The political and economic consequences of Martinelli’s extradition

PANAMA - In Brief 11 Jun 2018 by Marco Fernandez
On June 8, the Department of State accepted the request of the Panamanian Government to extradite former president Ricardo Martinelli (RM) to Panama, after being held for a year in a Federal detention center in Miami. He will be returning to Panama today. In principle, this outcome is a victory for President Varela: The State Department recognized that the case against Martinelli in the Panamanian courts was solid and that the arguments of RM´s lawyers that the former President was a victim of a political conspiracy by Varela did not stand. The US authorities disregarded Martinelli’s petition to reject the extradition (expressed in an open letter) based on the history of collaboration of his Administration with the CIA in an effort to combat drug trafficking and other regional issues.According to the conditions expressed by the extradition procedure (called the “specialty principle”) Martinelli could only be tried in Panama only for the wiretapping of at least 150 citizens, mostly political foes (plus some related actions) without the consent of authorities. Legal experts point out that the case for wiretapping in Panama is weak because two key witnesses disappeared two years ago, and the hardware and software have not been found yet. The Supreme Court relies on transcripts of conversations recorded by the specialized Israeli equipment but not much more than that. Other cases of corruption have not been charged against Martinelli himself but on many of his former collaborators, some of whom have mobility restrictions in Panama or international petitions via INTERPOL.Because Martinelli is a legislator (diputado) of PARLACEN, a regional legislative body in which former p...

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