WHILE their leader, ex president Ricardo Martinelli, sits in a Miami jail awaiting an extradition hearing, lawmakers of  the fractured Democratic Change Party (CD) have moved to investigate his successor,  President Juan Carlos Varela.

Martinelli is wanted back in Panama to  face a criminal trial  for illegal surveillance of rival politicians, journalists, lawyers and businessmen with a potential 20 years in jail if found guilty,

What could be the beginning of a series of criminal denunciations against Varela was registered in the General Secretariat of the National Assembly, by a group  of CD Depuries,  presenting  a motion for the  Assembly to be declared “in court:  sessions to investigate Varela in the  Odebrecht case.

The motion was submitted to the Assembly's secretary general, Franz Wever, and is based on articles of the Political Constitution that  establish that judicial sessions shall be those dedicated to the exercise of the jurisdictional powers of the National Assembly.

The reaction of CD members is in response to statements made by Odebrecht's former financial operator, Rodrigo Tacla Durán, to the Spanish newspaper El País, where he implicates Varela in the corruption plot, saying that both people close to him and suppliers of his company, received money from the Brazilian company.

Tacla Duran's statements, as well as those of former presidential advisor  Ramon Fonseca Mora, who said  Varela’s presidential campaign was financed by by Odebrecht, are sufficient for the Assembly to act says the group.

The constitutional motion filed by lawyers Mariela Jiménez, Dámaso García and Alexis Sinclair is based on Article 160 of the Constitution.

Which says  that it is the judicial function of the National Assembly to hear allegations or denunciations against the President and the judges of the Court, as well as to try them,

Lawyer Ernesto Cedeño, said that for the Assembly to be declared in court sessions there must be a complaint with all elements.

“The Code of Criminal Procedure states that in order to file a complaint against the president, the appropriate proof is necessary to be able to admit it to the Assembly,” said Cedeño.