Crisis deepens in Panama National Assembly

The deputies of the Credentials, Ethics, Internal Regulation and Judicial Affairs  Committee of the National Assembly are preparing to process 15 complaints, 11 of them against magistrates of the Supreme Court (CSJ), three others against the president, Juan Carlos Varela, and one against the vice-president of Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado.

The analysis of these files from Tuesday could aggravate the crisis between the Legislature  and the Executive, and could even be extended to the Judicial Organ since in the Court there are still several legal actions in which the legality of the law is questioned,  reports La Estrella de Panama.

The current Credentials  Committee is presided over by Fernando Carrillo, of Cambio Democrático (CD)

Neither the Panameñista deputies nor the President of the Republic recognize the current Committee and await a decision of the Supreme Court that still has not ruled after having spent a month of dismantling the Commission of Credentials Committee presided over by the Panamenista deputy Luis Eduardo Quirós.

“There are two credentials commissions and we have to define which one will be left, before that candidates for Supreme Court  will be presented, “said President Varela before leaving on a trip to Jordan.

The president said that after Holy Week there will be “positive news … of conciliation, consensus, dialogue.”

Although the President, has not publicly shown his intentions to accept a mediation of the Catholic Church in the face of the tense political situation between the Executive and Legislative organs, it seems that the Church, through some emissaries, has asked the president to seek mechanisms to resolve the existing crisis.

Panama will be host  in 2019 of the World Youth Day (WYD), so the leaders of the Catholic Church ask for an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, both before and during this world religious event.

The president of the National Assembly, Yanibel Ábrego,  has already been informed by the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa, of his willingness to sit down at a dialogue table.

The president of the Credentials Committee  Fernando Carrillo, of the Democratic Change party, said that on Tuesday  the analysis of the cases will begin to respond to the citizens who filed the complaints and who are waiting for justice.

He reported that three complaints were filed against President Varela last week. “We have to activate ourselves to prevent there being a repression of these cases,” said Carrillo.

Panameñista deputy José Luis Varela, brother of the President described as a “coincidence” that a week after having installed a new committee, ‘crazy’ complaints began to arise

Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, feels confident that, after Easter, the Supreme Court will make a decision in favor of him and his party.

Breakdown
He said that the president wants to win with a judicial maneuver what he cannot with the votes in the National Assembly. “Everything indicates that he intends to exercise all the pressure mechanisms to guarantee a majority on July 1 ,” And he warned that if there is no national understanding, President Varela will lead the country to an unprecedented confrontation in the post-invasion phase, which could culminate in the breakdown of the constitutional order