IL Postcard

President Torrijos' No-holds Barred Interview

Date: 05/28/2007

May 29, 2007
Panama City, Panama

After three years in office, Panama President Martin Torrijos granted a rare interview to Panama’s La Prensa. Reporter Flor Mizrachi took off the kid gloves for the president, whom she grilled about a recent mass poisoning scandal, accusations of nepotism, and former dictators. Excerpted here is a translation of the interview:
Q: These useless commissions you keep forming—transportation, diethylene glycol, justice system commissions—why do you keep it up?

A: They do have some use. These are help mechanisms required to solve difficult problems. If it were easy, one person could solve it all.

Q: So where are the results?

A: All [these commissions] have produced results. People judge based on time rather than results. The transportation issue is 30 years in the making and people believe it is going to be magically resolved. As for the health [system] problem, an integrated system has been under discussion since 1972. There are ideas to implement but there are gradual periods [in which this will be done].

Q: You have a house in Farallon [a beach community] and another in Panama [City]. Where did you get the money to buy them, if you’ve been a public servant your whole life?

A: I wasn’t always a public servant.

Q: True. You worked at McDonald’s.

A: Yes. The houses I bought with a mortgage that I am still paying…but I bought well.

Q: How do you get along with [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chavez?

A: [We have a] good relationship. Mutual respect.

Q: And [Cuba’s] Fidel Castro?

A: Same as with Chavez.

Q: Why does your face show suffering in every photo?

A: This is the face I was born with.

Q: Ah, so it’s not the effects of the presidency.

A: No, I have always had this face, with my eyes drooping like this. I spend the whole day thinking and working.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Running your own business or as a presidential candidate?

A: Enjoying my children.

Q: What upsets you?

A: Poverty, inequality, hypocrisy.

Q: The world is talking about violence, but it seems little is being done [in Panama].

A: As a people and a country grow, acts of crime increase. But a lot has been done.

Q: Do you dare go out without escorts?

A: Yes.

Q: What’s your take on nepotism?

A: The definition of nepotism is a family government. No one has a family big enough to fill a government. There are rules we have established and stick to.

Q: Do you think that [these rules] are being followed?

A: In a big way, yes.

Q: Well, that’s not true of the Assembly.

A: I respond for the Executive [branch].

Q: How many family members do you have named to government [positions]?

A: Oh goodness, I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Q: Will [former Panama dictator] Noriega have the same luck as Rafael Arosemena [who was convicted for crimes in Panama upon his return from a 16-year exile]?

A: His fortune…I don’t determine that, the justice [system] does. I don’t mete out justice, that is done by the Public Ministry, the court. He will be treated in accordance with the law. He has issues pending with the law and he will face them. There will be no exceptions.

Q: Would you make a good journalist?

A: [An] excellent journalist, I’ve been a victim...

Q: In what field?

A: Politics and economy.

Q: Who would you go after?

A: Those who talk as if they know…and don’t know…the subject matter well.

Q: How does it feel to be constantly compared to your father [former dictator Omar Torrijos].

A: There is no comparison. Panamanian history cannot make another man like him. I learn and try to practice his methodology—he has an important place in history that I do not have.

Profile

Martin Torrijos was born in Panama in 1963. He has two diplomas from Texas A&M University: in economy and political science. He was vice-minister of government and justice from 1994 to 1999.

In 1999 he ran for the presidency but lost. Months later he was elected secretary general of his party, the PRD ( Partido Revolucionario Democrático, or “Revolutionary Democrat Party”), a position for which he was re-elected in 2002. In 2004 he was elected president of the Republic of Panama for a five-year term.

In 2006, Torrijos was named “Leader of the Year” by the prestigious Latin Business Chronicle. The publication cited Torrijos for efficiently handling the Panama Canal expansion proposal and national referendum, as well as for passing key fiscal reform, signing a free trade agreement with Chile, and putting in motion negotiations for free trade agreements with the U.S. and EU. Torrijos’ approval ratings have been constant—around the 60% mark—since he took office.

Best regards,

Jessica Ramesch
Editor, Panama Insider