Central America: May 1 Marches Protest Neoliberalism In Panama http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

Central America: May 1 Marches Protest Neoliberalism In Panama thousands of workers marched on May 1 to oppose the neoliberal economic policies of President Ricardo Martinelli’s government, which they said was seeking to "take the workers back to the labor conditions of the 19th century.”

They protested an increase in prices of staple goods, an increase in consumption taxes, government plans for labor “reform,” and a law which imposes prison sentences of up to two years for blocking traffic during protests—an effort “to stop the unions and to criminalize social protest,” according to Mariano Mena, director of the National Coordinating Committee of Organized Workers.