After 36 days no agreement on second phase of talks

After 36 days of talks in the Penonomé between social groups and the Executive which resumed on Thursday evening  no agreement has been reached on how to move to the second phase to include other players who are demanding seats at the table.

The dialogue took place Wednesday, without the presence of the Eastern Bastion of Chiricano, who left the table Sunday, alleging breaches in the agreements on the basic food basket.

On Thursday, they returned to the negotiations, with new proposals on point 1 of the agenda that was discussed a month ago, related to the basic basket.  

Meanwhile,  representatives of the 150 organizations grouped together in the so-called Great Alliance for Panama, hope to be called for the constitution of a “national table”, as they argue that the Penonomé dialogue “does not represent the majority of the country”.

On Saturday, August 13, the Catholic Church team stressed the need for the dialogue to enter a second phase and  announced that its role as “facilitator” would now be that of “observer”. ”.

On Wednesday, August 24, the Church, still in its role as facilitator, insisted that phase one of the “dialogue for Panama” be closed, in  to begin establishing the methodology of integrating  other players.

“This cannot go on forever,” said Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa, upon resuming the sessions on Wednesday

“We are not going to stay here until September, October or November,” said Ulloa, who reproached that, since the dialogue table was installed on July 21, “each of us takes our minute of glory and we want to expose many things that do not go to the point of what we have to do… But people expect very concrete things to find solutions to the reality that the people are experiencing”.

But, to date, the table continues to turn on issues that have already been addressed. Some say that the Government has failed to comply with agreements. The Executive’s spokesmen assure that they are fulfilling the demands of the table and, in some cases, have recognized their failures.

Every time the Catholic Church makes a call to the table to make the proposals concrete and indicates that it is necessary to go to the second phase, the social groups shudder reports La Prensa and on some occasions, announce possible actions on the streets.