Panama’s voiceless president as chaos looms

Four people have died amid 19 days of protests but the last time Panamanians heard from President Cortizo was two weeks ago when he proposed a moratorium law on metal mining and a popular consultation on the future of Law 406.

Since then, there have been events that have claimed the lives of protesters and a wave of violent murders including that of PRD member and representative of Belisario Frías, César Pelé Caballero. In addition, there has been damage to property, cessation of economic activities, suspension of classes, strikes and shortages of medicine, fuel, gas, and food throughout the country or in some provinces reports La Prensa.

The Foundation for the Development of Citizen Liberty -The Panamanian chapter of Transparency International (TI), -considers that it is imperative that the Cortizo Government “restore social trust” and not allow “the constitutional order to be broken.”

“A change of direction on the part of the Government is urgently required to recover peaceful coexistence, restore the social fabric, and maintain the democratic order that allows the elections to be held in 2024,” says a statement issued by the foundation suggesting to the Government take action.

“No society can function without law and order. The painful loss of the lives of three citizens, as well as the multiple effects that have occurred, are tragedies that could have been avoided and that now wait for justice to do its job,” says TI.

It insists that there are groups that try to “create national chaos to break the constitutional order and that should not be allowed.”

The foundation also proposes that Cortizo remove from public positions officials accused of acts of corruption and initiate investigations.

“The Executive must assume its responsibility within this crisis and recognize the damage caused,” the movement points out.

Therefore, they request that the Ministers of Commerce, Federico Alfaro, and the Environment, Milciades Concepción, make their positions available. They consider that the resignation of both facilitates the investigations that the Public Ministry must carry out, following complaints “for violation of the duties of public servants, environmental crimes and other types of criminal offenses” that the movement has filed since 2021.

Likewise, they urged the president to generate rapprochements to establish a humanitarian mobility schedule, which allows the free transit of food, medicines, medical personnel, fuel, and people with urgent needs.

They ask citizens to wait for the Court’s ruling, with the public commitment that if a ruling is not given within a peremptory time, the Executive will call the National Assembly to extraordinary sessions to define the future of Law 406. The Assembly is on recess until January 2, 2024.

On Saturday, some roads in the country remained closed, despite the fact that the National Police managed to open several points.

One of the closures that has most affected the country is that of the province of Chiriquí, the region with the largest food production.