News
Tuesday 11th March 2025.
March 10, 2025
This Monday, the Superior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry (MP) reached a sentencing agreement with businessman Mario Martinelli Berrocal – brother of former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal (2009-2014) – for irregularities in the purchase of grains (rice, beans and lentils) with funds from the defunct National Aid Program (PAN) .
La Prensa had access to the document signed on Monday, March 10, in the presence of Mario Martinelli’s lawyer, former attorney general Ana Belfón . The businessman was accused of crimes against public administration, in various forms of embezzlement. The plea agreement includes payment to the State of $2.3 million and 40 months of commutable jail time.
The admission of guilt comes after the First Superior Court of the First Judicial District refused to accept a request for guarantees filed by the defendant’s defense attorneys on February 28.
Mario Martinelli had a wealth of evidence against him, which, according to the plea agreement, included several testimonies and documents.
The events took place when Ricardo Martinelli was in power.
For example, the former director of the PAN, Rafael Guardia , said that the brother of the then president was the one who supplied rice to the PAN, through the supplier Hialing Corporation , a company in which Pablo Ruíz López Obregón , also accused in this case, was the legal representative. López Obregón agreed with Guardia when he stated to the prosecution that Mario was his capitalist partner in the grain business.
Hialing Corporation SA, sold rice to the PAN at $80 per quintal and lentils at $100 per quintal, even though the reference price was $49 per quintal for rice and $55 for lentils, causing millions of dollars in losses to the State, given the overpricing.
The text of the plea agreement adds that another defendant – Jaime Antonio Ruiz – declared in his statement on March 12, 2015, that Mario Martinelli invited him and his son Pablo to participate in Hialing Corporation. He specified that Mario Martinelli was the one who “financed the project and was part of the partners of the company project, together with Roberto Brin and Roberto Luzcando [both then employees of Super 99, a chain owned by the Martinelli family], for the commercialization of rice, lentils and beans.”
The plea agreement also states that Ruiz Obregón stated that Hialing Corporation became a supplier to the PAN in 2009, the same year that Ricardo Martinelli took office as president of the Republic. He added that his partner told him to register the company, since “there were many opportunities [to do business] in which he could participate.”
Ruiz added that his partner informed him that Brin “would be the link between them and the one who would provide all the advice; that, due to a conflict of interest because he was the brother of the former president, Mr. Mario Martinelli, Roberto Brin and Roberto Luzcando, being employees of Importadora Ricamar [the company name of the Super 99], they preferred to do it [the business] through a third company, which they could control without being in charge.”
Ruiz Obregón also told prosecutors that there are checks showing that they received 75% of the profits.
Another aspect highlighted in the plea agreement is that there was irrefutable evidence of Mario Martinelli’s participation in the business, such as the existence of several checks from Banco Panamá – in which Martinelli was a partner, according to the text of the plea agreement – which showed, for example, that between January 2014 and August of the same year, the accused “received an estimated $4.7 million dollars, through checks issued by the company Hialing Corporation.”
Some of these checks were in the form of “dividends” in favor of Martinelli.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced that it will invest $8 billion over the next decade in the development of projects to maintain the validity of the interoceanic route. Among these projects is the construction of the water reservoir in Río Indio , located between the provinces of Coclé and Colón.
Ricaurte Vásquez , administrator of the Panama Canal , said that this investment contributes to maintaining the validity of the interoceanic route at a global level and will help counteract any type of recessionary cycle in the Panamanian economy.
The Canal has been the focus of questions from the United States government in recent months, but Vásquez denies that the decision to carry out these investments has anything to do with any kind of influence from Washington.
“The Panama Canal is Panamanian, the plans are made in the Panama Canal by the Panamanians, with the best interest of Panama and attending to the needs of the clients,” said the administrator of the interoceanic waterway.
He argued that the current situation [Trump’s threats] cannot be the axis around which the vision of the Canal revolves.
Furthermore, the investments that the interoceanic route will carry out, in addition to Río Indio, will involve other infrastructure projects.
In addition to Río Indio, the ACP is also interested in promoting a land logistics corridor , which currently exists through the road route that connects the Bridge of the Americas with the Centenario Bridge on the Canal’s Riviera. The intention would be to extend the section to the Atlantic Bridge in the province of Colón.
Additionally, Vásquez expressed interest in the mobility of liquefied petroleum gas [cooking gas], a market segment that is “highly relevant for the Canal” and whose volume is projected to double in ten years. The Canal is also evaluating the possibility of supporting the construction of a gas pipeline.
The ACP administrator also admitted that the imposition of new tariffs at a global level could have an impact on the Panama Canal.
“The impact will depend on whether tariffs are actually imposed and whether they come into effect. Secondly, we must analyze how long these tariffs will be in effect. And thirdly, we can say that any tariff system or trade restriction affects the volume of world trade,” said Vásquez.
He added that the effect on the Canal and the trade routes that pass through it will depend on which products the new tariffs apply to.
Two consortia participated this Monday, March 10, 2025, in the international prequalification process for the Panama and San Miguelito Cable Car project, promoted by the state-owned company Metro de Panamá, SA (MPSA), which will benefit some 200,000 people.
The consortia that submitted their proposals were: SPE Cable Car Consortium, made up of the companies Sofratesa de Panama, Inc.; Mexican Infrastructure Developer and Promoter, SA de CV; and Engineering Estrella, SA; and the second company was the San Miguelito-TSM Cable Car Consortium , made up of the companies Cointer Concesiones, SL and Doppelmayr Panama Corp.
The Evaluation Committee will be formed next Friday, March 14, and on Monday, March 17, it will begin to analyze the documentation submitted within a period of 10 business days, with a possible extension of 5 additional days. At the end of this process, a report will be issued with the list of prequalified companies that will be able to participate in the subsequent tender that MPSA will call for.
Ana Laura Morais, MPSA Planning Director, explained that once the concessionaire in charge of executing the administrative concession contract for the Panama and San Miguelito Cable Car project is selected, construction will begin in 2026.
This consortium will be responsible for the administrative concession for financing, studies and designs, the construction of civil works, the manufacturing, supply, installation and commissioning of the cable car system, as well as its operation and maintenance.
According to Morais, the construction project could be completed in approximately 24 months from its start. “We hope it can be less, but in principle that is the reasonable time for a line of this length of 6.6 kilometers and that will have six stations, two located in Panama City and four in the district of San Miguelito,” he explained.
Regarding the estimated construction price, the Minister of the Presidency, Juan Carlos Orillac, who participated in the prequalification ceremony, said that it cannot be specified yet, since the Panama Metro is carrying out the corresponding studies.
Orillac explained that this project is a campaign promise of the Executive and the budget will be guaranteed, since the cable car is an integrated transport system that will have other branches in the future, similar to the Metro lines.
A total of 745 packages containing suspected drugs were seized during anti-drug operations in a port in the province of Colón, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on Sunday .
The first 50 packages with the illicit substance were located by agents in the electrical panel of a container. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the container was in transit and had Lithuania as its final destination.
Meanwhile, in another search of a container, the Prosecutor’s Office found 695 packages containing drugs.
The container came from Suriname and was destined for Belgium.
According to official figures, Panama closed 2024 with the seizure of more than 80 tons of illicit substances.
It’s official. The National Commission for Electoral Reforms (CNRE) will be formally installed this Thursday, March 13, 2025.
The official ceremony will take place in the auditorium of the central headquarters of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) , located in Ancón, and is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
For one year, the CNRE will be tasked with presenting, discussing and approving a bill to be submitted to the National Assembly in preparation for the general elections on May 6, 2029.
This will be the eighth National Electoral Reform Commission established to reform the Electoral Code since 1993.
The commission is made up of political parties, members of the Legislative and Executive Branches, the Ombudsman’s Office and civil society organisations.
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) confirmed today, Monday, March 10, the first death from the oropouche virus in Panama.
Health Minister Fernando Boyd Galindo said the deceased, an 82-year-old man with a history of high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus, showed symptoms of neurological deterioration after returning from a trip to the province of Darien.
He was hospitalized with an initial diagnosis of neuroinfection, and after carrying out additional studies, including analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, it was confirmed that the cause of his illness was the oropouche virus, explained Boyd Galindo .
Regarding the epidemiological situation, the Minsa reported that, during week 9, 221 cases of the oropouche virus were recorded in the regions of Darién, eastern Panama and metropolitan Panama.
The cases are distributed as follows: Darien with 207 cases, East Panama with 13 cases and Metro Panama with 1 case.
The most affected districts and towns are: Pinogana with 146 cases, Santa Fe with 42, Cèmaco with 12, Chepigana with 7, Chepo with 13 and Pacora with 1 case.
By age, the highest number of cases occurred in people between 35 and 49 years old. As for sex, the cases were distributed among 106 men and 115 women.