The celebration of the first year of the Solidario program - with live music, stage and dance - took place on the night of Wednesday, March 24, at o Atlapa convention center, where bags of food are assembled and then distributed to citizens affected by the health and economic crisis has been widely criticized.

It was attended by some political high rollers whose missteps have led to the squandering of millions of dollars.

President Cortizo visited Atlapa to personally congratulate the volunteers who have worked in the program. He expressed that, in the midst of the pandemic, Panama Solidario has complemented the subsidy program of the National Government, which exceeds the sum of $1.6 billion and that "has not stopped being paid."e0

"The beauty of this plan has been the more than 6,700 Panamanians, most of them volunteers who have been packing and distributing these bags of food throughout the country for a year," said the president

Until last March 21, the Panama Solidarity Plan has delivered 6,688,280 bags of food, and 2 944, 440 vouchers; and has accredited 8,249.68 digital vouchers, which have benefited 1,332,653 people, for an amount of  $830,140,640, according to the Government.

The criticism came when videos began to circulate on social networks about the celebration, in which the Vice President of the Republic and Minister of the Presidency, José Gabriel Carrizo, and the Minister of Housing and Land Management, Rogelio Paredes, among others, are appreciated. The artistic presentation was in charge of the Panamanian musician Osvaldo Ayala.

Minister Paredes assured that "it was not a party" that took place in Atlapa, although he admitted that at the end of the activity, he danced "for a few seconds." He questioned that in social networks it was implied that it was a party. "A party was not called, but rather an award ceremony," he said.

 Jean-Pierre Leignadier, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama, criticized what happened at the convention center. “We are living in an unprecedented socio-economic crisis. Thousands of lives lost, businesses closed, jobs, children without education. What are they celebrating? Here we all have to work and the public sector  has tomake real sacrifices. We reproach and refuse to act as authorities in Atlapa ”, he wrote on his Twitter account.

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