Panama’s President-Elect Mulino meets outgoing leader Cortizo for first time since victory

(7 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Panama City, Panama - 7 May 2024
1. Various of Panama’s President-Elect José Raúl Mulino greeting outgoing President Laurentino Cortizo
2. Mulino and Cortizo waving and entering presidential palace for meeting
3. Honor guard stepping forward
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) José Raúl Mulino, President-elect of Panama:
"It is vital for the incoming team to coordinate with the transition team (of President Cortizo) because it means learning about the reality of the nation and the state of delicate and important situations that must be handled without interruption."
5. Coat of arms of Panama outside presidential palace
6. Various of Mulino and Cortizo walking down stairs after meeting
7. Various of Mulino and Cortizo outside presidential palace
8. Exterior of presidential palace
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Laurentino Cortizo, President of Panama:
"The purpose of this first meeting was to personally congratulate the president-elect and also to start coordinating the transition process."
10. Mulino and Cortizo waving
11. Mulino and Cortizo shaking hands, Mulino leaving
12. Mulino entering car
13. Car leaving
14. Various of Panama City skyline
STORYLINE:
Panama’s President-Elect José Raúl Mulino visited outgoing President Laurentino Cortizo in Panama City on Tuesday.
It was their first meeting since Mulino's victory in Sunday's election.
There is uncertainty over how Mulino, the stand-in for former President Ricardo Martinelli in the presidential election, will handle the legal situation of his convicted ally.
Mulino, 64, replaced Martinelli as candidate after the firebrand former leader was banned from running after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering.
The maritime lawyer coasted on Martinelli’s popularity and the booming economy seen under the former leader as Martinelli campaigned while staying in the Nicaraguan Embassy, where he had sought asylum.
The 64-year-old former security minister under Martinelli has vowed to help his former boss in his legal woes.
But neither Mulino nor Cortizo made any reference to the ex-president in the brief statements they delivered after their short meeting at the Palacio de las Garzas presidential palace.
Following one of the most tumultuous elections in Panama’s recent history, Mulino is about to become the new leader of a country with pressing challenges and simmering discontent.
The president will grapple with a slowed economy, historic levels of migration, a drought that is handicapping transit in the Panama Canal and the economic aftermath of mass anti-mining protests last year.
Mulino ran on the promise to usher in economic prosperity, and stop migration through the Darien Gap, the perilous jungle region overlapping Colombia and Panama that was crossed by half a million migrants last year.
His inauguration ceremony is set for July 1.
AP video by Martín Silva
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