PANAMA: PROFILE - Leftist presidential candidate Balbina Herrera runs on anti-crime and pro-working class platform

Record ID: 264271

  • Title: PANAMA: PROFILE - Leftist presidential candidate Balbina Herrera runs on anti-crime and pro-working class platform
  • Date: 1st May 2009
  • Summary: PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PRD) CANDIDATE BALBINA HERRERA, SAYING "It's not the same, the country is doing well. The economy is doing well, but now we have to look at the labour market and the public sector. Nobody can distribute what they don't have. To build schools and highways, the private sector needs to generate wealth and employment."
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Panama
  • Country: Panama
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAD8HQTHJH0PPHFF7W3KO8BSSSV
  • Story Text: Panamanian leftist Balbina Herrera, a former housing minister once linked to former military strongman General Manuel Noriega, hopes to win Sunday's presidential election on a platform of cracking down on crime and helping the country's labour class.
    Backed by a strong banking sector, a free-trade zone and the lucrative Panama Canal, the Central American country has long been seen as a safe haven for investors in Latin America.
    Under President Martin Torrijos economic growth has been some of the fastest in Latin America, driven by construction, foreign investment and growing U.S.-Asia trade through the interoceanic canal.
    But Panama's working class have yet to benefit from the free-market policies of the ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party, or PRD. Many poor families in Panama City still live in crumbling wooden houses built for laborers who helped dig the canal and build its complex lock system a century ago.
    Herrera, the 54-year-old PRD candidate, says she will improve conditions for the country's working class.

    "The country is doing well. The economy is doing well, but now we have to look at the labour market and the public sector. Nobody can distribute what they don't have. To build schools and highways, the private sector needs to generate wealth and employment," she said.
    Herrera has also promised to crack down on money laundering by Colombian and Mexican drug cartels in Panama.

    "Panama cannot turn into a place where drug trafficking and money laundering become the norm because the ones who will suffer will be our children," she said. "We have to reach an understanding with Colombia, Mexico, and Central America for this to come to a stop so that our children don't become the victims of the drug traffickers."
    Running second in the polls behind conservative frontrunner Ricardo Martinelli, Herrera has seen her numbers fall in recent months as voters grow increasingly frustrated with the high cost of living and rising drug gang violence.
    A drastic slowdown in the country's economy has also spurred discontent with the PRD.
    Herrera has been accused by business leaders of being a firebrand populist who would threaten the stability of Panama's dollarized economy.
    A trained agronomist, she played a key role in heated anti-American street protests during a visit to Panama by former President George H.W. Bush shortly after a U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.
    She denies having been an ally of Noriega, now in a Florida jail for drug trafficking. Noriega has said he hid in Herrera's house from U.S.
    soldiers who invaded Panama and overthrew him.
    A recent poll conducted by Dichter & Neira and released by TVN television gave Martinelli, a pro-business multimillionaire, a 14 point lead over Herrera before the May 3 election.
    If elected, Herrera would be Panama's second female president.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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