Panama, a country of 4 million people, has historically maintained a fairly stable service-based economy that uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency. That has practically made inflation a non-issue in recent times. Now economists put inflation around 4%, which is significant but well below some other countries in the region, such as Mexico, where it is around 8%.
Protesters say the basic goods necessary for Panamanian families are more expensive.
Indigenous groups from western Panama, among the country’s most impoverished, joined the teachers’ protest as have workers from Panama’s powerful construction industry, who called for a protest Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the government asked protesters not to block buses that use the Pan-American Highway moving migrants who enter Panama from Colombia to the border with Costa Rica so they can continue their journey north. On Monday, buses that tried to cross roadblocks were damaged by protesters, though the government said no migrants were injured.
Early Tuesday, construction workers temporarily closed a main access route to the capital, while thousands of teachers marched to the National Assembly.
