were added those of the indigenous people of western Panama, carriers, producers, fishermen, or doctors, among others, and for this Wednesday it is expected that the Panamanian construction union ‘Suntracs’ will join, who announced that he will go on a 24-hour “warning strike.”

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez, representative of ‘Suntracs’, in a video published this Tuesday night on social networks, expressed that given the decision of the country’s Presidency to apply repressive mechanisms, the people are not going to give up.

“To those who work in construction, firmness, unity and discipline, tomorrow there is a strike and we are going to carry it out and we are going to mobilize in the streets of the whole country,” Méndez declared.

He also called on the Panamanian people to “close ranks, not be intimidated and assert their rights to a dignified life,” Méndez ending his short but forceful message on Twitter with these words.

With information from EFE and local media