Electric power agreement with Colombia

WHILE MEDIA attention was focused on the fate of former Colombian Spy chief María del Pilar Hurtado during the Friday meeting of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, and Panama President Juan Carlos Varela, there were more substantive discussions especially an agreement to reactivate the power interconnection project between the two countries and to strengthen cooperation on security, tourism and trade.

Referring to Hurtado, granted “political” asylum by Ricardo Martinelli in 2010, a decision recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, as she was wanted for criminal offences, Santos said: “”In Colombia there is no political persecution. My government does not prosecute anyone for their ideas; on the contrary, my government is a democratic government that likes to stimulate debate, difference of opinion, that’s part of the essence of democracy,”
President Varela said of the extradition request for Hurtado reiterated by the Colombian president, that Panama would act according to the country’s laws and existing agreements between the two nations.
He said that the whereabouts of Hurtado “is not known at this time by our authorities.”