On a seperate note, I’m prtty sure I cam up with the term “Varelaleaks”. Check my old archive when I was opining on his relations with China. Oh well, didn’t copywrite it.   JB

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/nacional/230803/martinelli-cuestiona-sistema-judicial-sugiere

Confident and confident that he will win the Presidency of the Republic in the general elections on May 5, 2024. This is how the presidential candidate of the opposition Realizando Metas (RM) party, former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, appears and looks.

In a meeting with members of the Editorial Board of the GESE Group (El Siglo-La Estrella de Panamá), in front of journalists from both newspapers, the former president told something about his beginnings in politics, his differences with former president Juan Carlos Varela, the crisis of the Social Security Fund, a future law of the right to be forgotten and its problems with justice. Although he is fully convinced that he will be on the 2024 ballot, he is very confident of being able to transfer his votes to his running mate or running mate, if justice were to disqualify him. “Honestly, the more they torment me, the higher I rise,” he emphasized.

Martinelli recalled his beginnings in politics and his rapprochement with the then Solidarity party, going through the creation of the Cambio Democrático (CD) party, with which he reached the Presidency of the Republic in 2009 and of which he was a founder, but of which he no longer is part.

Martinelli-Varela Alliance “was not formed by the United States”

Slowly and with his fixed gaze, he recounted one of the most important episodes of his political career and it was his meeting on January 20, 2009 at the US embassy (in the ambassador’s residence), which was also attended by Juan Carlos Varela, who He also aspired to the Presidency of the Republic.

“We both asked ourselves the same question: ‘Do we make a deal now? Or we understand each other later’. And the proposal from both was: ‘Let’s go to the little room next door and let’s talk!’ . We went to the little room and that alliance was made. Nobody formed it, the United States did not form it, that was an alliance of the moment of two people who had affinity. I bought liquor from Varela and sold him molasses, there was an affinity between the two. Varela was my best friend, he was a person I trusted. One sometimes makes mistakes, but one’s mistake is that sometimes one believes that reciprocity is mutual, and if it is not mutual, the actors hide it very well; I’m going to tell you the truth, I didn’t realize it!”

Martinelli and his doubts about the electoral system

The former president also recalled his doubts about the triumph of Juan Carlos Varela in the 2014 elections. “I saw the decision as very strange and we went to the Electoral Tribunal and a ‘lerolé’ was formed and everyone was in shock (…) He said that it was impossible for Varela to have won.

I make an analogy, because it is important because of what is happening now. At that time, Mimito (José Domingo Arias, CD presidential candidate) was never above Varela, and in the election of Rómulo and Yanibel [In the recent CD primaries] Yanibel was never above Rómulo and we waited until we counted the last Capira’s vote was 85% in favor of Yanibel. That worried me at that moment, as it worries me at this moment and it worries me in the future here in Panama”.

“Here all the parties have to be very attentive, have their juries and save their TER (Electronic Transfer of Results) because truly, as happened to me at that time, I had my doubts […] It could be that there is something improper. I’m not saying there will be,” she said.

Concerned by the designation of Varela as corrupt

Martinelli also said he was concerned about the recent designation of Juan Carlos Varela as corrupt by the United States.

“The Americans designate him as corrupt as vice president and as president. I am very worried about him, because I am sure that he is a very unstable person, believe it or not.”

Question the judicial system and ask for a law on the right to be forgotten

For the ex-president, after being extradited from the United States to Panama, due to the process of the ‘puncture’ case, “it is that they begin to invent 23 cases, including that of “New Business” which he calls the “most ridiculous case in the world ” and later the Odebrecht case.

“There I begin to see how perverse the Panamanian judicial system is. When one enters that judicial grinder, one never leaves. You are dead, there is no way to win because this system is made not to work. It is won at the lower level, but the prosecutor appeals, it goes to the High Court and if it is won in the High Court, the prosecutor can go to cassation. The system in Panama is made so that you go to the grinder four or five times, before you prove or prove that you are innocent or guilty, ”she explained.

He also considered that in Panama the law of the right to be forgotten should be approved. “Here no newspaper or media outlet should have publications (for more than five years) (…) that such a person did, he said, ran over him, whatever. You cannot penalize an individual for life,” he proposed.

“Three times they tried to kill me.” Get ready! More ‘Varelaleaks’ are coming

He also referred to his imprisonment in the El Renacer Penitentiary Center, once he was extradited from the United States. He remembers that when he arrived he asked where former General Manuel Antonio Noriega was held and they told him the place. “No, I don’t sleep there. My spirit comes out ”and he chose to sleep in the dining room.

“By the way, there they tried to kill me three times, Juan Carlos Varela, the head of the Security Council and Rolando “Picuiro” López and God knows what other people. Every night I thought they were going to kill me,” he recalled.

“Once they didn’t want to take me out when I had heart problems. On another occasion they did take me out of the National Hospital loaded, at two in the morning, by order of Varela. On another occasion they put a snake under my bed to bite me. I had set a mouse trap (glue trap) and a patoca snake stuck there”. And he launched: “There is a portion of that in the ‘Varelaleaks’. That’s where they told me that nine more months of ‘Varelaleaks’ are coming. So get ready for what’s coming.”

Constituent becomes more valid

The ex-governor in the same way spoke of the proposal of various political sectors and civil society that ask for a constituent assembly to change the Constitution.

In this sense, he replied that this argument of the constituent is becoming more and more valid if the situation in the country continues to deteriorate, although for now, he does not seem to be convinced to apply it, if he were to be elected again as President of the Republic.

“It becomes more valid – I’m not saying that I’m going to do it – whoever becomes President has to do it at once because if he doesn’t do it at once, it won’t be done.”

He maintained that he is a faithful believer that a government with a large majority can make the changes, as long as it is widely agreed upon by society and that in that discussion there are “the fewest number of lawyers possible, with all due respect.”

Five presidents rule in the ‘Nito’ government

He also referred to the current government and maintained that as a businessman he has a different vision from that of a politician, and mentioned a phrase from the philosopher John Locke whom he quoted: “The best government is the one that governs the least.” After that he questioned the management of Laurentino Cortizo. “The problem with this government is that they have five presidents: Nito Cortizo, Gaby Carrizo, Benicio Robinson, María Eugenia López and Roy Cortizo.”

“María Eugenia López (current president of the Court) is a very important factor in the power structure, justice is used here to persecute those who oppose it. Let’s not be deceived, there is a lack of checks and balances here. […] I tell you one thing, what has happened to me, I don’t want it to happen to Varela, ”she said.

Crisis in the CSS

Regarding the crisis in the CSS, he stressed that the problem of this entity is more serious than many imagine, although he said he believes that it can be fixed without taking parametric measures. “Because here nobody dares, but ask Macron and ask Ortega. What I want to say is that nobody takes measures to adjust the retirement age, because here there will be great unrest in the streets. The generation of jobs is the key to this and the only way to generate jobs in this country is to have a justice system that works and that justice and the law are the same for everyone.”

‘I don’t even know Gabriel Carrizo’

Regarding his possible conversations with the presidential candidate of the PRD and current vice president of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo, or with the presidential candidate of Cambio Democrático, Rómulo Roux, for a possible alliance, Martinelli denied any type of rapprochement with them.

“First of all, I don’t know Gaby Carrizo, I’ve never seen him or talked to him. I do know Rómulo Roux very well, he is a very intelligent guy, but he is a guy who has other weaknesses and qualities that really make me doubt a lot, but I prefer not to talk about them because I have not come here to speak ill of any of them. they”.

“That they all unite, I win them all together,” he exclaimed.

Next pact with the Alianza Party

Martinelli also alluded to the future candidate of RM for the Mayor of Panama. “It is a position that is subject to alliances, the one who scores in the polls is Chello Gálvez. I left him free, those positions are used for alliances. In fact, I am signing with the Alianza Party of José “Pepe” Múñoz, on the 13th of this month of August an alliance.

Sure to transfer his hard vote to his running mate

Faced with a possible judicial decision that could disqualify him from being the presidential candidate of the Realizando Metas party, Martinelli believes that there is a policy of the PRD government to condemn him and “of many other people.”

“It is what is best for the government politically speaking. But I have the advantage that my vote is so hard that I can transfer it. My vow is so hard, that I transfer it, and if they make me more of a martyr, I will transfer it more”.

When asked why he did not transfer those votes to José Domingo Arias in the 2014 presidential election, in which Arias was defeated by Varela, Martinelli responded. “No, but if I did not support Mimito, he pushed Marta aside. Forget about it, each political campaign is different. Honestly, the more they torture me, the higher I rise,” he repeated.

He ruled out announcing who his partner or running mate will be for 2024. “He is a person very close to me, I do reserve that for myself.”

Martinelli: Did you hear my voice say, vote for Yanibel?

In the same way, he distanced himself from the support he would have given to deputy Yanibel Ábrego, who was defeated by Roux in her intentions to become CD’s presidential candidate, in recent primary elections.

“You saw me campaigning for Yanibel… (yes) on the last day. I only went the last day and if memory serves me correctly I just raised my hand and kept quiet […] You heard my voice or an article or a tweet saying vote for Yanibel ”, he replied.

He was also reminded of the meeting with a group of CD deputies and deputy Ábrego herself in a local restaurant, and if with her presence she was endorsing her support for Ábrego. He immediately replied: “But those deputies are mine, if all those deputies answer to me. […] I did Yanibel, who do you think supported her when she ran as an independent, I supported her”?, he exclaimed .

Martinelli’s meeting with members of the Editorial Board of the GESE Group is part of a program of meetings that will be held with all the presidential candidates. The candidate for the PRD, José Gabriel Carrizo, has already visited this newspaper.