CEP calls for transparent and honest dialogue between social groups and the government

Deeply concerned about the social, economic and political situation in the country, the Permanent Committee of the Panamanian Episcopal Conference (CEP) spoke out through a statement in which they assured that “we are not oblivious to the pain of the communities where we live, particularly we are witness to their permanent impoverishment as a result of increases in the basket of food, fuel, and medicine.”

The CEP stated that although it is not easy to speak of dialogue at a time of tension and heated tempers, this is the only way that opens the way to seek, through negotiation and appropriate decision-making, the solution to conflicts. As long as it is an honest, transparent and coherent dialogue.

For this reason, they exhorted the Government and all the social actors to look for new channels of recognition of the human rights of all, that allow us to transform our institutions; search for better political and economic practices, and move urgently towards a human, comprehensive, supportive, equitable and sustainable development, overcoming the fundamental root of all problems, which is the mixture of unjust inequity with the social exclusion of the popular majorities and the social cancer of corruption at all levels (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel 60).