Panamanians have taken to the streets to demand social justice

The convulsive situation around the high cost of the basic family basket and the rising prices of fuel, food and medicine were just the impetus for this new look of the People United for Life alliance.

The march participants, representing various trade unions, applied to the Presidency of the Republic to demand specific answers to a list of 32 demands, among them an increase in public salaries and the rejection of mass dismissals.

One of its leaders and general secretary of the National Consortium of Construction Workers and Allied Industries (Suntracs), Saúl Méndez, told Prensa Latina that there was no other choice in the face of a corrupt government allied with the oligarchic businessmen who organize and organize. Unity demands what concerns the people.

Mendez noted that in the midst of the victory of leftist groups with alternative projects on the continent, all that remains is for Panama, with their struggle in the streets, but also on the political and electoral level, “so that they can turn the situation around and gain state power.

In this sense, the former 2019 presidential candidate asserted that the original Constituent Assembly’s proposal to reform the state in favor of the disadvantaged, the more modest, is more correct.

He stressed that this march is another work, but it is not the only one, and its goal is to educate people about the need to unite ourselves and organize ourselves if we want to conquer a different country and a better country.

He added, “With the unanimity of the countries of the region, we want and will succeed in being part of the trend of transformation because of its anti-imperialist, neoliberal and unifying character of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Another spokesperson for the protesters, Eduardo Garcia, of the November 29 Revolutionary Student Front (FER 29), told the news agency that they follow the legacy of Commander Breton (Freddie), the hero of the struggle against inequality,

We claim here the quality of free and free education that teaches us to think, the university student reaffirmed.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the National Confederation of Independent Trade Unions Marco Andrade specified that after the march and the scheduled meeting with the government at the dialogue table, the leaders of the main social organizations will decide on further action.

On the other hand, during the day, in the western province of Chiriqui, agricultural cargo carriers left a dialogue table with the executive authority about the rise in fuel prices and ways to stop the work stoppage that may exacerbate food shortages.

Drivers and producers emphasized that they felt ridiculed by the government’s proposal because they were asking to freeze the price of fuel for the entire population and not some support for the sector through subsidies.

According to Ranth Berard, director of Merca Panamá, one of the largest shopping centers for agricultural produce that supplies the capital, if the vigils and stops continue, there could be an even greater shortfall in supplies, especially with items like cabbage and lettuce.

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