In Panama, the opposite is happening, which opens the door to abuses. Martinelli stated on X that if the country wants investment, economic growth, jobs, and “chen chen”, it is mandatory to make profound reforms to the judicial system, which he described as archaic and unjust. Former President Ricardo Martinelli said in his X account that in Panama, judicial processes that drag on for years and leave people living in uncertainty cannot continue. In his post, Martinelli wrote that the Realizando Metas (RM) caucus will push for a law so that any trial that has been postponed four times and whose facts are more than five years old will be nullified. In the former leader's opinion, it is inhumane and unfair to keep people in judicial limbo for decades, especially when they may even be innocent. The former president also compared Panama's system to that of the United States and other countries, pointing out that there, when a defendant wins in the first instance, the prosecution cannot appeal, whereas if they lose, they do have the right to appeal to a higher court. Without clear rules — he maintained — there is no trust or development. In his message, he also proposed the need for a single five-year statute of law, similar to the American statute of limitations, to avoid political persecution every time a government changes. Finally, the former president wrote that if the current government wants to leave its mark, it must dare to reform the judicial system and not continue allowing processes to be used as prolonged punishment.
