The former Minister of Security José Raúl Mulino He emerges as the candidate with the highest number of votes for president of Panama with a percentage greater than 30% so far in the scrutiny, complying with the estimates of the majority of the polls that placed him as the great favorite, and after replacing unexpectedly to the former president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), disqualified for a corruption case.
Before learning of his electoral victory, the new head of state assured that he would return to the “good times” of the administration of his political supporter, whom he visited this Sunday at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama, where he is in asylum to avoid going to prison. .
Some 3 million Panamanians were called to the polls this Sunday to elect the new president and vice president, 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), 71 deputies to the National Assembly (AN), 81 mayors, 701 township representatives and 11 councilors, all with their substitutes, for the constitutional period from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2029.
“Panama will shine again economically as we did in the Martinelli Government,” Mulino (Chiriquí, 1959) used to repeat during his intense campaign, which closed on Sunday, April 28 in the country’s capital.
On March 5, Mulino officially became the party’s presidential candidate. Realizing Goals (RM) after the Electoral Tribunal (TE) would disqualify Martinelli as a candidate for the Executive after being sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for money laundering.
The TE resolved that on the voting ballot, in the box for the Realizing Goals parties and the Alianza party, Mulino should appear to replace Martinelli, as he was their candidate for vice president, something that, although it was challenged before the Supreme Court of Justice , will not be decided until after the elections.
Man of few words and firm characterthe standard bearer of the asylum seeker Martinelli shows himself with the “capacity” and “will” so that with his Government the economic boom and “chen chen” or “money in the pockets” for Panamanians will return.
Despite the multitude of corruption cases surrounding him and the culture of waste attributed to Martinelli, during his mandate Panama consolidated itself as the nation with the greatest economic growth in the region, in addition to building the first Metro in Central America.
As the “flagship” work, the construction of the so-called “Madness train to go at gunpoint (fast)” from Panama City to David, capital of the western province of Chiriquí, is now proposed to unite the entire country and cause a “ high impact” in tourism and the logistics sector.
Mulino, lawyer and former minister of various portfolios to whom the nickname of “Stalin Mulino” Due to his physical resemblance to the Soviet dictator, he graduated in Law and Political Science (1982) from the Universidad Santa María La Antigua (USMA) and in 1983 obtained a master’s degree in Maritime Law from the American Tulane University (New Orleans).
Since 1988 he practiced law as a founding partner of the firm Fabrega, Molino and Mulinofrom which he separated in 2015.
He played an important role as one of the leaders of the opposition Civilist Crusade that accelerated the fall of the general Manuel Antonio Noriegawho ruled de facto between 1983 and 1989, when he was overthrown and captured by US troops who invaded Panama on December 20 of that same year.
In 1990 he joined the Government of Guillermo Endara (1989-1994), who was installed after the US invasion, becoming holder of this portfolio when he succeeded Julio Linaresdied days before of heart disease.
In April 1994 he was the first Panamanian foreign minister to visit Russia, after 90 years of relations. Then, between 1994 and 1996 he was a substitute magistrate of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court.
Is married to Maricel Cohen Since 1985, he has been the father of four children and has the same number of grandchildren.
In July 2009, Martinelli appointed him as Minister of Government (Interior) and Justice, but in April 2010 he became Minister of Public Security, having an eventful management due to the repression in July 2010 of protests by banana workers in the region. of Bocas del Toro (Caribbean), with a death toll of two, dozens of injured and more than a hundred arrested.
At the beginning of the Administration of Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) was accused of corruption in relation to the Italian company Finmeccanica for allegedly receiving commissions for the purchase of 19 radars, a case for which he was preventively imprisoned for seven months until April 2016. This case was annulled in August 2017.
In 2018, Mulino lost in the primaries of Cambio Democrático (CD), Martinelli’s former party, against Rómulo Roux, today also a presidential candidate in the May elections for that group.
Mulino has said publicly that if he came to power he would “help” Martinelli “as appropriate according to the law,” after the current Government denied him safe passage to travel to Nicaragua.
(With information from EFE)
