Yes, it has no military - so no military coup likely. Yes, the elections seem fair, and the handoff of power seems to function well, too. (not like lately in the US!)
But…
The understanding within the population of how democracy works is very - hm - “immature”!
At this time, there’s a repeat of the problems we had last year, when the indigenous blocked the interamerican highway, and every organization who wanted something joined in. At the end there were plenty hoodlums among the blockaders, who simply saw it as easy way to make money: charge those who wanted to pass a few $, and turn these funds straight into booze…
After 5 (!) weeks, finally, the road opened again and the blockaders returned to their homes and jobs.
That situation last year pointed at a big problem that Panama has, that’s made up of three facts:
- firstly, almost all the fresh food is produced in Chiriquí, the western most province close to Costa Rica.
- Secondly, the gasoline enters the country in Colon - a port on the caribbean coast, about an hour north of Panama City.
- And thirdly, the only connection between Chiriquí (plus Bocas del Torro, the touristy caribbean coast) and the rest of the country (including Panama City) is the interamerican highway!
Well, Panama has one single road connecting the whole country. And when that road is blocked for whatever reason, no fresh food gets to the eastern provinces, and no gasoline gets to Chiriquí and Bocas!
I though, the people learned something from that experience last year. Everybody in the country was suffering!
But, apparently they didn’t suffer enough to learn the lesson!
About two weeks ago, the union SUNTRACS - Syndico Unico Nacional de Trabajadores de Industria de Construcción y Similares - played sorcerer’s apprentice and called their members to block access to all ports and airports until their demands are met. They also invited and encouraged all other organizations to join their protest. Now, everybody and their grandmother is back on the streets blockading amongst other things the interamerican highway. That includes the indigenes of the mountains between east and west. And, as last year, there is no fresh food in the eastern provinces including Panama City, and there is no gasoline in Chiriquí!
The people in Panama do not understand the difference between protests - a great tool within a democracy - and riots. Protests are a firm, strong but peaceful message to the country’s leaders. What they are doing is violating everybody’s freedom to move, and removing everybody’s access to food and gasoline. Basically, those who are trying to move about for whatever reason are kept hostage at wherever spot they got stuck on their journey!
Yes, there are no burning cars, (almost) no clashes between police and protestors, no shots fired, no people killed.
For now, at least.
Last year showed, that as the mess drags on and some people’s livelihood start to get seriously challenged, emotions start to flare up. Last year we saw several incidents where fights broke out between blockaders and blocked folks.
I heard of one incident, where a pickup truck broke through a blockade driving over some blockaders who tried to prevent them from getting ahead by staying in front of the car. The driver said the blockaders started destroying his car and he got afraid of his life, so he pushed through, trying to get away from the angry mob.
Let’s see how much longer until we start seeing such violence again…
The initiators of the protests did an excellent job in spinning the situation in a way that everybody now believes it is a matter of defending the country against a foreign power who’s trying to create a situation similar to the american occupation of the canal zone. That was such a big issue to the panamanians, and it cost several people’s lives to get the US to leave. Anything that looks even remotely like a similar situation gets everybody to see red.
The sorcerer’s apprentice SUNTRACS called upon the indigenous spirits, now these spirits can’t be quiescenced anymore. And the regular population happily joins in, waving flags of the country, holding signs “for our country. for our future”.
Just like in the US, ignorance and lack of education of the general population makes this a very, very difficult situation to resolve. People don’t have the ability to understand the bigger pictures. So they don’t understand what those who do understand are trying to explain to them.Granted, those who do (or should) see the bigger picture do an as poor job in explaining as one can do! But, nobody wants to listen anyhow, it seems, as everybody is drunk of the “our country is in grave danger” coolaid the populists have fed them…
You can’t get blood out of stone. But if people don’t understand (and don’t want to understand!) what a stone is, there’s not much hope! Is there?
I am very curious:
How this will develop and eventually end?
When will normalcy return to our tranquil life? (we already can not offer all we usually offer at the restaurant, as produce isn’t to be found. And as it drags on it’s going to get harder and harder to offer anything except pepperoni pizza).
And what are the overall casualties going to be? (the canadian mining company lost 50% of its value within a week. How do they continue? How badly will the loss of the majority party be in next year’s election? Will the president step down? How much will the tourism industry decline due to people no longer considering Panama as a safe destination? Will the number of new foreign retirees decline? How much will the safety rating of the country for foreign investments decline? And probably many more factors, that I haven’t even thought about or noticed yet…)
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