Panama President Mulino on SUNTRACS Leader Saúl Méndez’s Asylum: “They’re evaluating that, but I don’t know anything else.”
SUNTRACS union leader Saúl Méndez has requested asylum and took refuge in the Bolivian embassy in Panama in the early hours of Wednesday, May 21.
On Thursday, May 29, President José Raúl Mulino briefly addressed the request for political asylum submitted by Saúl Méndez, leader of the Single Union of Construction and Similar Workers (Suntracs), to the Bolivian government. When asked by reporters about the matter, the president stated: “They are evaluating that, but I have no further information,” suggesting that he has not received any additional information or official details about the process. Méndez took refuge in the Bolivian embassy below in Panama in the early hours of Wednesday, May 21.
According to reports, the union leader jumped the diplomatic gate, knocked on the door, and handed a note to the chargé d’Affaires, Carlos Javier Suárez Cornejo, requesting political asylum. That same day, the Second Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime issued arrest warrants for Méndez and other Suntracs leaders, including Genaro López, also the union’s former general secretary. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the arrest warrants are for alleged crimes of aggravated fraud, money laundering, criminal association, document forgery, and malfeasance. To date, the Bolivian government has not issued a formal statement on whether or not it will grant the requested asylum.
