The Electoral Court of Panama officially annulled, on Monday, March 4, the presidential candidacy of former president Ricardo Martinelli, until now the favorite in the polls for the elections on May 5. The decision comes a month after Martinelli received a sentence of 10 years and six months in prison for money laundering.
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The highest electoral body also resolved that on the ballot in the elections for president, in the box for the Realizing Goals parties and the Alianza political bench, his running mate José Raúl appears Mulino, as “candidate for president without vice president“, thus clearing up doubts about the replacement of Martinelli.
The leader, who will turn 72 in a week, affirms that this is political persecution. Martinelli had managed to be acquitted in two trials for the alleged illegal interception of communications of 150 people during his mandate, in the case known as 'punctures', but he did not have the same luck this time.
The Electoral Court of Panama had begun deliberation on the disqualification on Monday, March 4, after receiving a copy of the judicial ruling in the 'New Business' case, a complex plot to irregularly purchase with public funds the Editorial Panamá América SA (Epasa), which sentenced him to 10 years and 6 months, in addition to a fine of 19.2 million dollars for money laundering.
A disastrous chapter in the democracy of this country is closing. Finally, Ricardo Martinelli's political career has formally come to an end. pic.twitter.com/U6eIYcxbF9
— Nini Moreno (@EsNiniMoreno) March 5, 2024
That sentence became final on February 2 after the last appeal seeking to annul it was rejected.
Days later, on February 7, Martinelli sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy, alleging that the conviction against him was political persecution to prevent him from participating in the elections as a presidential candidate with his Realizing Goals party.
The situation related to Martinelli has strained diplomatic relations between Panama and Nicaragua.
Panama denied him safe passage to travel to Nicaragua and called the attention of the Government of Daniel Ortega for the way in which Martinelli seeks to influence Panamanian politics from the Nicaraguan diplomatic headquarters.
Martinelli was detained preventively between June 2018 and June 2019 in a chalet cell in El Renacer, a minimum security prison located on the outskirts of the capital, while he faced trial for the illegal interception.
His time at El Renacer was controversial: he suffered physical ailments that took him to the hospital and his visits were suspended for a month for threatening the guards.
In response to Martinelli's complaint, the Penitentiary System had to clarify that he was treated like any other inmate, since he attended his medical appointments, went out to the yard on a “regular” basis and went to mass.
The cases before Justice surrounding Martinelli
Last June Martinelli was proclaimed presidential candidate for the elections on May 5 after triumphing in the primaries of the Realizing Goals party, founded by him in 2021 after losing control of his first collective, Cambio Democrático (CD), with which he governed. between 2009 and 2014.
The CD got out of hand while he was imprisoned for a year in the United States, which detained him in 2017 for the purposes of extradition, something that was finally done in 2018 so that he could face the first of two trials for the “eavesdropping” in Panama.
In July 2022 and being prosecuted for the Odebrecht scandal, he presented the papers to be an independent presidential candidate, but a few days later he withdrew them. He even thought about running for mayor of the capital.
Two sons of former President Martinelli have already served jail time for the Odebrecht case in the United States, where they pleaded guilty to laundering $28 million and having carried out bribes in favor of the Brazilian company “on the father's orders,” as alleged. the defense.
The former president is also investigated in Spain for alleged corruption due to bribes that the Spanish construction company FCC confessed to having paid in Panama, and in another case for alleged espionage on a woman in Mallorca.
Martinelli, born in 1952 in Panama City, to parents of Italian and Spanish descent, is the father of three children and is considered a man with an “insatiable appetite” for business.
He came to power at the age of 57 with CD with 60% of the votes in the May 2009 elections, after failing in his first attempt in 2004, when he only obtained 5.03% of the vote.
His emblematic work was the construction of Metro Line 1, the only one in Central America.
Despite the multitude of cases of corruption that surround him and the culture of waste attributed to him, during his mandate Panama consolidated itself as the nation with the highest economic growth in the region.
Martinelli, with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas and a master's degree from the INCAE Business School in Costa Rica, was director of the Social Security Fund during the Government of Ernesto Pérez Balladares, between 1994 and 1999, and minister of the Panama Canal. in the Administration of President Mireya Moscoso, who governed between 1999 and 2004.
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