José Raúl Mulino (Chiriquí, 64 years old) is already the unexpected elected president of Panama. Until just two months ago, he was a lawyer and former minister of various portfolios who was running as vice-presidential candidate for Ricardo Martinelli, a strong squire, but the political disqualification of his popular mentor catapulted him to power after a rarefied campaign in which he insistently promised the return of the economic boom of a decade ago.
The right-wing candidate from the Realizing Goals party – named to coincide with the initials of Ricardo Martinelli – was not even the first option to become the number two of the former president. Initially, a ticket with his wife, Marta Linares, was outlined, but the former first lady gave up in October due to the possibility that the electoral authorities would object to that link. It was then that the name of Mulino emerged, who just entered the campaign in March as a replacement for Martinelli, disqualified after being sentenced to more than ten years in prison for money laundering. His appointment, however, was only endorsed by the Supreme Court of Justice until last Friday, and had the peculiarity that he was not accompanied by a vice presidential candidate.
“Panama will shine again economically as we did in the Martinelli Government,” repeated Mulino insistently, who associates his name with “chen chen”, which is nothing more than a colloquialism to refer to money in the pocket. “We attack unemployment and poverty like never before,” he stated last Sunday at his campaign closing, an event in which he showed a support video recorded by Martinelli from the Nicaraguan Embassy, where he is seeking asylum, and they even reserved him an empty chair on the stage.
Martinelli governed Panama between 2009 and 2014, a phase of strong growth and multimillion-dollar investments in infrastructure such as the Panama City metro, which still arouse nostalgia in various sectors. That is why he remains popular despite his condemnation – and the fact that corruption is considered one of the worst problems in the country. Popular slang even refers to the one balboa coins, minted in that period and equivalent to one dollar, as “a martinelli.” Mulino has shamelessly associated himself with those times, he used to wear a cap with the slogan “Martinelli Mulino 2024” during the campaign and even visited the former president at the diplomatic headquarters on election Sunday. The relationship between the two is one of the biggest questions for the future Government.
A lawyer specialized in maritime law from Tulane University in New Orleans, United States, the now president-elect has cultivated the image of being a man of few words and a heavy hand during a long public career. He was one of the leaders of the opposition Civilist Crusade that accelerated the fall of General Manuel Antonio Noriega, overthrown and captured by United States troops that invaded Panama in 1989. The following year, he took over as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Guillermo Endara. (1989-1994) in the nascent Panamanian democracy, and later became its chancellor.
Years later, his management as Martinelli’s Minister of Security was the target of criticism and complaints. The repression of protests by banana workers in the regions of Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí in 2010 left two dead and more than a hundred injured. Later, he was denounced for abuse of authority after ordering the suspension of cell phone service in two communities during protests by indigenous groups, although the case ended up being archived. At the beginning of the Government of Juan Carlos Varela, Martinelli’s successor, he was accused of corruption for allegedly having received commissions for the purchase of 19 radars, a case for which he was preventively imprisoned for seven months until April 2016.
Already in the campaign, Mulino made promises such as extending the passenger train line from Panama City to his native province of Chiriquí, bordering Costa Rica, in line with the infrastructure projects of Martinelli’s times, although with a more economic situation. tight. He also proposed an original Constituent Assembly to seek a new political charter for Panama.
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