Marta Linares de Martinelli Complaint About Rómulo Roux

The National Directorate of Electoral Organization of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) released a resolution on March 28^th where they admitted a complaint against the Democratic Change party and its presidential candidate Rómulo Roux, for the un-authorized use of the personal image of Marta Linares de Martinelli in electoral propaganda.  In the complaint, the former first lady’s legal team alleges that her personal image was used without her authorization in a political advertisement scheduled for March 27^th 2024, at the time the presidential agricultural debate was broadcast in the media.  In addition to the image of Mrs. Linares de Martinelli, the reported propaganda also uses images and the voice of former President Ricardo Martinelli in a walk taken during the 2019 electoral campaign when he was a candidate for Mayor of the Capital District.

This propaganda, Alma Cortés points out in her argument, has “the clear and intentional objective of confusing the electorate, to make them believe that both her client and Mr. Ricardo Martinelli sympathize and support the candidate Rómulo Roux, which constitutes a negative campaign to the detriment of presidential candidate José Raúl Mulino “.  The Electoral Court indicated that the complaint presented by Alma Cortés, lawyer for Mrs. Marta Linares de Martinelli, could qualify within the prohibitions to which electoral propaganda is subject, since it meets the minimum admission requirements.  Therefore, the highest electoral body decided to admit the complaint against the Cambio Democrático party and Mr. Rómulo Roux for the unauthorized use of personal images in electoral propaganda and demanded a digital copy of the denounced electoral propaganda, a copy of the sales invoice for the propaganda, along with the sworn statement of the person responsible.