Sour Rating for President Torrijos in Panama

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Panama are unhappy with the performance of Martín Torrijos, according to a poll by Unimer published in La Prensa. 61 per cent of respondents think the president has done a bad or very bad job leading the country.

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 Jun. 20, Torrijos announced that the government will spend close to $40 million U.S. in energy subsidies in order to stem rising inflation mainly caused by the price of fuel. The president said the program will be in effect for the next six months, and concluded: "We cannot predict how much more oil prices will increase."