Mulino, the new president of Panama whose enemy is climate change | The Basque Journal

José Raúl Mulino assumes the presidency of Panama on Monday with the declared intention of recovering the “prestige” of his country in the world. He made this statement during a day of marked political character in which the highest institutional positions were appointed. The central event was his investiture, which was attended by a large international representation. On the Spanish side, the King, Felipe VI, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, attended a meeting with the new Panamanian head of state with the commitment to strengthen bilateral ties.

A significant number of American leaders have travelled to the Panamanian capital, such as the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro; the leader of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; the Ecuadorian Daniel Noboa; and the Colombian Gustavo Petro. The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has represented the White House, while China has sent its Customs Minister, Yu Jianhua.

Mulino is the leader of Realizing Goals (RM), a relatively new party, founded in 2019, and with a conservative ideology with which he ran in the May 5 elections. He replaces Laurentino Cortizo, of the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party.

The new leader was a minister under former President Ricardo Martinelli in the middle of the last decade and on this occasion he went to the polls as an electoral partner, as a candidate for vice president. But he became a presidential candidate last March, when Martinelli was disqualified after several corruption trials. Mulino has warned that he will govern “without fear” and without any influence from his former boss, who has gone into self-exile in the Nicaraguan embassy.

The mandate of this lawyer, a specialist in Maritime Law, will be defined by three axes. The most important will be the economic recovery of a nation closely linked to its canal and intense commercial activity derived from merchant traffic. In this last year, the authorities have had serious problems due to an unprecedented drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon. Mulino’s main rival is climate change. Around 7% of the national GDP comes from these locks and, to prevent it from declining, he knows that he will have to design an ambitious project that guarantees the water level of the pass.

The Darien jungle

The nation he is tasked with leading is not an easy one. There is a palpable shortage of money, increasing poverty, a public debt of 50 billion euros and a totally collapsed social security system.

The last important item on the agenda is the dramatic passage of migrants through the dangerous Darien jungle. More than 200,000 migrants cross this area every year on their way to Colombia, in a desperate attempt to continue on to the United States. However, Darien is a kind of wild territory where criminal gangs operate, robbing, kidnapping and, if necessary, killing those who follow this route.

“I am committed to recovering the prestige of the nation so that Panama can once again be a respected State in the international community,” declared the new president, who obtained 34% of the votes in the elections, but must govern without majorities. in Parliament.