Panama on verge of imploding – Torrijos

PANAMA  is on the verge of an implosion said former president Martin Torrijos on Monday, November 19 adding his voice to that of the Panama Chamber of Commerce which a day earlier had said the country was near a failed state.

Torrijos whose administration  (2004-9) preceded Ricardo Martinelli blamed the crisis on the  “Martinelli-Varela binomial”, with a decade lost due to the confrontation.

“We are reaping what has been sown for ten years. It has been a decade where the constant has been confrontation, uncertainty, shocks. The country really needs us to reach a degree of agreement, and certainty and where we can have stability, “he said.

According to the Torrijos, whose reign in retrospect seems like an oasis of tranquility with the round-the-clock-construction of the original Cinta Costera,-  and the  initiating  of the canal expansion  and  decision to end the reign of the diablos rojos the  most  lasting images, tolerance has been lost, nobody knows what to expect and there is a kind of uncertainty in the absence of leadership by the current administration and the different scandals in all the organs of state.

Torrijos said that the country is “on the verge of implosion” because so many elements have come together: “the corruption scandals, questions about justice, and confrontations with the National Assembly.

He described the situation as “a model that expired ” and the government has not moved to replace it.