By: International Agencies
Panamanian singer-songwriter and activist Rubén Blades criticized this Monday that the strikes and protests that have been taking place for more than two weeks in Panama, according to him, do not point to the corrupt political system “that morally and economically destroys” the country.
In a letter, the artist and former Minister of Tourism believes that the “demonstrations and public disorders” promoted by union and trade union groups have been “mistakenly” classified as a “display of virtue and civic awakening.”
The strikes and protests “are not an example of the anger of a people tired of being abused by their rulers, nor are they an expression of tiredness and civic criticism in the face of political corruption. (…) the people have not demanded what in What we really need: the replacement of the corrupt and outdated political paradigm that destroys us morally and economically,” Blades said in a statement.
The claims presented by those protesting at negotiating tables with the Government of Laurentino Cortizo “are of an economic nature, demanding subsidies, freezing food and medicine prices, and demanding salary increases that help in these difficult times.”
Blades reflected on the fact that “despite the fact that the deep crisis” in Panama “requires more complex solutions, the complainants have not raised the need to eliminate and replace the prevailing system, the political clientelism and the inoperative administrative structure that The real cause of the conflict has not been pointed out.”
“The reality is that we live under an administrative paradigm that has institutionalized corruption, created laws that immunize and protect corrupt public officials, with a damaged Legislative and Judicial system, acting in consortium to protect and sustain the continuity of the evil that controls the country”.
It is “‘status quo’ guarded by the indifference and complicity of an electorate with more than 1,700,000 registered voters as clients of the partyocracy, and another 30% or so of ‘citizens’ who don’t even give a damn about voting much less become part of the solution to the problem”
Not even the Panamanian “version” of the left, which dominates the main unions and social organizations that promote the protests, has considered, in Blades’ opinion, “an administrative structural change (…) Imagine how fucked up the pod is in Panama if not even the ‘communists’ are seriously interested in coming to power”.
It is because of this context that Blades considers that this chapter will end “as always”, with a government that “‘in order to preserve social order and meet the just demands of the country,’ will incur new debt and leave it to the next, giving the complainants what that they ask for”.
“People will go home, the streets will open, and ‘order’ will return, that state of affairs which also includes and defines constant partisan attrition, perennial lost opportunity, continued public insecurity, consistent mediocrity and the eternal trap of ‘play alive’ and ‘pass me something'”, Blades pessimistically expressed.
The blockades of various roads in the country, which have caused shortages of some food and fuel in urban centers, continued this Monday in Panama, when one of the two union alliances broke agreements reached on Sunday with the Government that included stabilizing in 3 $.25 per gallon (3.78 liters) of fuel.
95 and 91 octane gasoline and diesel are currently selling for more than $5.20, $4.79 and $4.74 a gallon, after topping $6 weeks ago.
The rise in fuel is attributed to the rise in food, medicine and transportation in Panama, a country considered the third most expensive in the Americas, according to a recently published international survey.
