As Panama jumps into its boisterous Carnival interval, the celebrations this weekend come amid a weird political drama enjoying out within the capital.
A former president, who can be a prime contender on this 12 months’s presidential election in Could, has holed himself up within the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama Metropolis, accompanied by his furnishings, together with a settee and a desk, in addition to his canine, Bruno.
Ricardo Martinelli, a 71-year-old conservative businessman who led Panama from 2009 to 2014, was granted asylum by Nicaragua this week after Panama’s Supreme Court docket denied his enchantment of a money-laundering conviction that carried with it a 10-year jail sentence.
Mr. Martinelli, who has confronted different legal investigations, contends not solely that the case is politically motivated, but in addition that Panama’s president and vp need to kill him.
As an alternative of going to jail, he stated he intends to proceed his presidential marketing campaign from the grounds of the embassy, despite the fact that Panama’s Structure prohibits somebody who has been sentenced to 5 years or extra for deliberately committing a criminal offense from operating the nation.
“It’s important to be very cowardly to disqualify a presidential candidate who’s first within the polls,” he stated in an announcement posted Wednesday on X, the social media platform. He added: “That’s an assault in opposition to democracy.”
Some polls have proven that Mr. Martinelli is the front-runner. The electoral tribunal has strongly implied he can be disqualified from being on the poll within the coming election.
Panama’s International Ministry stated Friday night that it could not grant Nicaragua’s request to permit Mr. Martinelli protected passage to its nation, citing an article of a global settlement on political asylum, ratified by Nicaragua and Panama, stating that nations can’t grant asylum to individuals who have been “duly prosecuted” for nonpolitical crimes.
Nicaragua’s International Ministry later responded to Panama’s refusal, saying that political asylum must be revered as a humanitarian proper.
Mr. Martinelli’s spokesman, Luis Eduardo Camacho, stated that Panama’s resolution on protected passage wasn’t a shock “as a result of this isn’t a democracy. This can be a wild state of legislation.”
Fernando Gómez-Arbeláez, a lawyer in Panama who focuses on worldwide legislation, stated that permitting Mr. Martinelli to flee the nation can be a nationwide embarrassment.
“The federal government of Panama is aware that letting Martinelli depart the nation this fashion can be a mockery of gigantic proportions of the Panamanian justice system,” Mr. Gómez-Arbeláez stated.
It was unclear as of Friday night time if the authorities in Panama had issued an order for Mr. Martinelli to be arrested.
Mr. Martinelli was convicted final July in a case through which prosecutors stated that funds have been obtained from authorities contractors for the 2010 buy of a publishing home. Along with the jail sentence, he was fined $19 million.
The previous president has denied wrongdoing.
A number of days after the Supreme Court docket denied his enchantment, Mr. Martinelli offered a legal criticism to Panama’s Nationwide Meeting, accusing Panama’s president and vp of tried murder. The criticism alleged that an individual near the president’s workplace had warned of a plot to kill Mr. Martinelli to forestall him from turning into president.
The present president, Laurentino Cortizo, has denied the allegation.
Because the nation’s information headlines centered on the Martinelli state of affairs, the streets of Panama Metropolis on Friday have been congested with folks speeding to do their buying earlier than the beginning of Carnival, a vacation celebrated over 4 days earlier than Ash Wednesday that features parades and dancing within the streets at night time.
Some stated that they backed Mr. Martinelli, pointing to how he had led the nation throughout a interval of sturdy financial development, accompanied by a multibillion-dollar growth of the Panama Canal.
At a bus terminal, Tais Saldaña, a 23-year-old speech remedy scholar, stated she had deliberate to vote for Mr. Martinelli — and that if not for the festivities, folks can be out protesting to assist him.
“Politics is soiled,” Ms. Saldaña stated. “The truth that he’s disqualified takes away a chance from the Panamanian to freely select, to assist a candidate who due to his expertise or what he has completed in earlier years is a favourite of the Panamanians.”
On the entrance of the Panama Canal, Joel Alvarado, a 28-year-old driver, stated that he didn’t consider Mr. Martinelli was a sufferer of political persecution. “He’s completed good issues, that’s true, however it doesn’t justify that they steal from us; that we work on daily basis and so they steal our taxes will not be honest,” he stated.
Though Nicaragua is run by a leftist authorities, the conservative Mr. Martinelli stated in an interview with CNN just a few days in the past that he has “an amazing fondness and appreciation for Nicaragua.”
Nicaragua has change into more and more authoritarian, and its officers have confronted sanctions from the US for stripping political dissidents of their citizenship. The nation has additionally been seizing the property of its critics.
However Nicaragua has a historical past of offering protected haven to politicians underneath legal investigation, stated Manuel Orozco, the director of the migration, remittances and improvement program on the Inter-American Dialogue, a assume tank in Washington.
Within the final decade, for instance, Nicaragua has granted refuge to 2 former presidents of El Salvador.
Mr. Martinelli has confronted earlier legal investigations. In 2021, he was acquitted on expenses of wiretapping opponents and journalists. He has additionally been implicated in a pending authorized case associated to a multinational bribery scandal involving the Brazilian development firm Odebrecht.
When requested for touch upon the state of affairs in Panama, the State Division talked about that it had beforehand banned Mr. Martinelli from the US for having accepted bribes in change for awarding authorities contracts whereas serving as president.
“The USA and Panama promote shared democratic values of accountability, rule of legislation and transparency,” it stated in an announcement.
Mary Triny Zea contributed reporting from Panama Metropolis.
