LATIN AMERICA Panamanians Elect Laurentino Cortizo OE Watch Commentary: On 5 May, 66 year old Laurentino “Nito” Cortizo won the presidential elections in . He is to be sworn in on 1 July. President-elect Cortizo is US-educated (Norwich University and the University of Texas). As indicated in the first accompanying report, as Panama’s agricultural minister, Cortizo resigned “over disagreements with the Free Trade Agreement” with the United States. Cortizo is leader of Panama’s Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Founded by General in 1979, the PRD is a member of the Socialist International (as is Voluntad Popular, the Venezuelan party to which Juan Guaidó belongs). Although the PRD is also a member of the leftist Forum of Sao Paulo, which is generally supportive of the Cuban Communist Party and the Venezuelan United Socialist Party PSUV, it is not yet clear what stance President-elect Cortizo will take regarding the Venezuela situation when he is president. As the second accompanying article reports, he had said during the campaign that Juan Guaidó was the President-in-Charge in Venezuela. He apparently also opined, however, that the Venezuelan opposition should negotiate with the Maduro administration. End OE Watch Commentary (Demarest) “…‘Nito’ Cortizo…was declared winner…”

Source: Editors, “Elecciones en Panamá: quién es ‘Nito’ Cortizo, al que declaran ganador de la votación presidencial con sólo un 2% de ventaja (Elections in Panama: who is ‘Nito’ Cortizo, who was declared winner of the presidential voting with only a 2% advantage),” InfocifrasOnline.com and BBC Mundo, 6 May 2019. https://infocifrasonline.com/2019/05/06/elecciones-en-panama-quien-es-nito-cortizo-al- que-declaran-ganador-de-la-votacion-presidencial-con-solo-un-2-de-ventaja/ “…the future Panamanian President resigned his post [as agricultural minister in 2001] over disagreements with the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Panama…. These were the first elections since the leaking of the Panama Papers that swept the country three years ago and that were later affected by other huge financial scandals. For this reason the fight against corruption was one of the principal themes of discussion during the campaign….”

Source: Editors, “Nuevo presidente de Panamá: Venezuela tiene en este momento un presidente encargado y se llama Juan Guaidó (New Panamanian President: Venezuela has at this moment a president in charge and his name is Juan Guaidó),” lapatilla.com, 6 May 2019. https:// www.lapatilla.com/2019/05/06/nuevo-presidente-de-panama-venezuela-tiene-en-este-momento-un-presidente-encargado-y-se-llama-juan- guaido/ “The political leader belonging to the Revolutionary Democratic Party, center left, assured during an interview this past February 25th, that ‘Venezuela has at this moment a president in charge and his name is Juan Guaidó.’ He hopes that the transition in Venezuela will happen via negotiated settlement and that they don’t close the ports.”

Laurentino “Nito” Cortizo, 2019. Source: Alavergne25 via Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurentino_%22Nito%22_Cortizo_candidato_presidencial_2019.jpg, CC OE Watch | June 2019 52