Varela moves to fire errant Canal directors

A CALL  from the director of Panama’s Transparency and Access to  Information body (Antai) for the removal of two delinquent directors from the board of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)l has spurred President Juan Carlos Varela to finally take action.

He announced on Tuesday, April 3 that the Cabinet Council that he would analyze the “steps to follow” for the removal of  Henri Mizrachi and Nicolás Corcione.

“We can not have two directorships of the Canal in suspension “, said Varela, adding that the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, Salvador Sánchez, will submit a report of the legal procedures to be followed

to remove the two directors of the Canal. Varela’s long postponed announcement comes after Angelica Maytin the director of Antai asked him to remove Mizrachi and Corcione from the ACP for violating duties and functions within the entity.

Maytin supported her request with the fact that Corcione and Mizrachi have missed the meetings of the ACP directive on 73 and 52 occasions, respectively.

Both are under investigation by the First Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime in the New Business case, related to money laundering transactions to buy the Editora Panamá group America, S.A. (Epasa), presumably with public funds.

Corcione has fled the country and is the target of an Interpol Red Alert.

The letter sent by Maytin points out that the product of their “evident administrative incapacity” and based on Article 20 of Law No. 19 of 1997, organized by the ACP, both directors must be removed.