Martín Torrijos, the son of Omar Torrijos, founder of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), could face an expulsion process for running with another group and attacking the interests of the party.

In addition to Torrijos, the same formula would apply to deputy Zulay Rodríguez, who hopes to become a candidate for free nomination on July 31, once the signature collection process, which she leads so far with more than 100,000 endorsements, ends.

To expel either of the two, it is only required that one of its members submit a complaint, that the prosecutor analyze it, and if it finds merit, present it before the National Disciplinary Tribunal, which must convene an internal trial to define the status of the designated.

Yesterday, La Estrella de Panamá learned that Víctor ‘Chachi’ De Gracia, a former PRD prosecutor, is waiting for July 16 to pass to file a complaint with the intention of expelling Torrijos. On that date, the aforementioned will be officially proclaimed as the candidate for the 2024 Presidency by the Popular Party, after a congress scheduled for that purpose. For Chachi, this is grounds for expelling him from the party.

“He is not going to make fun of the torrijistas”, he constantly repeats it during the interview.

“There’s nothing like a torrijista, just the name.” “His dad must be rolling in his grave”, write it down and publish it, De Gracia lashes out emphatically.

He immediately blamed Torrijos for having caused many of the “misfortunes” that the PRD had experienced in the past. Among them she cited when Torrijos was part of the National Executive Council (CEN) he was “forced” to resign “for causing the disaster of the party with the issue of Balbina Herrera and Juan Carlos Navarro”, the group’s presidential list in the 2009 elections .

Since Torrijos’ campaign, sources from La Estrella de Panamá indicated that they have already analyzed the possibility of an expulsion process against Torrijos.

However, they measure it with some prudence, caution, because of what Torrijos represents for the group, in addition to the ideological current that the general represented. Not only because it bears the same last name, but because of the mystique of torrijismo for its members. Expelling the son of the founder, the father of the Torrijos current “is the worst thing they can do,” said a source linked to the Torrijos campaign.

Within the PRD there are mixed feelings about Torrijos’s decision. Some voices consider that he had to fight the battle from within, instead of ‘betraying’ the Torrijista principles.

Boris Barrios, former electoral general prosecutor, has a very different reading. In his opinion, Torrijos’s actions in seeking another political platform that would lead him to the Presidency are due to the fact that within the PRD they did not allow him to do so. “He has not resigned from his party,” he analyzes, “but the structure at this moment is kidnapped by a leadership that does not respond to the interests of the bases.”

“I don’t see an expulsion process as a politically intelligent option,” says Barrios. “It would provoke an internal debate, it would divide the party and aggravate the crisis,” he adds.

The day the Popular Party announced Torrijos’s nomination, he was accompanied by several members who were part of his administration between 2004-2009. Barrios points out that the statute indicates that the party’s approval must be requested to change the platform in case of having participated in the primaries, and Torrijos, as well as other followers, do not participate in said exercise.

Chachi does not believe in the speech that Torrijos gives in the media where he proposes a new vision of the country.

“I do not forget the scandals with Ubaldino Real, (former Minister of the Presidency in the Torrijos administration) those were the people who surrounded Martín. “But he never supported the party, he turned his back on it, that is why the youth did not support him again, when before, the famous Team Martín helped him come to power. Never again has the youth supported us with that strength because Martín deceived them”, ditch De Gracia.

But according to Barrios, “many members sympathize with Torrijos and have not shown it publicly yet because they have pending issues with the government.”

The pre-candidate Zulay Rodríguez, with more than 15 years of militancy in the PRD, would not be surprised by an expulsion process against her. “They have always wanted to expel me from the PRD, if I formally remain they would look for a way to do it,” she says.

In such a case that a complaint prospers, the defender of the accused will be Javier Ortega, who must study the file to find the best strategy to avoid his expulsion, or declare himself prevented. Ortega is the guest of “El Polígrafo” of La Estrella de Panamá on Sunday, May 7, a space in which he develops the subject extensively.