Panama: Conservative Party Wins Presidency on Promise to Shut Down Immigrant Routes

José Raúl Mulino, a last-minute conservative candidate in Panama’s 2024 presidential race, was elected in Sunday’s general election with a nearly ten percent lead over his closest rival.

Mulino, a 64-year-old lawyer and former minister of security in the country, campaigned on implementing a crackdown on migration by “closing” the dangerous Darien Gap jungle trail that Panama shares with Colombia, which thousands of migrants from South America and other regions use to reach the United States. Mulino has also vowed to improve Panama’s economy.

The now president-elect ran as a stand-in candidate for former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), who was banned from running for a new term after local courts sentenced him to ten years in prison on money laundering charges in 2023.

Martinelli, whose appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of Panama, sought asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City in February and has remained sheltered in it since then as local authorities have not granted Martinelli a safe passage out of Panama.

Mulino will take office for a five-year term on July 1, succeeding current center-left President Laurentino Cortizo. Cortizo was not eligible for reelection, as Panama’s constitution states that a president may not be reelected in two consecutive presidential terms.

With more than 98 percent of the votes tallied by Panama’s Electoral Tribunal at press time, Mulino, who ran as the candidate for “Save Panama,” a coalition composed of Martinelli’s conservative Realizing Goals party and the centrist Alliance Party, obtained 34.32 percent of the votes.

Ricardo Lombana, who ran for the Another Way Movement (MOCA) “green” party came in second place with 24.75 percent of the votes, while Martín Torrijs, of the center-right Popular Party, received 16.01 percent of the votes. The voter turnout rate was estimated at 77.63 percent.

“Mission accomplished, damn it!” Mulino exclaimed at the start of his Sunday victory speech, asserting that leading Panama would be a “gigantic task” and the most important part of his now-successful presidential campaign was to identify with that “feeling and that clamor of the irreducible majorities of the country, who trusted in our proposal because they had hope of getting out of the hole they were put in during the last ten years.”

Mulino assured his sympathizers that he would promote a “pro-investment, pro-private enterprise government” but stressed that “we must not forget those who are hungry, those who need drinking water. These are very big challenges.”

The Panamanian president-elect assured his followers that he would not be an “entertainer” or a “TikTok dancer” and vowed that he would work “very hard” for Panama while also hoping to lay the foundations of a new national unity with “the best of people of this country for the different areas, wherever they come from.”

Additionally, Mulino declared that he would defend freedom of speech and human rights during his administration. Mulino also availed himself of the opportunity to express his gratitude to former President Martinelli:

Friend, mission accomplished, Ricardo. When you invited me to be vice president, I did not imagine this scenario, but it was my turn, and I assumed it with enormous responsibility and humility. The Panamanian people, the immense majority that is our vote, the one I need the most, that is our strong vote.

In April, Mulino vowed that, if elected president, he would “close” down the Darien Gap and duly deport migrants in accordance with human rights provisions. Mulino, however, has not given the specifics of what his plan to close the infamous jungle trail would entail at press time.

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, extended his congratulations to Mulino and saluted Panamaians for their Sunday electoral participation. Almagro said in a statement that the Central American country could count on OAS to continue expanding the agenda of democracy, human rights, security, and sustainable development.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.