Clouds over wannabe guardiansof Panama’s wealth

WITH ITS founder sitting in a Miami prison cell and a host of its leading lights awaiting trial on charges ranging from embezzlement to money laundering, the Democratic Change (CD) party. riven  by internal fighting far beyond disagreements on  policy, is scrambling to position itself as the main opposition party in the 2019 elections.

The date for the renewal of the Board of Directors is scheduled for January 21, 2018,  and with the party split between “dissidents”  and “loyalists”, the knives are already out.

It took three attempts but on  October 15, more than 2,000 people were elected to select the new directors.

Among the 2,000 are names that will be familiar to anyone who has followed the tortuous path of Panamanian justice as lawyers pad their wallets using every trick in the book to delay trials on charges related to  Odebrecht bribery, or straightforward robbery from the public coffers via programs like  PAN, where National Assistance became personal featherbedding.

Among those  seeking a place on the board of a  party whose idea of change was to institutionalize  self enrichment, is Riccardo Francolini, who as President  of  the State Savings Bank, told the  institution’s board to grant a loan to an  insider construction company because “the boss” [then President Ricardo Martinelli] wished it.

Within the party, there are loyalists closest to Martinelli and dissident deputies who question   acting president Alma Cortés, herself facing self-enrichment charges.

Despite the differences and his prisoner status in a Miami jail, neither of the two factions dispute the leadership of Martinelli, who until now has been the only president of the  party he founded to further his political ambitions.

His sidekick and mouthpiece , Luis Eduardo Camacho, has said that Martinelli will seek re-election.

Camacho claims  that all internal conflicts are the product of skullduggery by President  Juan Carlos Varela to remove Martinelli from the CD,.

Alma Cortés, who has been the head of the collective for months as president in charge, has become the  worm in the  CD apple with her  way of handling the group questioned by the dissidents.

Now she  has criticized on Twitter the participation of Marta Linares de Martinelli, wife of the jailed leader ,in a meeting with party leaders in Santiago. The Cortés’ Tweet  included  a photograph of Linares de Martinelli with Roux and other party luminaries..

Cortés claims she  received “hundreds of discomforts and even strong criticisms” of  the participation of Marta Linares as it  generated confusion among party leaders

Linares de Martinelli replied to Cortés that she was invited to a meeting in Santiago, where her husband grew up  and  she attended at the invitation of her brother-in-law.

You  will see me with all the candidates for president of the CD,”  she wrote. putting  the infighting in the context of a family squabble.

Meanwhile the criminal charges  against those aspiring to regain control of the coffers, count for naught.