End of a political honeymoon

POLITICAL  HONEYMOONS   tend to be short lived once elections are over and promises have to be replaced by performance.

The “Panama Spring” following the election of Juan Carlos Varela was a time of hope that the threads of corruption that carried through successive administrations were about to be snapped.

As one after another of the high rollers in the Martinelli administration were brought under the spotlights and their blatant theft from the public coffers exposed, there was hope  that change had really arrived.

But now,  the rose colored spectacles of Panama voters are misting over as they view the tortoise like deliberations of the administration, and its turning of a deaf ear to calls from the civil groups that helped bring it to power.

The justice system is still widely believed to be riddled with corruption starting with the Supreme Court (CSJ), and trickling down to the lower echelons. The belief that the leading players in the years of infamy from 2009 to 2014, including the Great White Shark will ever pay the price for their sins is disappearing faster than a coima in the hand of a traffic cop.

The cozy relationship between the CSJ and the National Assembly continues with the seemingly implicit agreement that if you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you, and “impunity” is writ large on the blindfold of the Goddess of Justice”

Lower down the scale a credit union employee who let $5,000 stick to his fingers was sent to the La Joya hell hole for six years. The 99 (and counting) thieves would have to outlive Methuselah to serve time, matched to their rapacity.

Meanwhile the fog   of overseas corruption hangs over the administration and the assembly who, like illicit lovers, close the blinds and bolt the door when an investigator approaches

Now Varela, is being severely challenged by Panamanians following a  Dichter & Neira survey commissioned by TVN Noticias.

In May 2015  Varela, who took office in July 2014,  had a 66% approval rating  By April this year it was 46%.

He’s not been alone in receiving significant declines in performance assessments.

Some 50% of participants considered the government’s record “bad” and 46% gave it a pass..

Maybe the Canal expansion extravaganza with its self-praising speeches will restore some of the shine but spending the $4 million plus   price tag on fulfilling promises on health care and education might have done more

The honeymoon’s over and the separation is only two years away.