Accompanied by countless leaders and members of the Realizing Goals party, (RM) representatives of the board of directors, presented a letter to the Electoral Tribunal magistrates, Heriberto Araúz and Alfredo Juncá, in which they express their concern about the pressure from political and economic sectors to which they are subjected to issue a ruling contrary to the one already exposed by them, on May 22, in which they revoked in all its parts Resolution 2-2022 of February 23, 2022, which granted the lifting of the electoral criminal jurisdiction, within two processes identified in the Judicial Branch as 25332-2021 (named New Business) and 39473-2021 (named Odebrecht),
The note maintains that: “it is scandalous and inadmissible, that after the categorical affirmations of the majority of the Plenary of the Electoral Tribunal, the Third Administrative Electoral Court, in charge of Judge Maribeth Álvarez, has admitted and granted a new request for lifting of the Electoral Criminal Jurisdiction, which protects Ricardo Martinelli, in the same case already dealt with by the Plenary of the Electoral Tribunal”.
This request, in addition to referring to the same case, does not incorporate the evidence that demonstrates compliance with any of the two exceptions established in Article 8 of the 1904 Extradition Treaty, signed between the Republic of Panama and the United States: the public statement and expressed by the aforesaid, in which he consents to be investigated or tried for a crime other than the one for which he was extradited or the official certification of the competent authority, or authenticated copy of the passport that demonstrates his entry into the United States, the country that extradited him.
According to the delivered note, which bears the signature of the General Secretary of the RM party, Luis Eduardo Camacho: “If the Plenary of the Electoral Court establishes a decision contrary to that of its majority ruling of March 22, 2022, it would become an accomplice of those powerful economic and political interests that Justice Juncá referred to in his interview, which are destroying the country’s institutional framework and will profoundly affect the credibility that the institution must maintain, particularly at this time when we are entering the electoral process that will culminate with the proclamation of the winners of the elections on May 5, 2024”.
According to Camacho Castro, this will add another element of tension to the social and political crisis that we are experiencing and will deepen the legal uncertainty that affects our possibilities of attracting local and foreign investments that will allow us to improve the economy and generate thousands of jobs that Panamanians need. today more than ever.
The general secretary of the party called on magistrates Araúz and Juncá, so that: “they do the right thing, strengthening the credibility of you and of the Electoral Tribunal and therefore the democratic institutionality, today highly questioned. Both, once again, have the opportunity to reject the pressure of those economic and political groups, which criticized and threatened you for fulfilling your duty to put the country’s interests first”.
Leaders from different sectors participated in the delivery of the letter: Panama, West Panama, East Panama, San Miguelito, Las Cumbres, Gonzalillo, La 24 de Diciembre, Tocumen, Pedregal, Colón and other sectors, who carried banners and asked in the headquarters of the Electoral Court a “Stop the Persecution”, “No more Unemployment”, More Security, among others.
“The climate of peace that the country requires will not come if some economic and political sectors insist on adding to the crisis other elements that, for some of these sectors, are a distraction tool to try, unsuccessfully, to prevent the people from continue demanding attention and answers that have not yet arrived Others seek to maintain the status quo, which generates the social inequalities that have caused the popular uprising and persecute those who dared to confront and correct elements that only benefit the sectors belonging to traditionalism political and economic”, indicates among other aspects the note.
