Varela names wall that must be built
THE TRUMP organization committed an error in writing to President Juan Carlos Varela requesting his intervention in a dispute over the control of a Panama luxury hotel that once carried the Trump name.
Experts say the move flagrantly mixed the business interests. and government of the president of the United States.
While in Peru to participate in the Summit of the Americas, which Trump missed, Varela told The Associated Press (AP) that he does not believe Donald Trump intervened directly in the sending of the letter and said that he does not feel pressured to get involved in the resolution of the lawsuit.
He said that he first became aware of the missive from a newspaper headline
Without specifically mentioning the American president Varela said that it is important that public officials clearly separate their private interests and those of the population. “That is a wall that must be built,” he said.
“You have to put aside your private interests and focus on the interests of the country”.
The letter from a Panamanian law firm on behalf of the Trump company Trump arrived at the office of Varela and ministers of other state organs after months of a bitter dispute over a hotel in Punta Pacifica and provided a palpable sample of the kind of conflict that experts feared could happen when Trump refused to disengage from his vast empire of hotels and other interests said AP.