José Raúl Mulino, former Minister of Security of Panama, He is the virtual president of the country, pending the definitive conclusion, this Sunday, of the electoral scrutiny, after unexpectedly replacing former president Ricardo Martinelli, convicted of corruption caseensuring that he will return to the “good times” of the administration of his political supporter, currently asylum in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama.
“Panama will shine again economically as we did in the Martinelli Government,” said Mulino (Chiriquí, 1959) during his intense electoral campaign, for a candidacy that was confirmed. in extremis by the Supreme Court of Justice, just two days before the general elections this Sunday.
On March 5, Mulino officially became the presidential candidate of the Realizing Goals (RM) party, after The Electoral Tribunal (TE) will disqualify Martinelli as a presidential candidate after being sentenced to more than ten years in prison for money laundering.
The TE resolved that on the ballot, in the box for the Realizing Goals and Alliance parties, Mulino should appear to replace Martinelli, as he was their candidate for vice president, something that was challenged before the Supreme Court of Justice, which finally ruled. Last Friday he declared that the decision “was not unconstitutional.”
A man of few words and a firm character, the standard bearer of the asylum Martinelli shows himself with the “ability” and “will” so that with Your Government returns the economic boom and “chen chen” or “money in the pockets” for Panamanians.
Despite the multitude of corruption cases surrounding the Martinelli clan and the culture of waste attributed to the former president, during his term Panama consolidated itself as the nation with the highest 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.
Who is José Raúl Mulino?
Mulino, the former minister who is popularly called “Stalin Mulino” for his physical resemblance to the Soviet dictator, had stood out as the favorite in the polls among the eight presidential candidates, with polls in which on some occasions he led comfortably and on other occasions, with a technical tie with his closest competitors.
He has a degree in Law and Political Science from the Universidad Santa María La Antigua (USMA) and in 1983 he obtained a master’s degree in Maritime Law from the American Tulane University (New Orleans).
In 1988 he began practicing law as a founding partner of the Fábrega, Molino y Mulino law firm, from which he left in 2015.
In 1990 he joined the Government of Guillermo Endara (1989-1994) as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, which was installed after the US invasion, becoming head of this portfolio when he succeeded Julio Linares, who died days before a heart disease. who invaded Panama on December 20 of that year.
In 1990 he joined the Government of Guillermo Endara (1989-1994) as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, which was installed after the US invasion, becoming head of this portfolio when he succeeded Julio Linares, who died days before a heart disease.
In April 1994 he was the first Panamanian foreign minister to visit Russia, after ninety years of relations. Then, between 1994 and 1996 he was a substitute magistrate of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court.
He has been married to Maricel Cohen since 1985 and has four children.
In July 2009, Martinelli appointed him Minister of Government (Interior) and Justice, but in April 2010 he became head 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 detained.
At the beginning of the Administration of Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) He was accused of corruption related 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, who this Sunday was also a presidential candidate 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.
