Diethylene glycol victims block highway demand to see president
Patients affected by government distributed syrup poisoned with diethylene glycol, from the provinces of Panama, Colón, Coclé, Herrera, and Los Santos, closed the Inter-American Highway at Divisa on Friday, October 22, to claim the certifications of those who were affected by the substance. Similarly, to demand the presence of President, Laurentino Cortizo.
The protesters blocked the four sections of the road, causing a huge traffic jam.
Briceida de Trejos president of the Committee of Relatives and Victims for the Right to Health and Life (Cofadesavi), chapter of Los Santos, assured that they will wait as long as necessary for President Cortizo, in order to attend to their requests “If we have to stay here until dawn then we are going to dawn,” he said.
He said that the government has given them many promises but “they have not been kept.” “We are told that in a month or two everything would be ready [the certifications] and it was a lie,” he lamented.
De Trejos recalled that these patients have waited 15 long years and to date, they have not been certified. He indicated that at the national level about 1,200 people are waiting for this certification, of which only 215 people are part of Cofadesavi.
