The economic implications of Ricardo Martinelli's acquittal

PANAMA - In Brief 10 Aug 2019 by Marco Fernandez

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Not guilty of the accusations that the Attorney General office (Ministerio Público, MP) presented against former president Ricardo Martinelli (July 2009-July 2014): illegal wiretapping of citizens and embezzlement of public funds. This was the unanimous verdict of three judges on Friday evening, acquitting Martinelli of all of them, after more than four and a half years of controversial disputes and media coverage (including one year in a US Federal prison). Not that the result surprised everybody. The evidence that RM used his power in Office to eavesdrop political foes, friends, people in his inner circle, and many others (more than a hundred) seemed solid to the media, qualified lawyers and to political analysts…but apparently not to the judges, who decided to free Martinelli from his house arrest and therefore leave him with all his Constitutional rights to enter the political arena once again, arguing deficiencies by prosecutors in the process. In his first interview after the end of the trial, RM argued that he will now devote time to concentrate his efforts as a free man in managing his financial empire: he is a media mogul, a supermarket magnate and a real estate developer. But nobody is buying his comment at face value. After his release he accused former president Juan Carlos Varela (six weeks out of office after the July 1 inauguration of Laurentino Cortizo of the opposing PRD) of political persecution while promising to sue Varela as well as current Attorney General Kenya Porcell. Whether or not he will follow that route (he has enough media and monetary power to do it), what Panama faces now is an uncertain, and dangerous scenario. His party, Cambio Democr...