'If Panama were as angry about corruption as it is about mining, there would be no corrupt people in power said Annette, Planells president of the La Prensa Corporation (Corprensa), in an interview, with EFE  on January 4.

In Panama, “Are we going to be outraged by the corruption cases the way we were outraged by the mine? Because if we did that, there wouldn't be a single corrupt politician in power here.” said Planells.

In the end, this engineer reflects, “Politicians do what citizens allow them to do.” Proof of this, he says, are the massive protests last October against the questioned operation of an open-pit copper mine, the largest in Central America, which ended up being disabled by a ruling by the Supreme Court that, for the second time declared the concession contract unconstitutional.

Planells, who last December received the International Award for Anti-Corruption Activists in 2023 from the US Department of State, is clear that corruption “is rooted” in Panama, and that it is urgent to “change the culture” about what, as a society, is allowed or not.

In Panama, “significant efforts” have been made in the fight against corruption, although setbacks have also been recorded during the Government of Laurentino Cortizo, says Planells.

TRANSPARENCY SETBACKS
“In transparency, there have been abysmal setbacks,” she says, citing the obstacles to the publication of state payrolls, “the cases of corruption that have come especially from the National Assembly (and that have not been able to be investigated or prosecuted (. ..) and those of the Executive Body” with the alleged irregular distribution of public funds among coreligionists. All of these complaints have been rejected by those involved.

On the other hand, “an important advance” in the anti-corruption fight has been the appointment by Cortizo to the Supreme Court of “magistrates, mostly women, with an impeccable track record,” as well as the implementation of the Judicial Career and “the advancement of some emblematic cases of corruption.”

“ Panamanian society is now at a crossroads” and runs the “danger that all these efforts will disappear with the possibility that (former president) Ricardo Martinelli wins the May 2024 elections. ″

Martinelli, presidential candidate of his new party Realizing Goals (RM), was found guilty of money laundering in the purchase of a media publishing house and sentenced last July to 10 years and 6 months in prison, a ruling that was already ratified in the second instance. and which is pending whether or not it will be analyzed in cassation by the Supreme Court, the last instance in which it can be annulled, as the former ruler intends to be able to continue in the electoral race.

Martinelli and former Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) were sanctioned in 2023 for “large-scale” or “significant” corruption by the US State Department.

“If we were outraged at the abuses of former presidents in the way we were outraged at the mining contract, Ricardo Martinelli would not even be scoring in the polls,” Planells claims.

The “problem” of giving “some endorsement” to corruption “has to do with the enormous inequality that exists in the country: if a person cannot cover their fundamental needs (…) how can you ask them to put the fight against corruption as a priority in his life?”