Rody Rodríguez Questions City Council About Being Afraid to go Against Panama’s Mayor.
Pictured below is Rody Rodríguez Olmos, representative of Parque Lefevre. The representative of Parque Lefevre questions the handling of funds by the Mayor’s Office of Panama, a $560,000 party and a $2 million allocation for pedestrian crossings, and denounces a ‘toxic little room’.
Rody Rodríguez Olmos, the local representative for the Parque Lefevre district in Panama City, has publicly criticized the Panama City Council for being submissive to Mayor Mayer Mizrachi, claiming that other council representatives are “afraid to go against the mayor”. Rodríguez, an independent-leaning representative from the Movimiento Otro Camino (MOCA) party, has been one of the most vocal opponents of Mizrachi’s administration. His latest criticisms focus on what he describes as a lack of democratic debate and oversight within the city’s municipal government:
- Lack of Fiscal Oversight: Rodríguez denounced the lack of open debate within the Finance Committee, claiming that multi-million dollar projects and budget modifications are being fast-tracked using “notorious urgency” clauses without giving council members adequate time to review or inspect them.
- Questionable Spending: He has specifically scrutinized major allocations under Mizrachi’s administration, including $560,000 spent on end-of-year festivals and a $2 million budget for painting crosswalks (pasos de cebra). He questioned why these high-cost projects are prioritized while basic community infrastructure, like public swimming pools, remains underfunded.
- Political Retaliation and “Toxic Room”: Rodríguez has accused the mayor of weaponizing decentralization funds and public works allocations. He claims Mizrachi is intentionally reducing investment in Parque Lefevre as political “payback” for his opposition. Additionally, he exposed the existence of an alleged non-transparent decision-making group, which he termed a “toxic room” (cuartito tóxico).
- Expanding Police Powers: Rodríguez was also one of the initial opponents against the mayor’s initiatives to expand the scope and armed capabilities of the Municipal Police.
While Rodríguez argues that his fellow representatives are compromising their oversight duties out of fear of losing community funding, other council members and the mayor have historically dismissed his aggressive approach, urging him to focus on policy arguments rather than personal political attacks.
Rody Rodríguez Olmos, representative of the capital district of Parque Lefevre, opposed from the first moment the proposal with which Mayor Mayer Mizrachi brought to the Municipal Council of Panama new functions for the Municipal Police. “I am not going to support a project, no matter how good it may seem, that has not been widely consulted,” he told the mayor that day, according to his account.
