Unofficial official acts as government negotiator in $100 million deal

A PROPOSAL to allow multinational Del Monte that will allow it to control banana production in Baru, Chiriqui, for seven years with an investment of $100 million has to go in front of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile concern’s have been raised about the role of a lead negotiator who previously resigned over nepotism reports.
Negotiations to seal the agreement lasted more than a year and a half, as producers of the banana region disagreed on providing the land to the multinational.
Del Monte said it required a solid legal backing to enter the country, which is why the National Assembly must endorse the deal.
Jaime Alemán, nephew of Minister of the Presidency Álvaro Alemán, was at the forefront of an inter-institutional team of negotiators, but his exact role was never clarified.
Documents which shared information between the company and the government name him as a “ministerial adviser,” says La Prensa.
On August 31, 2014 he presented his resignation as Executive Assistant to the Ministry of Presidency due to nepotism concerns.
But he has been linked to the negotiation that the government initiated with Del Monte since the beginning of 2015.
For area farmers, who in 2012 received plots of one hectare to work land abandoned in 2003 by Chiquita Brands, Jaime Alemán was part of a second level of the government commission in the first stages of negotiation.
His uncle was not recognized as part of the negotiating group, reports La Prensa.
The Office of the Ombudsman does not list Jaime Alemán as holding any public office.
Apathy
Alexis Morales, one of the representatives of the producers in the area, said that “there was a company wanting to work and produce and an apathetic government. Yes, Jaime Alemán led [the Commission].”
Some producers have not been happy about how the negotiations have unfolded, and a number of them closed the Pan-American Highway on April 13, 2016, to demand more information.