Monday
Monday 25th September 2023.
September 24, 2023
The alliance between the Panameñista Party and Democratic Change (CD) for the elections of May 5, 2024 took another step this Sunday, September 24.
The members of the Panameñista Party approved, with 1,009 votes, the union and the list that will lead to Rómulo Roux, as presidential candidate, and José Isabel Blandón as his running mate.
The members of the group chaired by Blandón met in Atlapa, in the capital, to make the decision. The political meeting brought together 1,118 conventional members from different parts of the countr
“A great alliance is being confirmed, a presidential list that will surely be in the presidency of the Republic as of July 1, 2024,” Blandón said in the morning.
CD members, such as deputy Ana Giselle Rosas, also participated in the meeting. Later, at 2:30 pm, Roux, president of CD and presidential candidate of the alliance that was endorsed by the Panamanian convention, arrived.
“We thank the Panameñista Party for laying down interests and thinking about the country and this cause that we have, which is to change our country and dismantle the current system we have,” said Roux, who arrived accompanied by his family.
In accordance with article 16 of the Panameñista Party, the National Convention, when it is in office, is the supreme body of the group. It is made up of the conventional members, the members of the board of directors and the board of directors.
During the speech period, Blandón asked for a minute of silence for the death of Roux’s father, early this Sunday.
Roux assured that with this new step the winning formula for 2024 is consolidated.
“Believe me that if it were not like that we would not have had so many people trying to avoid this alliance, from the Democratic Change primary where Martinelli, the PRD, Benicio, Gaby, all that lot met, for what? so that we could not join because they are afraid,” he assured.
He reiterated that this is the only alliance of two large and organized parties.
For his part, Blandón assured that they still keep their doors open to all those who share the vision of the country that they have expressed.
José Blandón Figueroa, considered that the country should be out of the controversial Central American Parliament (Parlacen).
“We believe that Panama should leave Parlacen,” he said this Sunday, upon his arrival at the Panamanian Convention that must ratify the alliance with Democratic Change (CD).
Regarding the nomination of former president Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) as a Parlacen deputy, Blandón indicated that “any Panamanian member who has been registered for 5 years and has no impediment can be a Parlacen candidate.”
In 2010, Panama announced its departure from Parlacen. It was precisely that Varela, chancellor in 2009, signed, together with then-president Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, Law 78 of December 11, 2009, which repealed the laws that ratified the Constitutive Treaty and other Parlacen protocols, signed by Panama in 1994.
Former first lady Marta Linares de Martinelli will be the running mate of Realizing Goals (RM) presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli .
This was announced in a national directory held this Sunday, September 24, 2023.
“We have selected a person who has complete confidence. This person knows me inside and out. We have been through good and bad things, we have traveled, he is a person who knows me from head to toe, he is a person that I trust,” Martinelli said before the board members.
“I made the decision because of everything we have suffered, embodied and talked about together. That woman is the balance that I need, that woman is the polar opposite of me. I ask for the vote for Marta,” added the former president.
After the announcement, the members of the board proceeded to go to the ballot boxes that are placed in one of the rooms of the convention center of the Hotel El Panamá, as part of the process to make the election of Marta Linares official. 65 of the 66 members of the RM board are present.
In another adjacent room, the Alianza Party holds its directory to ratify its alliance with Ricardo Martinelli. This alliance was called “Save Panama.”
Earlier, when he arrived at the Centenario room of the El Panamá Hotel, where the RM national board met and approved the name Marta Linares de Martinelli, the former president of the Republic announced that his running mate was a woman.
There he revealed that he would have liked to choose the businessman Javier Martínez Acha, but that he has cancer.
“I die fighting,” said Martinelli to warn that they will not remove him from the race for the Presidency. He referred to “chimbo cases” of political persecution.
Martinelli is one of the 36 people charged in the Odebrecht case, a process that investigates the payment of bribes by the Brazilian construction company to officials and individuals to keep million-dollar state works.
The trial of this case is scheduled to take place between September 27 and October 17.
The strengthening of institutions and the transparent and responsible management of public resources must occupy the “highest step” of the policy agenda in the country, considered this Sunday the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Panama (Cciap) .
“Unfortunately, we are once again witnessing decisions made by the Budget Commission of the National Assembly that raise serious doubts about the direction in which issues of primary national importance are being taken,” the union highlighted in its weekly statement.
According to the business group, the decentralization of resources should be a strategic tool that promotes equitable development in all municipalities of the country.
However, its effectiveness is intrinsically linked to the capacity of Panamanian institutions to manage these resources effectively, guaranteeing efficient and transparent management.
“Unfortunately, instead of moving towards effective decentralization, we find ourselves at a crossroads characterized by institutional weakness and questionable political decisions that affect the correct use of public funds,” he noted.
The Cciap is clear that the Budget Commission of the National Assembly plays a crucial role in this process. “However, instead of basing their decisions on technical and objective criteria, political considerations seem to prevail on their agenda. “This situation raises questions about whether these decisions are made for the benefit of citizens or, instead, whether public resources are being used for partisan purposes,” he added.
“The lack of transparency in the process of allocating funds for decentralization is also a matter of serious concern. Citizens have the right to know how these decisions are made and how their taxes are used. “The lack of clarity only undermines trust in our institutions and perpetuates the perception that public resources are managed in a discretionary manner,” he indicated.
Last week, Edward Mosley Ibarra, director of the National Decentralization Authority (AND) , supported the entity’s budget for 2023 before the Budget Commission of the National Assembly, which amounts to $232.7 million.
At that time it was known that some $223 million 56 thousand 645 will receive the 701 community boards and 81 mayoralties that will exist in the country as of January 1, 2024.
In 2023, the AND received a budget of $353 million.
The AND is one of the most questioned institutions for distributing funds outside of Law 37 of 2009 on the decentralization of public administration, to benefit boards and mayors related to the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
An investigation published by La Prensa revealed that 475 of the 679 community boards in the country had received $202.4 million outside the scheme established by Law 37 of 2009, with the townships with representatives of the ruling PRD receiving most of the money.
This practice increased the funds of the community boards in 2022 and 2023, during times of the electoral campaign.
The National Aeronaval Service (Senan) reported this Saturday that the rescue teams managed to locate the black box of the AN 141 helicopter , which crashed on September 10 in the Coclesito mountain range, province of Coclé.
Juan Alvarado, from Senan, reported that the second phase of searching for the remains of the aircraft was completed, which includes flight data and voice data.
The so-called black box is a device that stores all the flight data of an aircraft.
The items recovered from the helicopter were made available to the Public Ministry, which is carrying out investigations into the case in which three Senan agents lost their lives.
It was reported that this technological tool will be sent to the United States for evaluation.
Teams from the Joint Task Force, the Joint Task Force-Bravo group of the US Army, as well as personnel from the Public Ministry and Civil Aeronautics participated in this second stage of the search.
Alvarado confirmed that the helicopter equipment that is not a priority was left in place due to complications in the operation area.
The AN 141 aircraft crashed last Sunday, September 10, while it was carrying out a relief mission (transporting personnel and cargo) from the naval air stations on the Caribbean coast.
Three people were traveling in this Senan helicopter: Captain Javier Hinestroza (pilot), Major Félix Barrera (co-pilot) and First Corporal Héctor Atencio (technician).