Panama’s hidden shame

There are no successful countries when there is a population in a state of extreme poverty. Panama has had an outstanding economic trajectory in the last decades. At the same time as the logistics infrastructure of the country was completed, the gross domestic product increased significantly. Although we are the jewel of Latin America, our indicators of multidimensional poverty are alarming. Almost 33% of the minors in the country are in extreme poverty, and when the local situation is analyzed, we have a Dantesque panorama: 81% of the children of the Emberá Wounaan comarca, 95.4% of the Ngäbe Buglé and 99.3% of those of Guna Yala, live in this condition. Although more than half of the poor of Panama are outside the regions, The concentration of such extreme poverty in these communities should motivate a radical rethinking of the public policies of the Panamanian State. The sanitary, educational and productive management for the original groups maintains a historical lag, which almost seems more a charitable action than the full deployment of the public goods and services that they deserve. The indicators of multidimensional poverty studies hardly reveal the surface of the problem. More and better statistics and corrective measures are needed to avoid more misery in the districts and in the most vulnerable populations of Panama. that almost looks more like a charitable action than the full deployment of the public goods and services that they deserve – LA PRENSA, Mar 10