Panama Globe-trotting President Under Fire

PANAMA PRESIDENT  Juan Carlos Varela is facing increasing criticism as he continues his globe-hopping trips on the presidential jet while the country is seen as being in the midst of an institutional crisis.

Since the beginning of the year, he has been abroad for 27 days, and on his Easter weekend return from Jordan announced planned trips in April and May to London, Israel, and Palestine.

Between January and March, he made five trips to different parts of the world while the country was submerged (still is) in one of the most tense conflicts between the organs of the State reports La Estrella de Panama in a lead article.

Three of the trips were made with the Vice President of the Republic, Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, leaving the country in charge of the Minister of the Presidency Álvaro Alemán. Why was it imperative that the president and the vice president travel together to fulfill these agendas? asks La Estrella.

The last trip to Jordan completed the fifty trips since he took office as president.

In the midst of presidential assignments outside of Panama, one of the most delicate tensions consisted of the appointment of two new members to the Supreme Court of Justice.

When the National Assembly rejected the two candidates proposed by the Executive, on January 30, the president was thousands of kilometers from Panama, in Davos, Switzerland, participating in the World Economic Forum says La Estrella.

Despite the issue still on the agenda, the trips continued. The magistrates who should have left office in January continue to sit in the same chairs until they are replaced. There seems to be no hurry on the part of the Executive to comply with these designations.

Three years ago he had to appoint the replacement of [jailed] former judge Alejandro Moncada Luna, whose deputy, Abel Zamorano, still acts as principal. Moncada Luna has already fulfilled two-thirds of his sentence for falsifying public documents and illicit enrichment. The Court granted him freedom, however, his replacement has not been named.

Martinelli touch?
When Varela traveled to the United States to attend to family matters, Judge Marcia Cooke granted and suspended the bond she had granted to former President Ricardo Martinelli, pending his extradition to Panama. The defense of the ex-leader associated Varela’s trip to the decision of the judge, although the relation was merely like a rumor reports La Estrella

In mid-March, the province of Colón erupted in protests and looting. On the 20th, Varela traveled to Costa Rica to participate as a speaker at a business meeting.

While in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, accompanied by a large government delegation, the conflict between the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Justice for the dissolution of the Credentials Commission intensified despite Judge Zamorano’s decision against the legislative position.

The opposition won a comfortable legislative majority that allowed it to recompose the forces of this Commission that was formed after a suffrage with a secret ballot.

Unaware
The most recent trip to Jordan was made at a time when the Democratic Revolutionary Party was warning about “a possible breakdown of constitutional order”. Pedro Miguel González, a deputy who promoted the new conformation of the Credentials Committee, met with different organizations such as the National Bar Association, the Confederation of Organized Workers and other formal business groups, to explain the institutional crisis.

According to the politician, Varela does not know that there is an institutional crisis and does not want mediation. He exerts his pressure to achieve the will of the majority of the deputies of the Assembly. The outcome of the crisis, according to the PRD, could end with the breaking of the constitutional order.

Carlos Lee, from The citizen’s Alliance for Justice, analyzes the presidential sloppiness on crucial issues as if the president did not have the capacity to solve the critical problems that affect the population and the political crisis.

Because of the way the president has governed, Lee believes that it is not the way to solve the problems of the community. “Starting with corruption issues and reforms that are the major claims made by the population, by his actions it does not seem that this will be taken care of during his mandate,” he analyzes. “We have spent three years asking the government to resolve the issues of corruption, one of its campaign commitments, to transform the institutions that represent the power of the social organizations that involve a constituent, assembly which were electoral commitments but have not been part of his work plan,” Lee said.