Martinelli unveils election platform

Martinelli and Varela at a February 7 campaign rally in Aguadulce

Martinelli unveils his campaign platform
by Eric Jackson, photos by the Martinelli campaign

The Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela ticket, now dubbed the "Alliance for Change" and supported by the Cambio Democratico, Panameñista, MOLIRENA and Union Patriotica parties, unveiled its election platform at a February 11 rally at the Camping Resort on the Transistmica and provided further details in the days that followed. The supermarket chain owner and his distillery heir running mate outlined a generally austere, conservative economic plan and mostly moderate positions on other matters.

Martinelli plans to eliminate a number of government agencies from the budget, some of which are widely considered abusive and unnecessary like the First Lady's Office and the Social Investment Fund, but also including the National Environmental Authority. He said he plans to slash the National Assembly's budget and lower the income of Panama's consuls. "I don't want a fat government and a skinny people, but the other way around," Martinelli said.

The presidential front runner is promising to lower the cost of living for people of modest means in several ways. He promises free books and school supplies for primary and secondary school students, cheap computers that work on alternative power supplies for remote schools that are not hooked up to the power grid, and scholarships for needy university students. He would nationalize the Corredor Sur and Corredor Norte toll roads and eliminate the tolls. He would cut gasoline taxes and eliminate the tax on diesel fuel altogether.

Panama City is seeing more people living on the streets lately, and as the Torrijos administration's reorganization of the Social Security system leaves ever more elderly citizens without any pension benefits the homeless population can be expected to grow. For people aged 70 and over who do not qualify for Social Security pensions, Martinelli is proposing a $100 per month benefit. He's promising to index pensions of those who do qualify so that they cover inflation and to build a shelter for indigent elderly people in the Interior, so that they need not come into Panama City to survive.

For Panama's most impoverished areas, the indigenous comarcas, Martinelli says that he will give tax breaks for businesses that locate there and create jobs. He also promises more comprehensive laws against racial and ethnic discrimination, and stronger efforts to recruit and train teachers who speak the indigenous languages to work in the comarcas.

While he would scrap ANAM, Martinelli promises to improve the environment by encouraging clean industries, promoting recycling and starting wildlife habitat conservation and restoration programs.

The Alliance for Change mass transit program would be headed by Varela and would be based around a subway line running from San Miguelito to the Plaza Cinco de Mayo area. Martinelli and Varela have been taking regular potshots at President Torrijos's Transmovil bus plan in their campaign appearances.

Martinelli also proposes to extend the Cinta Costera from the Casco Viejo to the Bridge of the Americas, and to get the buses running at night again by providing better police protection on the buses and at the bus stops, particularly in high crime areas.

The mostly young crowd at that rally in Aguadulce

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