Agriculture producers plan four front Varela denunciation
Simultaneous protests announced by agricultural producers for January 11 will be concentrated in four points nationwide says a body which brings together some 29 organizations across the country.
They are protesting what they see as broken promises of President Juan Carlos Varela to develop plans to stabilize the marketing of agricultural products
The protest locations are La Chorrera, Divisa, David and Azuero and they come a week before the first major influx of World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims and world media outlets.
Aquiles Acevedo, coordinator of the United for Agro Movement said that in this demonstration the disagreement that the sector has with Varela will be made public. On August 16, 2018, the president promised to hold a meeting to evaluate the measures aimed at stabilizing the market of agricultural products in general.
In a statement, agricultural producers said they regret that after the violent events in Divisa, on December 18, President Varela “has not issued his reflections, much less called them to a meeting.”
They said that “for this reason, they will return to the streets to demand the first public servant (Varela) to fulfill his duties.”
The different Panamanian agricultural organizations are exhorting the country’s producers to participate in the demonstration on January 11, at the closest concentration point to their residences.
The dialogue between the producers and the government was broken on December 18, after confrontations in Divisa when 11 producers were arrested. Currently, eight of them face charges.
