The King attends the inauguration of the president of Panama on July 1 accompanied by Albares

Eduardo González This coming Monday, July 1, King Felipe VI will attend the inauguration of the new president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino Quintero, in which he will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. This trip to Panama will be the third that the Monarch has made this year to attend an inauguration of an Ibero-American leader, after attending that of the Guatemalan president, Bernardo Arévalo, last January, and that of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, on June 1. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Felipe VI will meet in Panama with the outgoing and incoming presidents, Laurentino Cortizo and José Raúl Mulino respectively, and plans to hold several bilateral meetings in which he will be accompanied by Albares. He will also take the opportunity to greet a representation of the Spanish community residing in the country. The right-wing lawyer José Raúl Mulino, candidate of the Realizing Goals party and former Minister of Security, won on May 5, with more than a third of the votes, over his rivals in the presidential elections: Ricardo Lombana, of the Otro Camino Movement ( Moca), and former president Martín Torrijos (2004-2009), of the Popular Party (PP, center-right). Mulino has been Minister of Public Security (2010-2014), Minister of Government and Justice (2009-2010), Minister of Government (1993-1994) and Vice Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990-1993). "With its presence at these events, the Government of Spain reinforces the extraordinary ties that unite the Spanish and Panamanian people, while transmitting to the president-elect its willingness to continue strengthening bilateral relations between both countries, which share the space common of the Ibero-American Community of Nations,” declared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. The King represents Spain at the inaugurations of Ibero-American presidents, a task that Don Felipe has been assuming since 1996 when he was still Prince of Asturias. This is the fourteenth participation of Felipe VI in the inauguration of an Ibero-American leader since he became King. Specifically, the Monarch was at the investiture of the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018; in 2019, in that of the Panamanian Laurentino Cortizo; in 2020, in those of the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou and the Bolivian, Luis Arce; in 2021, in those of the Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso Mendoza and the Peruvian Pedro Castillo; in 2022, in those of the Honduran Xiomara Castro, the Chilean Gabriel Boric, the Costa Rican Rodrigo Chaves and the Colombian Gustavo Petro; in 2023, in those of the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Paraguayan Santiago Peña Palacios and the Argentine Javier Milei; and in 2024 in those of the Guatemalan César Bernardo Arévalo de León (which he could not really attend, since he was forced to imprison Spain before the ceremony, which suffered a significant delay due to the attempts of several parliamentarians to paralyze the process until the day of the inauguration) and the Salvadoran Nayib Bukele. On the other hand, he could not be present at the inauguration of the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, due to agenda reasons related to the formation of the new Government of Pedro Sánchez and the inauguration of the new ministers. After his victory in the elections, the Government of Spain congratulated the "Panamanian people for the development of the presidential elections" and conveyed to Mulino "its willingness to continue deepening bilateral relations between both countries." Mulino had initially presented himself as a running mate for former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), but the latter's political disqualification (sentenced to ten years in prison for money laundering) led him to become, two months ago, the candidate. major. His designation as a presidential candidate was endorsed by the Supreme Court of Justice just a few days before the elections.

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