Leaders of this group, one of the participants in a single dialogue table with the executive branch in the province of Coclé on the high cost of living, called for serious action and concrete solutions to population problems such as abusive food prices, medicine, electricity and social security.
The coordinator of the National Front for Economic and Social Rights, Jorge Guzmán, told the press that in these talks, which will be broadcast live on radio and television, people have seen inept rulers with a lack of will to harm the interests of the private sector, oligopolies, Owners of the economy, as part of a neoliberal model.
For his part, the general secretary of the National Union of Construction Workers, Saúl Méndez, denounced how the presence of corruption within the power elites and traditional parties became clearer this Thursday with simple and powerful examples.
“Corruption is an endemic problem in Panama,” said Méndez, recalling recent cases such as bribes at the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, the process known as the Panama Papers, the privatization of the Institute for Hydraulic Resources and Electrification or the ports, nebulous contracts such as Minera Panama, and officials have immersed themselves in them all.
“We are facing a failed state full of corruption,” he noted.
Both speakers appreciated that the humblest have no choice but to take to the streets to demand social justice.
During the day, the groups, both at the march and at the dialogue table in Coclé, reiterated the need to convene a Constituent Assembly with full powers that will reshape the state, set up a truth commission on corruption and set up a social audit of the council.
Regarding these proposals, the executive reiterated that they deal with legislative reforms, provisions contrary to the Constitution, scrutiny of autonomous bodies and powers held by other institutions such as the Comptroller General of the Republic.
The high cost of medicines, fuel and food over the past month has sparked the largest social protests in decades in Panama, prompting the government to set up a single dialogue table with unions and guilds since July 21 to agree on measures to lower prices accepted with various irregularities.
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