Juan Carlos Varela Panama’s next President

JUAN CARLOS VARELA leader of the Panameñista Party, who trailed in third place in the polls throughout the election campaign, and was the target of many personal attacks, and smears, was elected as the next president of Panama on Sunday May 4.

President Ricardo Martinelli whose wife Marta  was the running mate of CD candidate, Jose Domingo Arias, did not accept defeat gracefully, saying in a speech to shocked supporters that the election was unfair as all the opposition parties attacked the CD. He accepted Varela's victory, but declined to congratulate him.

The CD campaign was widely believed in Panama and in opinion forming publications around the world, to be an attempt by Martinelli to continue to hold the reins of power with his wife as Vice President and Arias as a tame mouthpiece, before making a new bid for the presidency in five years’ time.
Varela, a 50-year-old engineer is the current vice-president of the Panameñista party, a center-right organization which had an alliance with the Christian-based Partido Popular (PP).

The CD campaign became the focus of accusations of dirty tricks master minded by soon to be gone Tourism chief Salomon Shamah. The party was also attacked for using government funds for the campaign, and President Martinelli was condemned for "campaigning" for Arias, and appointing his wife as a vice-presidential candidate while she still served as th country's First Lady.

They were political mistakes that came back to haunt them.
There are 215,657 registered Panameñistas, making it the country's third-largest party, and 21,506 members of the PP.
Relations between President Ricardo Martinelli and Varela who formed a coalition government in 2009 quickly began to disintegrate soon after taking power when Martinelli reneged on a pre-election agreement that would have had Varela as the coalition presidential candidate in the current election, Relations continued downhill, and 26 months after the alliance was formed Varela was sacked as Minister of Foreign Affairs and the alliance split. To maintain control of the Assembly, many deputies were enticed to jump ship, with allegations circulating of bags of money changing hands, and the distribution of sinecure appointments, in one case re-instating the fired daughter of a defector to the post of head of the Cultural Institute (INAC).
Martinelli is not silent when it comes to insulting Varela, whom he calls "bottella" for accepting the salary as vice president but not working. Varela has countered that he donates his salary to charity reports La Prensa.
Martinelli also accused his family business Varela Hermanos – producer of Seco Herrerano – for not paying the minimum wage and sued him for damages for calling him corrupt.
Varela chose as his running mate Isabel St. Malo de Alvarado, 45.
St. Malo built her professional reputation as a specialist in public policy, and had never before sought office or joined a political party.
Social service and public policy have been in the genetics of Juan Carlos Varela from his adolescence thanks to the training he received in the Jesuit Colegio Javier and the education from his family.
The president-elect has been identified with the Panameñista party since the age of 14, when he attended a ceremony in Chiriquí¬ to honor party founder Arnulfo Arias Madrid, who returned to the country after 10 years of exile in the United States and Mexico.
In 1985, at 22, he returned to the country with an engineering degree from Georgia Tech. Motivated by the civil wars in Central America, he became committed to social work.
Just six years later, he was named as one of the 27 major directors of the Arnulfista Party – the former name Panameñista party – that was his first position with the group.
Over time, his status in the party fluctuated as he had disagreements within the leadership, such as one with former President Mireya Moscoso.
However, in 2006, with 15 years experience in the party, he ran for president of the collective and became its youngest ever leader at 42.
He ran for president in 2009 after receiving the support of 99 percent of his party in an internal primary. But everything changed five months before the election when Varela agreed to run as vice president in an alliance headed by the CD candidate, Martinelli.
Varela is the youngest of five children and is married to journalist Lorena Castillo, with whom he has three children.
Meanwhile the PRD presidential candidate, Juan Carlos Navarro, whose nomination as candidate led to friction within the party, came in third after a lack luster campaign, with allegations circulating  of his cosy relationship with Martinelli.