Trump Org., approach to Varela lacking ethics
President Varela has been advised to stay out of a dispute between the Trump organization and the owners of the hotel complex that once carried the name of the U.S. president after a law firm sent him a letter asking him to intervene.
The reaction, to what was seen as interference in the Panamanian State on Monday, April 9 was swift with civil society representatives questioning the actions of the firm acting on behalf of the Trump Panama Hotel Management, LLC.
The president is asked to ignore what they consider a measure of pressure that affects the legal security of the country, reports La Prensa.
The outcry came after Trump Panama HotelManagement, LLC., through its Panama attorneys sent a letter to Varela, with copies to the Minister’s heading various portfolios in which they asked him to interpose “his good offices” to prevent the damages derived from the process attributed to the Panamanian State “for a clear violation of the protections of the international investment treaty. “
The letter followed the decision of the Second Civil Court took on March 5 permitting action which ended up stripping society Trump Panama Hotel Management of the administration of the hotel complex.
The word “Trump” was removed from the hotel, which was renamed The Bahia Grand Panama.
Former Panama Comptroller Alvin Weeden told La Prensa: “it is inconceivable” that a Panamanian law firm wants to exert political pressure in a purely judicial case. “The Trump Organization does not have to be confused with the political issues between both nations. It is a great impropriety and an act outside of moral foundation […] I do not see the linkage that there may be politically no matter that Donald Trump is president of the US “, He said.
Weeden suggests that Varela ignore the letter. “It is an attack and a violation of national sovereignty national that must be rejected, “he added.
The political scientist and internationalist Carlos Guevara Mann calls the letter “inappropriate” and considers that it is not correct for the lawyers of the society that operated the hotel, in Punta Pacifica, to try to interfere with the Panamanian Government in the matter.
He also asks the Government to ignore the letter and appeals because the Judiciary, should resolve the controversy in accordance with the law and absolute impartiality. “That is how legal security is guaranteed, not asking for the interference of the Executive in matters that are not of his competence, “he added.
Lack of ethics
The businessman and founder of La Prensa, I. Roberto Eisenmann, pointed out that this is another manifestation of conflict of interest and a “total lack of ethics of the President of the United States, who added,” has not separated from his business and from it long trajectory of dark operations .”
The outgoing president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, Inocencio Galindo, acknowledged that the parties are free, within their legal strategies, to advance the arguments that have a good, but made the reservation that in terms of pending proceedings “the separation of powers” must be maintained
Héctor Cotes, president of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives, agreed with Galindo on the separation of powers. “This is a commercial dispute between two private entities, in which any difference must be resolved in the spaces of arbitration considered in the contract signed between the parties, “he added.
The law firm Britton & Iglesias, which representing the Trump Panama Hotel Management, LLC., Sent a copy of the letter to the heads of other branches of the State and several authorities, including the vice president and chancellor Isabel de Saint Malo, who confirmed having received it. But the chancellery said the document was sent to the Vice Ministry of International Negotiations of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (Mici), as being “a purely commercial” subject “It’s about differences between two companies, a case handled by the Judicial Branch. It’s not a bilateral issue between governments and much less political.”
Mici, said it will not comment on the issue, “since it is a dispute between two private parties”.
Others who refrained from commenting were the Attorney General, Kenia Porcell and Administration Attorney, Rigoberto González, also received a copy of the letter.
The law firm Britton & Iglesias rejected in a statement sent to La Prensa: “Any assumption or assertion that the letter sought to pressure the President”.
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