Panamas Foreign Minister replaced

 PANAMA’S FOURTH Foreign Minister since the present administration took office has quit or been fired, depending on which source you have access to.

AFTER only 11 months in the job, Fernando Nunez Fabrega told media on Friday, January 31, that he made a deal with President Ricardo Martinelli, to stay in office for a year but the trips he had to make as Foreign Minister influenced his decision to step down. "It would be folly to tempt fate at my age,” he said. “I have good health, but I am a man past retirement age."

However, Foreign Ministry sources reported that Martinelli had dismissed Nunez Fabrega because he was unhappy with his work says La Prensa.
" I want to go Abroad , I have my house , I have my dog, I want to live in peace and tranquility, and for you to forget me ," the 71-years-old economist told local media.
During the Martinelli years he also served as head of the Executive Secretariat National Council of Transparency against Corruption [Today Authority Transparency and Access to Information] and served as governor of Cocle.
At the end of the afternoon, and when the news of his departure had already been released by La Prensa and social networks , the Ministry of Communication of State rushed to issue a statementa reporting that President, Ricardo Martinelli , had accepted the resignation of Nunez Fabrega .
His 11 months in office were plagued by controversy. In mid-December, the president of Ecuador , Rafael Correa, called him " insolent " for claiming that Ecuador was holding a drug carrying vessel under the Panamaian flag as pay back for the failure of an extradition request for Galo Lara, an ex-legislator. Convicted of involvement in murders. Nunez Fabrega was also in crossfire with the Panama Canal Authority, over a fine of $ 500,000 for the North Korean ship Chong Chong Gang, caught trying to smuggle weapons without permission.
He did not attend the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which took place this week in Cuba. The event led to a tense exchange of words between the delegations of Panama and Cuba over inclusion in the draft of the final resolution of recognition of the deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Francisco Alvarez De Soto, who served as the government’s deputy foreign minister, will take over the post, making him the fifth foreign minister under Martinelli; Earlier were: Juan Carlos Varela, Roberto Henriquez, Romulo Roux and Fernando Nunez Fabrega.
De Soto is a lawyer who was deputy foreign minister between 2011 and 2013. Previously he was Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.