Thumbs down on Varela trip as key issues mount

The Constitution was the key discussion on the TVN Under  Radar program on Sunday, May 13.

President Juan Carlos Varela made a call to discuss the convocation of Constituent Assembly. and has decided to travel as issues pile up.

If approved, Panamanians in less than a year would have to choose 60 people to reform the National Constitution.

How much would they change is not known.  Who would be the Constituents and what would be the selection process? is not known. Would it affect the Panama Canal? The payment of taxes? is not known.

What is known is that Varela failed to fulfill his electoral promise, to convene an assembly during the first two years of his government. A consensus indicates that the current Constitution, created in 1972 during the military dictatorship, has a  presidential character and needs reforms.

“There seems to be no doubt that it is necessary to reform the Constitution. The discrepancy is about the methodology and timing, “said former Foreign Minister Jorge Eduardo Ritter. “Why now and not before?”,

Varela proposes that the Constituents be elected as part of the general elections on

May 5  2019. This would facilitate logistics for the Electoral Tribunal to be ready for the elections but would load the selection process with political rhetoric. It takes calm to take the big decisions about the future of our Magna Carta, not to do it in the heat of the campaign, said Ritter.

Salvador Sánchez, Vice Minister of the Presidency said  “there will be other opportunities, but it is the one we have now. The position of the Executive judgment but now is the time to remove the bad  teeth

“It’s never a good time to remove your teeth, but the day before the wedding is the worst moment,” replied the cardiologist and columnist, Daniel Pichel. The doctor believes that the right thing to do first is to make a popular referendum on whether Panama wants a reform of the Constitution, similar to the one made by   Colombia on the peace agreement with the FARC, and then start the process of selecting the constituents, preferably in a less politically charged moment.

“First a diagnosis must be made, then the treatment,” said lawyer Jaime Raúl.

Molina, from the Libertad Foundation. “A process of constitutional reform cannot be done to the brave.”

Varela began the process of consultations amid an environment charged with clashes between the Executive and the National Assembly. Political scientists have speculated on relations with the rejection of candidates for the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) proposed by Varela.

Meanwhile, Varela is on a trip to the UK, while the construction strike heads for week 5 and Balboa cranes have been stopped by another strike. A weekend poll shows that  some 85 percent of Panamanians think his trip along with  that of the vice-president is unnecessary