Who Is Juan Carlos Varela? Meet Panama's New President

The Associated Press reported that Panamanian vice president Juan Carlos Varela was declared winner of presidential elections on Sunday, defeating former housing minister José Domingo Arias, whom current president Ricardo Martinelli had picked to be his successor. Varela, a 50-year-old son of one of Panama’s wealthiest families and owner of Varela Hermanos rum distillery, was Martinelli’s running mate in 2009 but had a falling out over Martinelli’s push for a referendum on laws against consecutive presidential terms. CNN writes that on Sunday night, with about 80 percent of polling stations reporting, Varela had taken about 40 percent of the votes.

El Universo writes that the new president, who will take office July 1, hails from the same business-elite circles as Martinelli, and both are considered free-market conservatives. But Varela has tried to distinguish himself as friendlier to social-welfare programs, emphasizing as his brainchild a series of plans put in place by Martinelli’s administration. One pays $100 every month to people older than 70 who do not receive pensions. Others have made public education universally free, and sought to extend 24-hour access to potable water, which over a third of Panamanians lack.

Al Jazeera reports that Varela has also said that high on his list of priorities as president would be to re-establish diplomatic ties with Venezuela, cut in March after Martinelli blasted the socialist government for its crackdown on opposition protestors. Varela had once served as foreign minister in addition to vice president, but was stripped of his post by Martinelli after refusing to back the re-election referendum. Soon after, he effectively abandoned his post as vice-president, refusing to attend cabinet meetings or perform any of the job’s duties.

Varela has also denounced Martinelli as corrupt after a scandal in which the president was said to have accepted bribes from an Italian company in exchange for the right to a government radar-system contract. “If [officials] go about doing business, they’re a plague, but if they put their managerial capacity, knowledge, and education to the service of the people, they become men of the State, as they ought to be.” But he has not entirely avoided scandal himself: Florida-based Diario de las Americas reported in mid-April that he had taken illegal payments from the daughter of a political ally found guilty by a New York court of laundering money from an illegal online gambling site. Varela has defended himself by saying the payments were campaign contributions and reported to the country’s electoral council.