Varela wont answer political donation accusations

ACCUSATIONS linking President Juan Carlos Varela and the Panamenista  Party  to Odebrecht bribery are part of

of political attacks and he does not intend to respond to them he said on Friday, December 7.

He made the statement following the December 6 move by Pedro Miguel González, Secretary General of the opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party, to ask the Public Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation against Varela, after seeing a report that indicates that the Panameñista Party would have received alleged donations from the Odebrecht company.

Varela said that he knew that by delivering the Colón urban renewal of project and “the successful trip to China” he would receive political attacks.

“They think that by attacking the president they will win the next elections,” he said

He added that he  had already warned in Colón on December 4, that  he would answer all political attacks against his figure as president “ by delivering  to the Panamanian  people the works to which he committed

“If I   answer to answer political attacks, I become part of a campaign” in which I don’t belong because “I am already president of the Republic,” Varela said in statements to the media during a  Mothers Day tour.

Open books
He reiterated that he and his political party answered on the Odebrecht issue and that their books are open.

In a Public Ministry  investigation on September 4, which was part of the probe  by the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office of  the payment of bribes by Odebrecht to Panamanian officials and individuals, Jaime Lasso Del Castillo indicated that “$700,00 were donated to the Panameñista Party and I understand that they were also reported for the candidacy of the vice president in the 2009 elections (…)”