Then real estate hustler Donald Trump, Panamanian president at the time Ricardo Martinelli and Trump’s shadowy Colombian partner for the former Trump Ocean Club, Roger Khafif. That was then. Photo by the Presidencia.
From the Mami Pact to the Mani Pact
by Miguel Antonio Bernal V.
The selfless veneration given by all governments since the invasion to the 1972 statute – also known as the Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama – is a symbol and expression of authoritarianism. The Panamanian people — crying “Democracy, Justice and Freedom!” — fought against this. It makes the fundamental problem of our country to be of a constitutional nature, that is, of a political nature.
Hence the fierce opposition of the party leaders and their system’s main exponents, to even the remote possibility of starting a constitutional process. The adoption of said statute led them early to sponsor the various reforms that have been introduced to the original document imposed by the dictatorship that came to us on October 11, 1968.
Thus, in 1978, 1983, 1993-94 and 2004 the prevailing power brokers – of the misnamed political class — have done their best to collaborate among themselves to, according to them, “democratize” this odd document that still serves as a letter of presentation of legality and legitimacy for a failed social contract.
Each of the reform acts, over the past four decades, were agreed. The most notorious was the 2004 called “Pacto MaMi,” between Martin Torrijos and Mireya Moscoso. With their backs to the citizens, they agreed encourage authoritarianism and autocratic government.
Inter-party electoral pacts, and between elections legislative pacts, have become commonplace in the absence of programs and principles, Hence we should not be surprised by the inter-presidential pacts, that is, between the current president and the ex-presidents. These might be bilateral, trilateral or quadrangular pacts. This would not rule out one or another pentagonal pact. Now in this period, it could be up to hexagonal.
The udisclosed pact between former President Martinelli and the current tenant of the Palacio de las Garzas, was made last May and has been in effect for one year. It started early, on the night of the 2019 general elections, when, from prison, Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal publicly acknowledged, long before his party’s presidential candidate, Rómulo Roux, the electoral victory of Laurentino Cortizo Cohen.
(to be continued…)
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