Panama is the latest country to implode due to rising inflation and recession, though the country’s president is only making matters worse by imposing Marxist/socialist ‘solutions.’
According to reports, what started as a simple teacher’s strike against the high price of gasoline has blossomed into the largest civil unrest in the country since the end of dictator Manuel Noriega’s reign of terror in 1989.
Citizens have erected fiery roadblocks on major highways that, in turn, serve only to disrupt deliveries of food and other commodities, thereby worsening shortages. And while the Panamanian government has entered a new round of talks aimed at placating the masses and avoiding further destruction, already the damage has surpassed $500 million and counting, according to Voice of America.
The America 1st Twitter account noted in a post containing video clips of the violence and unrest, which includes smashing a police vehicle: “Panama is heating up (literally). They are protesting corruption and high prices.”
President Laurentino Cortizo in June made two major moves in a bid to end the unrest, but what he did has actually worsened the situation, so the unrest has only spread.
On June 11, he ordered wider subsidies to include extending a freeze on gasoline prices to all consumers, limiting the price to $3.95 a gallon, or 24 percent lower than the price was by the end of June. In addition, he pledged more price caps on 10 basic food items including beef loin, pasta, vegetable oil and canned sardines.
But of course, artificially capping prices never works because it forces companies to take losses on their products, which in turn, either puts them out of business or forces them to produce less so that their losses are limited. Either way, both cause increased shortages and more unrest.
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