President Martinelli Takes on Bernal Amidst Panama’s

Plummeting Prospects to Finally Democratize

• Martinelli establishes his credentials as being worthy of Olympic gold when it comes to being a first-class boor and an authoritarian bully when the issue is democratic dialogue
• At stake: An ill-merited free trade agreement with Washington
• Panama excels in the world of drugs, crime, money laundering and tainted rule
• Bernal case: A test of Panama’s human rights record and capacity for good governance, which the president seems to be rapidly losing
• Eisenmann, Brannan, Jackson and Bernal inevitably will outlast Martinelli in terms of patriotic inspired leadership
• Panama is a poor prospect for free trade because a corrupt Supreme Court will prevent the attainment of a level playing field required by the international business community

Accusations of corruption and a hard veer to the right have caused considerable consternation among U.S.-based Latin American specialists, as local Panamanian civil groups and good government bodies have expressed their concerns abroad regarding the country’s ability to engage in democratic practices under the recently inaugurated, controversial president, Ricardo Martinelli. In recent weeks, Panamanian NGOs have been expressing their concern over the country’s swift move to the totalitarian right, now being witnessed almost daily under Martinelli. He has been accused by a widening circle of critics for having sanctioned corrupt behavior and of being guilty of various human rights infringements. In office for less than a year, Martinelli continues to further blemish a record that already was beginning to appear shabby upon his inauguration.

Patriotic Panamanian Reaches for his Lance

One of the president’s most lethal foes is patriotic grandee Roberto Eisenmann, Jr., who, as much as any Panamanian of his generation, was one of the many reasons why Panama today is even marginally democratic. For those with too short a memory of the 1980s, when General Noriega was ruling the nation, Eisenmann (who, like Professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, had to flee the country at the peril of his life) indefatigably pounded the corridors of the U.S. Senate, to maintain a dialogue with that body throughout that decade. His success came in the form of a resolution condemning the Noriega regime for its anti-democratic behavior.

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Director Larry Birns and COHA Research Associate Kaycie Rupp