#Highway #closed #due #ongoing #protests #Panama
Large trucks and banner-waving protesters blocked the Panamerican Highway and other roads in Panama on Friday, as two weeks of revolt against high prices and corruption showed no sign of abating.
As protesters ignored government calls for negotiations to end the rampaging mobilization, dozens of blockades were maintained on the critical highway that connects the country of 4.4 million people to the rest of Central America.
At a roadblock outside the town of Aguadulce, protester Nelly Jaen, a 63-year-old housewife, told AFP: “We are desperate. Panama can no longer take this.”
“Reduce the prices of food, fuel and medicine because we can’t take it any longer in this country,” added 53-year-old truck driver Arnulfo Sarmiento.
Its economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, and Panama is experiencing one of its most difficult times since General Manuel Antonio Noriega’s military dictatorship was overthrown in 1989.
May saw annual inflation hit 4.2 percent, along with an unemployment rate of about 10 percent and fuel prices rising nearly 50 percent since January.
Despite the dollar economy and high growth figures, the country has high levels of social inequality.
Economic troubles have led to fuel shortages in some parts of the country and stalls at food markets in the capital have run out of produce.
“Politicians are the biggest thieves,” said another protester in Aguadulce, 41-year-old housewife Mitzila Chanis.
“But it’s also part of the fault of people who keep choosing scammers, scoundrels and liars… They are. While eating ham, people have nothing.”
To calm the mood, President Laurentino Cortizo has announced price cuts for fuel and some food, but the unions dismissed the measure as insufficient and refused to take part in negotiations scheduled for Thursday, mediated by the Catholic Church.
“The social explosion we are witnessing is not the result of an isolated event or short-term increases in fuel and food,” ex-President Martin Torrijos said on Friday.
“It’s the accumulation of neglected claims… and an apparent deterioration in the quality of life of Panamanians,” he added.
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