Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino highlighted this Friday in Costa Rica the pressures that sought to prevent his presidential candidacy in May 2024 and to undermine democracy in Panama. Mulino revealed that he faced a climate of 'much animosity and much hatred,' attributable to business and media sectors, and to which he told the three magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of that time, '...something that I think I have never said even in Panama: if you lend yourselves to not letting me run, I will set this country on fire by its four corners.' It is now known why Mulino's candidacy was finalized two days before the May 2024 elections following a Supreme Court ruling that his candidacy was not unconstitutional. Mulino's statements reveal a concrete scenario: an attempt to violently undermine the democratic system in the country that other sectors intended to violate. 'The right of the Panamanian people will be respected here,' he emphasized on that occasion. But Mulino's words reveal more and coincide with those who have defined Panama's sociopolitical situation as an expression of the great hegemonic battle being fought in the country and the extremes to which they are capable of going. Mulino has spoken of 'business and media sectors.' In all elections, these factors have been discussed, but no official spokesperson had dared to point them out directly, let alone to underscore the independence of his government. Perhaps for this reason, some media outlets that report on his statements this morning try to downplay them and others censor them, such as the newspaper La Prensa, which in its current editorial states that 'the most worrying thing is what he did say in Costa Rica: that he would have 'set the country on fire' if they had not allowed him to be a presidential candidate in 2024.' Of course, it is worrying, but not for the reasons the renowned newspaper alludes to, but rather because of the way Mulino and his team had to face maneuvers that would have prevented him from running and would have deprived Panamanian voters of their right to vote. What is also evident is Mulino's independence from the de facto powers that have always been behind power. '...I have no partners, no godfathers, no economic groups behind me... I came to government without mortgages... today they come to me, of course, but on an equal footing, not by imposition, not as a chief to a subordinate, which has been the problem in many countries, where there are people who do not get their hands dirty, they put in money, they win power, and when things get serious, they run.' Some of this morning's coverage tries to cover up their supposed astonishment at Mulino's words with fig leaves, but they ignore the opportunism and antidemocracy expressed in the pressures from the sectors pointed out by the head of state.
