The former heads of State and Government members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), aware of the unconstitutionality lawsuit filed against the presidential candidacy of José Raúl Mulino after it was admitted by the Electoral Court on March 4 of 2024, stated on April 3 that they support his candidacy.

After the disqualification of Ricardo Martinelli, who was convicted for the “New Business” case and is seeking asylum in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama waiting for safe conduct to leave the country, the plenary session of the judges of the Electoral Court approved that Mulino was the presidential candidate for the Realizing Goals and Alliance parties.

Furthermore, the Attorney General of the Nation, Javier Caraballo, stated that Mulino’s candidacy is not unconstitutional after he was consulted by the Supreme Court of Justice, where the claim of unconstitutionality was admitted.

“Respectful as we are of the autonomy and independence of justice in countries where democracy and the rule of law govern, we see with deep concern the tendency to prevent or restrict the right to political participation in some countries in the region and the exercise, for this purpose, of undue political pressure on the administration of justice,” indicates the statement from the former presidents.

In the statement, the members of IDEA recalled that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, to whose criteria they adhere, has clearly said that “the effective exercise of political rights constitutes an end in itself and, at the same time, a fundamental means that “Democratic societies have to guarantee other human rights.”

The group recalled that citizens should not only enjoy rights, but also “opportunities.”

These opportunities imply, the group indicated, the obligation to guarantee with positive measures that every person who is formally the holder of political rights has the real opportunity to exercise them.

“And, in cases of sanctions permitted by law, they can only be restricted when there is a conviction, by a competent judge, in criminal proceedings, definitively final and “in which the judicial guarantees enshrined in Article 8 of the American Convention should have been respected. “, expressed the statement in its final part.

IDEA is made up of:

Mario Abdo, Paraguay

Oscar Arias S., Costa Rica

Rafael Ángel Calderón, Costa Rica

Alfredo Cristiani, El Salvador

Vicente Fox, Mexico

Federico Franco, Paraguay

Eduardo Frei, Chile

Osvaldo Hurtado, Ecuador

Luis Alberto Lacalle H., Uruguay

Guillermo Lasso M., Ecuador

Mauricio Macri, Argentina

Jamil Mahuad W., Ecuador

Carlos Mesa G., Bolivia

Lenin Moreno, Ecuador

Mireya Moscoso, Panama

Andrés Pastrana, Colombia

Jorge Tuto Quiroga, Bolivia

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez E., Costa Rica

Álvaro Uribe V., Colombia

Juan Carlos Wasmosy, Paraguay