Who is really in charge of Panama’s cabinet?

In June 2020, the president had no problem removing the Minister of Health from his cabinet, despite being key to facing the pandemic and doing a job that received praise, both locally and abroad. However, his courage to remove officials from his Cabinet ended with Rosario Turner, since he still maintains as ministers two people who have proven to be –both in their private businesses and in public management– incompetent. The case of the Minister of Public Works is the worst: he does not solve anything and is an obstacle to the development of infrastructure works and maintenance of the national road network. There has never been so much laziness and incapacity in that position. The complaints against him are endless, and given the lack of initiative of this subject to fulfill his duties, citizens already resort to insults. Meanwhile, the president – or whoever supports him in the Cabinet – remains indifferent to the growing wave of criticism. And the same thing happens with his partner, the Minister of Facilitation of Private Investment, who only serves to travel and squeeze the state coffers since we do not see that he has achieved anything. Given the evidence, the only thing left to do is ask who really is in charge of the Cabinet. – LA PRENSA, Jan. 25.