Panama’s Critical Juncture: A Repeat of the Ecuadorian Debacle?

Por: Eloy Fisher [COHA]
Para melodijoadelita.com

The political, economic and social background
Soon after Ricardo Martinelli became president of Panama in 2009, he began championing a distinctive no-holds-barred style of politics. Despite these political antics, the president’s ultimate objective was to overhaul what in earlier presidencies was labeled as the Endara framework After two decades of military rule, President Guillermo Endara (in office, 1989-1994) vowed to purge the political slate after the US invaded the country in 1989: he dismantled the façade of military rule and concurrently tailored a restrictive, multiparty political framework in order to return its power in a diluted form, to traditional ruling elites, without excluding those who were used to collaborating with the military regime in order keep an uneasy “peace.”