Panama, for some years, has lived between a democracy and a civil dictatorship, but the balance has been leaning dangerously towards the latter. From the Executive to the Legislative, governments are governed in collusion, without the separations required by the Constitution. In addition, the popular will –expressed in all its forms– is completely ignored by these two State bodies, which effectively do what they want, without being accountable to anyone, because even the Comptroller's Office has become a vassal institution, directed by an official who has completely disarmed it before the established powers. Bills without any citizen support come out of the Executive – such as, for example, the one that repeals the Transparency Law, which will be replaced by the law of obscurity, or the law that approves the new mining contract – to be approved by the deputies, regardless of the consequences, ignoring the popular clamor or without even reading and understanding its content. They serve only as pawns on this political chessboard with which the Executive and the Legislature play. Little by little they have seized the sovereignty of the people to manipulate it at will and measure, trampling on every vestige of democracy that we have left. Even when! -- LA PRENSA, Sep. 5.