Panama's PRD: Between Refoundation and Decline

This implies the strengthening of the Party's institutions so that it can reclaim the true essence of Politics and help distinguish and position the permanent political times of party life from electoral times. It is necessary to grant expeditious passage to strategic discussion to enrich the country project we want to build, the updated program to achieve it, and the capacity to govern without improvisation. Reality is surpassed by the events unfolding in Panamanian society and in the world. There is no clear position on national and international policy, let alone in the face of the agenda imposed by the current government: the reform of the Social Security Fund (CSS), mining, the Indian River dam, the creation of a prison society, and the submission to the designs of the current US leader, which drags us into fields where we have nothing to do and makes us a target for its enemies. At the same time, a great movement for democratic transformation emerged, whose content was largely determined by the degree of organization, mobilization, and demands of the popular majorities, which was embodied in a doctrine capable of guaranteeing the nation's development and the dignity of sectors excluded from the benefits of economic growth. The PRD is called upon to reclaim itself before the urban and rural workers, women, youth, professionals, the unemployed, and the retirees, who are its true social bases. This demands the training and preparation of cadres in the sciences and methods of government, based on a theory for action, as well as a conscious identity of being Panamanian and of what the country has been and is. The enormous challenges pose new demands to so-called democratic institutionalism and challenges to political leadership, due to the concept of citizenship, which promotes new forms of government and state through a more participative, inclusive, effective, and efficient democracy, in which individuals participate directly and actively in decision-making processes on matters of interest to their community, thus freeing themselves from the obstacles and restrictions of institutions. A new leadership is urgently needed, based on ethical, humanist values, and a culture of peace. The historic patriotic and sovereign struggle allowed for the desoligarchization of political power. The postmodern political leader must be brave, with courage to lead, with a vision for the future and to persevere in it. 47 years later, we quote the Torrijist foundation, not as a way to capitalize on his memory and leadership, but as a methodology of direct, responsible, participatory involvement in national life. Flags wave in front of the PRD headquarters. Bayano digital reproduces in this section the text of a communiqué signed by base sectors in the Caribbean province of Colón concerned about the present and future of the social democratic Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), in the context of the complex economic, social, and political reality facing the Republic of Panama: 47 years after the party's founding proposed by Omar Torrijos and after the defeat of May 2024, it is debating whether to refound itself and reclaim Omar or succumb to the decadent empire, neoliberalism, and the unpatriotic oligarchy. Three contexts point the way forward. It is necessary to practice politics "with a capital letter", through the following points: Characterize the Party in the current situation. Foundation of work, organization, and training. Design a Work Plan or Program. Become the true political, social, and economic alternative for the country. Structure territorial mobilization. All Torrijists and base members of the Revolutionary Democratic Party have the duty to integrate a force committed to the task of renewing the Party. "If one day the PRD becomes the hope of our adversaries, it means... the homeland is in danger". Omar Given in the district of Colón, on March 9, 2026. For the foregoing, there is no room for more internal sectarianism, caciquism, clientelism, atomization. On the one hand, there are two who do not want to leave the current obsolete leadership structure, away from the program, often outside the statutes and even the declaration of principles. The Third Context proposes the need to refound the Party in its declaration of principles, program, and statutes to adapt it to changes in the national order and those developing in the world with multipolarity. Refoundation understood as the recovery of our roots and historical accumulation. The true function of a leader is not to impose his will, but to promote agreements to achieve collective interest objectives, through transparent and participatory processes.