Not a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering nor going into political asylum in Nicaragua\u2019s embassy have weakened the political aspirations of Panama\u2019s former President Ricardo Martinelli who still seeks to retake the presidency. Just last week a judge sentenced the former leader to prison. Then Wednesday, he popped up in Nicaragua\u2019s embassy and received political asylum from President Daniel Ortega\u2019s government before he could be arrested.<\/p>\n
Election authorities are expected to rule at any time that he is ineligible to compete in the May 5 election, because Panama\u2019s constitution bars anyone given a sentence of five years or more from running for president or vice president. Martinelli has denied any wrongdoing and calls his legal troubles a political persecution, which was the grounds for granting his asylum request, according to the Nicaraguan government.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Brian A. Nichols, the US State Department\u2019s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, tweeted on X that Nicaragua\u2019s decision to grant Martinelli asylum \u201cis yet another move to undermine the rule of law and subvert justice.\u201d Late Friday, Panama\u2019s Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement that it had denied Nicaragua\u2019s request to provide safe passage for Martinelli out of Panama, because of Article 1 of the 1928 Convention on Asylum, which states that signatories cannot grant asylum in their diplomatic seats to people condemned for common crimes.<\/p>\n
The ministry\u2019s statement also warned that \u201cany action, statement or communication made by ex-President Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal from the diplomatic seat and that has repercussions or impact on Panama\u2019s domestic politics, will be considered interference in the internal affairs of our country and as such will have diplomatic consequences.\u201d Their Nicaraguan counterparts responded in their own statement on Friday night that the decision to grant Martinelli political asylum was humanitarian and that Panama would be violating the convention if it denied his safe passage out.<\/p>\n
Presidential ballots haven\u2019t been printed yet in Panama, so there\u2019s still some time to keep the 71-year-old Martinelli\u2019s face off the ballot. But his absence from the race \u2013 even if he tries to continue his campaign from Nicaragua \u2013 is a gamechanger, experts say. Panama\u2019s crowded presidential race is still very much up in the air. \u201cRicardo Martinelli in all of the polls, the well done ones, the poorly done ones, the made up ones, the published and the unpublished ones was the leading choice of those surveyed. That is a fact,\u201d said Edwin Cabrera, a Panamanian political analyst and host of a local radio talk show.<\/p>\n
With Martinelli in the race, it was him versus the other seven aspirants with everyone watching to see who would emerge from the pack to challenge him. With him out, everything becomes much more even, Cabrera said. Manuel Dominguez, a partner in political communication and public affairs firm Beyond Strategies, said Martinelli campaigning on the ground in Panama will not be the same as Martinelli trying to stay in the public eye from Nicaragua. \u201cCampaigns are won with direct presence, so any activism from abroad will have much less impact than what he would do where the voters are,\u201d Dominguez said.<\/p>\n
As for Martinelli\u2019s call for his supporters to flock to his running mate Jose Raul Mulino, Dominguez said it won\u2019t be so easy. Other parties will go after Martinelli\u2019s supporters if he\u2019s not on the ballot. He gives the example of lawmaker Zulay Rodriguez, an independent candidate, who had voiced support for Martinelli and went to the Nicaraguan embassy on Thursday. But she has said her support is for Martinelli, not Mulino. And Martinelli\u2019s endorsement has not been the winning ticket for other candidates in the past. In 2014, immediately after his presidency, and again in 2019, the candidates he endorsed did not win.<\/p>\n
Mulino\u2019s promise that Martinelli would return to Panama if Mulino is elected also may not be so simple. Lawyer Rodrigo Noriega said that Mulino would not be able to pardon Martinelli, because Panama\u2019s constitution limits pardons to political crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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