Aged and sick return to Panamas streets
The promised return to the streets of Panama’s jubilados (retirees) came , Thursday, April 14,. on time at 10.30 as promised.
They were protesting lack of promised action by the government, even after a face to face meeting with President Ricardo Martinelli.
Around 50 independent retirees closed streets adjacent to Plaza 5 de Mayo to demand an increase to pensions.
The demonstration brought traffic to a stop including buses.
Demonstrators claimed that Martinelli, "lied a lot, so much that we lost count.
Earlier in the week patients and relatives of people affected during the massive blocked diethylene glycol poisoning scandal that killed at least 156 blocked traffic for over three hours in front of the Social Security Hospital on Transistmica.
Gabriel Pascual, spokesman for the Committee for the Right to Health and Life, said the protestors were asking more and better care for those poisoned by the government supplied medicine.. "We demand respect for the victims, " he said.