Torrijos Keeps Steady
Rating in Panama
(Angus Reid Global
Monitor) - Public
backing for Panamanian
president Martín
Torrijos has remained
stable this month,
according to a poll by
Dichter & Neira
published in La Prensa.
51.1 per cent of
respondents say Torrijos
has done a good or
excellent job in leading
the country, practically
unchanged since
February.
Torrijos—the son of Omar
Torrijos, an army
general who ruled Panama
from 1968 to 1981—won
the May 2004
presidential election as
a candidate for the
Revolutionary Democratic
Party (PRD) with 47.44
per cent of the vote.
In 1999, Panama regained
full control of the
Panama Canal, the source
of 10 per cent of the
country’s Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). In
October 2006, Panamanian
voters supported the
canal’s $5.25 billion
U.S. expansion
plan—which would add a
parallel set of locks to
allow giant cargo ships
to pass through the
waterway—in a nationwide
referendum.
On Apr. 18, Torrijos
urged political parties
in Latin America to
focus all their efforts
towards alleviating
social inequalities and
poverty, saying, "The
challenge of political
groups lies not only in
the system, but in
establishing new
objectives and a vision
in favour of fairness,
social justice and the
equality of our
countries to recover the
confidence of our
citizens."
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