Businessmen call for coalition to face Panama crisis

The Panamanian Association of Business Executives (Apede) has called  for the creation of a ‘citizen coalition’ to confront the  country’s ‘institutional crisis following revelations of  alleged  blackmail of Supreme Court judges  to manipulate the wiretapping trial of ex-president, Ricardo Martinelli,

The business body summoned its Board of Examiners and, after the meeting, determined that the crisis is “deep”, following the recent statements of Attorney General  Kenia Porcell.

The crisis, they say, calls for the formation of a citizen coalition that demands the restoration of the country’s institutions reports La Estrella.

The prosecutor informed the country on Monday that the president of the Court, Hernán De León, told her in a private meeting at the Attorney General’s Office on July 30 that the trial against Martinelli for alleged political espionage “is going to fall’.

Porcell said that De Leon told him that he had been recorded, and was on a list of 5,000 people whose communications had been intercepted.

Apede warned that the institutional crisis shows a fracture of all the State Bodies that constitute the Republic, so it must address not only the immediate economic problem but work at the same time on the permanent solution to the institutional problem that undermines the viability of the democratic system.

Meanwhile The National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP) agreed to take concrete actions that lead to safeguarding the rule of law,

“We will try to achieve a coalition country with the organized and representative sectors that guarantee structural changes that lead us to once again have confidence in democratic institutions,” said the business association, which declared itself in permanent session.

The  Panama Chapter of Transparency International,(TI) said that the very serious situation facing the Administration of Justice., “is added to a long list of irregularities that have completely eroded citizen confidence in the institutions of justice.”

TI said  that the scandal that involving  the prosecutor and Judges De León and José Ayú Prado, cannot be faced by the Judicial Organ since it lacks the necessary integrity and ethical structures