Martinelli
I continue to be plagued by taunts from Panamanians about
Trump. They are convinced that Americans have gone mad to elect Trump as
President. Many times, they laugh and say “Now you’ve got your own Martinelli
!!” I’ve heard it so many times that I felt compelled to learn more about the
man who was President of Panama from 2009 to 2014. The similarities between
Trump and Martinelli are striking and I see why they laugh.
Martinelli was a noted Panamanian Billionaire businessman,
most famous for starting Panama’s first and still largest supermarket chain
“Super 99”. In fact, one might say he introduced the word “supermercado” to the
Panamanian lexicon. While he never had a reality TV show, his media ads made
extensive use of his face and voice, so the large ego is in common. Unlike
Trump, he started from nothing – other than an extensive US education (Staunton
Military Academy, University of Arkansas and Cornell MBA).
Like Trump, his candidacy was a very long shot and few gave
him any chance of winning early on. But, voters picked up on his “I will change
everything for the better (though I can’t exactly tell you how)” rhetoric and
liked his status as an “outsider” and businessman, even though Martinelli had
some government experience as head of Social Security for 2 years and Chairman
of the Panama Canal for 4 years.
Also like Trump, about midway through the campaign, his
popularity snowballed (especially among the poor) and he won an easy victory
over the competition. Very much a surprise to all the local pundits. So, they
were both good at saying what they knew people wanted to hear to get elected.
Like Trump, he claimed he would give up control of his
businesses, but never really did.
Martinelli said he would not make "a single penny" from his
position as President. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
And there is a direct link between the two men – Martinelli
was a major investor in Trump’s huge Panama City resort Casino, Hotel and
Tower. Trump described Martinelli as “a very good friend” even after his
political career started to unravel.
Unraveling is what happened to the Martinelli
administration, just as it is happening to Trump, though for different reasons.
In Martinelli’s case, it was his “pro-business” policies, which included major
corrupt projects for his family and friends. There was the $2 Billion
super-highway between Panama City and Colon, which started to fall apart even
before it was finished. Estimates were that the project should have cost about
$500M, but the contract was given for 4 times that amount to a close friend and
supermarket investor, with no experience as a building contractor.
Another Martinelli project that looked good on paper was his
solar electrification program for the rural poor who were too far from the
power grid to connect. I’ve seen some of these installations and they are
actually quite good. Again, the problem was that they should have cost just a fraction
of what was paid. The contractor? A company majority owned by his sister and
brother-in-law. Nothing like keeping government business in the family, eh?
Tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, coupled with
increased spending for police and border patrols and “public works” projects (does
any of this sound familiar?) led to huge deficits – the biggest in Panama
history. Reversing environmental pollution laws led to a massive increase in
river and air pollution and allowed his real estate friends to build million
dollar condos on cheap mangrove land (aka environmentally sensitive wetlands).
Much of the air pollution came from increased use of open wood fires caused by
people who had to switch to wood from propane, as Martinelli suspended the
subsidy to the poor for propane (since reinstated).
Another Martinelli boondoggle was the creation of new
coinage, including the $1 coin, which is still called a “Martinelli”. He
noticed that the banking laws of Panama, which were created for the US banks in
the 70’s, made the US Dollar the only legal tender in Panama, but said nothing
about coinage. So, he very cleverly had about $800 Million $1 coins minted,
along with millions of new quarters and dimes. The coins cost just pennies on
the dollar to produce, creating an instant $1 Billion overnight. Somehow, none
of that value found its way to the Panama Treasury. It is still “unaccounted
for”. $5, $10 and $20 coins were planned , but merchants refused to accept the
$1 coin.
And there was more. A plan that provided all schoolchildren with backpacks that cost about
three times what they should have was given to an off-shore shell company controlled by his wife. A public
social security hospital left unbuilt when contractors ( Martinelli friends and
cousins) absconded with their hefty advance and have never been seen since. A
highway extension with a $60-million cost overrun was never finished. The
contractor has never been located.
With all this flim-flaming going on and all the policies
benefitting ONLY the wealthy business and banking interests, Martinelli’s
approval ratings dropped from 90% at the election to under 20% after the first
3 years. There were calls for him to leave office. But, miraculously, he dodged
all the bullets while in office and finished his 5 year term. Most all of the
above shenanigans were uncovered after Martinelli left office.
I find the parallels between the two men striking. And I
know why the Panamanians laugh - they once
elected their own version of Trump and lived to regret it. The world once
laughed at them – but, who is laughing now?
I can’t say what will happen to Trump. It is unclear whether
he will be the Teflon President like Martinelli and avoid prosecution or impeachment while in
office. But, eventually, corrupt political frauds do get their Comeuppance – at
least Martinelli and his cronies did. Martinelli fled the country a few days
before the Supreme Court ruled that he could be convicted of crimes committed
while President. He has since been charged on several counts of fraud and
corruption and illegal surveillance and arrest warrants are outstanding. Many
of his cronies and family did not have the foresight to flee and are now in
jail.
Martinelli is said to be living in Miami in the house where
Scarface was filmed. He apparently has some friends in very high places
(Trump?) who are blocking the State Dept from extraditing him back to Panama to
stand trial for his crimes. Trump should be so lucky.
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