Unions To Engage in Single Dialogue Table With Gov. in Panama

Early Tuesday morning, the Catholic Church of Panama, acting as mediator, announced that the organized groups involved in nationwide protests would meet with government representatives at a single dialogue table starting this day.

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The decision comes after the People's Alliance, the Alliance of Native Peoples, and the National Alliance for the Rights of the Organized People (ANADEPO) joined to dialogue with the Government of Laurentino Cortizo on the cost of fuel, the basic food basket, medicines and the fight against corruption.

According to a communiqué from the Archdiocese of Panama, the single table will begin this Tuesday in the Coclé province. Still, details about the specific time and place were not disclosed.

The communiqué says that "given the emergency situation suffered by our populations, both in the countryside and in the cities, we encourage all participants in this dialogue to show goodwill and to build consensus in a climate of peace, with social justice and the common good at the center."

Communiqué #5 They accept SINGLE TABLE for dialogue. The United People for Life Alliance, the National Alliance of Organized People (ANADEPO), the organized groups in the Ngöbe-Buglé region, and the Executive Branch agreed to participate in a SINGLE TABLE for dialogue.

Besides, a press release from the Presidency of the Republic said that the Government would attend the single dialogue table. This emerged from the failed agreement between the Executive and ANADEPO, signed last Sunday, in which it was agreed to freeze the price of fuels.

ANADEPO leaders rejected the partial agreements recently signed between the Executive and other social forces, also fighting in the streets against the increase in fuel, food, and medicine prices and demanding a general wage increase.

The groups that make up these social movements said that protests continue in several parts of the country and that the closures are maintained at different points of the Inter-American highway in Chiriqui and East Panama.