Interesting commentary: Give it a read before elections.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/nacional/230704/saul-mendez-discurso-cortizo

 

After a year of the biggest social outbreak of the post-invasion era, the demands of popular organizations are still on the table.

Saúl Méndez, general secretary of the Single Union of Construction and Similar Workers (Suntracs), said that the Executive “never complied” with the agreements made to face the high cost of living. He recalled that the demand for the fuel subsidy was only partially met.

The issue of food and medicine has not been met, and the electricity rate was increased a few months ago, said Méndez, who was part of the table set up in Penonomé.

The union leader was on the “Cover” of La Estrella de Panamá this Monday, where he pointed out that some business groups have “boycotted” the agreements by “manipulating” the food and medicine market.

“You have to see the blackmail of the employers, here there was a criminal act that the attorney general has refused to investigate,” denounced Méndez. He maintained that the companies caused “shortage” and “adulteration” of products, as in the case of rice.

“Economic power and political power are one. In the end, they close ranks so as not to take the steps that are required to put an end to these abuses and arbitrariness,” he said.

He explained that the social outbreak was a sum of demands from heterogeneous sectors such as teachers, transporters and indigenous people who in the end came together under a common agenda.

The union leader acknowledged that the live broadcast gave visibility to the speech of figures from social organizations, such as the teacher and current candidate for free application Maribel Gordón.

For Méndez, this projection facilitated the opening of the debate on oligopolies and “mafias” in sectors such as energy and medicines that make life more expensive for the population.

Méndez also analyzed the speech of President Laurentino Cortizo last Saturday, when he presented a report to the nation in the National Assembly. He said that the president is divorced from reality.

“He portrayed a country that is not exactly the one where the majority of Panamanians live. All the unsatisfied demands of the population is what distances Cortizo’s speech from reality,” Méndez said.

He questioned that the president still speaks of the pandemic as a “justification” in the face of “everything that has not been done” in his administration.