opinion

A fair number of Latin American heads of state have availed themselves in recent years of different "constitutional" mechanisms to be able to get themselves re-elected. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela form part of this modern caesarism, known also by the coined Spanish term "democradura."

In Panama, where 17 years after the invasion the possibility of an effective democratization is with every passing day more discounted by the present rulers, where "things are so bad they look good," where ethical values, principles and truths are ever more scarce and devalued in the national market, many of us citizens feel ever less in control over who gets to hold public offices, observing as we do that some of the president's followers have begun --- very discretely --- testing the waters for a way to get the present government re-elected.

Until now it has only been whispered that the PRD's "electable" presidential hopefuls, whose names have been advanced by the ruling party's leadership or by themselves, are able to awaken among the population or within their own party's ranks neither sympathy, nor ferver, nor the minimun enthusiasm that's required. They have nothing to show for all the patron saints' days, flag bearing, cavalcades, casa de quicha parties, drinking seco out of the bottle, wearing traditional hats turned up just so, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, cocktails, baptisms, snacks, photo spreads in the newspapers, printed or spoken lampoons, paid-for television infomercials, and much less for the "labor" of the well-known and well-paid "expenses paid journalists" (PGPs, by the derisive Spanish acronym). Everything indicates that the crisis is at this point organic and endemic, that the debilitation is increasing every day for the cousins and for the relatives, but the resource of the presidency remains.

Some say it's clearly too early to play this card and thus the National Security Council has been left to rock the cradle while at the same time the president is on a permanent trip as the number of things for which he should answer but avoids because he's away mounts, and in this way the path is being cleared for the "legal" occasion for his enthronement. The formula for this, a cause for worry for some, is at the end of the story, the least concern for the re-electionists because they have what has happened in Peru, in Colombia and even in Costa Rica as their points of reference.

For those who say "there is no time" for re-election and want to believe those who say it can't happen, allow me for a moment to remind you that with the appointments of two new Supreme Court magistrates coming soon, the pieces will be in place for the constitutional interpretation that will allow the re-election of "Martín Torrijos, Presidente!"

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Weisbrot, A bank of Latin America's own
Carpio, Disaster reduction and the media

Pilgrim, The Trinidad-Tobago election

Sánchez, Lula's yellow submarine

Jackson, Republicans and Democrats and Latin America

Bernal, Setting up a presidential re-election?

Leis, Who watches the watchers?