Panama City Mayor Resigns · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

The resignation of the Mayor of Panama's capital city, amidst still unclear circumstances, marked the start of the 2012 political intrigues. Newspaper La Prensa [es] reports on its website:
El alcalde capitalino Bosco Ricardo Vallarino presentó este jueves, 12 de enero, su renuncia a ese puesto, mediante una carta enviada a la gobernadora de la provincia de Panamá, Mayín Correa.
La información se confirmó a través de un comunicado de prensa enviado vía correo electrónico, en el que se adjuntó una copia de la carta firmada por Vallarino. Vallarino explicó que está obligado a someterse a un tratamiento radioactivo que pueda revertir dos severas afectaciones que pesan sobre su salud.
The Mayor from the capital Bosco Ricardo Vallarino presented on Thursday, January 2, his resignation to that office, through a letter sent to Mayín Correa, Governor of the province of Panama.
The information was confirmed in a press release sent via e-mail, with a copy of the letter signed by Vallarino [es] attached.  Vallarino explained he must undergo radioactive treatment in order to revert two severe issues affecting his health.
The news arrives in the midst of confusion because the now former Mayor belongs to the centre-right Panameñista (Arnulfista) party,  which had been allied to the ruling party (right-wing Democratic Change, or Cambio Democrático [CD] in Spanish) until last year when they broke relations. The Panama City mayorship is one of the most coveted political positions, and the office will now be occupied by Roxana Méndez, from the ruling party.
Panama City. Picture from Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic licence (CC BY 1.0)
Bosco Vallarino was severly criticized during his administration, and in several occassions was publicly warned by President Ricardo Martinelli. His resignation also occurs in the midst of a Supreme Court ruling which could revoke his citizenship, and therefore his position. Vallarino had adopted US citizenship voluntarily without being entitled to it by birth or family relationships, which, according to the Constitution, forbids him from being a Panamanian citizen. Nevertheless, this fact had been ignored during the elections, and after winning a law was passed which restored his citizenship and all his rights, including being elected Mayor.
Two years later, the law was about to be revoked; Vallarino preferred to resign before the Court's ruling and after a meeting with the president where there were allegedly conflicts and arguments. This was denied by the president, who wrote on his Twitter account (@rmartinelli [es]):
Altercados o discusiones no he tenido con nadie en el dia ayer
The resignation has caused all kinds of reactions on social networks, from those who agree with Vallarino's decision, to those who see the action as an abuse of power by the president.
Lulu’s Cake (@lulu20cake [es]) thinks the resignation was a blow to democracy and wrote on her Twitter account:
No pertenezco a ningún partido político, pero todo este caso de Bosco, es un golpe muy duro para nuestra democracia. Muy injusto.
Jose Blandon (@BlandoJose [es]), deputy to the National Assembly and advisor to the now former mayor, wrote a tweet along the same lines:
Habrá quienes se vanaglorien y piensen q Bosco perdió. Perdió nuestra democracia. Pero la lucha por defenderla, debe continuar.
Ubaldo Davis (@DavisZone [es]) comments that if Vallarino had nothing to fear he wouldn't have resigned, no matter how much pressure was put on him:
Dicen q la verdad Bosco renuncio por presión, el que no la debe no la teme, la plata jamás le ganara a la verdad
There were also tweets that handled the ex-mayor's situation humorously; for example, Delmiro Quiroga (@delmiroquiroga [es]) refers to the participation of the former mayor in the Panamanian version of Bailando por un sueño (“Dancing for a dream”) and tweets:
El gobierno falló, debió haber puesto que la gente llamara a un número o mandara un chat si querían salvar a Bosco.
Gina Lee (@nowginalee [es]) jokingly writes about the way Bosco Vallarino went from being a widely criticized Mayor to becoming a popular personality:
everybody loves raymond es un detalle a lado del nuevo show panameño everybody loves bosco.
The Mayor's party, the Panameñista party, made a statement where the vice president reminded President Ricardo Martinelli that he would be judged by the Panamanian people. La Prensa reports [es]:
“El mismo pueblo que te eligió te verá juzgado y derrotado”. Este fue el mensaje que le envió esta tarde el vicepresidente de la República y presidente del Partido Panameñista, Juan Carlos Varela, al presidente de la República, Ricardo Martinelli, tras reaccionar a la renuncia de Bosco Vallarino como alcalde de Panamá luego de presiones del mandatario.
Finally, blogger Joao Q reflects on this resignation and writes on his blog MedioCerrado [es]:
Sí, podrá decirse que una vez más se pisotea la institucionalidad y la legalidad dentro de gobierno, pero en honor a la verdad esto era como el título de una famosa novela de García Márquez, Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada. En buena parte nosotros mismos como votantes nos buscamos eso (ustedes porque yo voté por Bernal) al votar por Bosco, por ser como dice Andrés Vega “Domplin”: un pueblo demasiado emocional, por olvidar las razones al llegar a las urnas y estampar el gancho en la casilla del que tiene más cara de bonachón, por el que más llora o más caridad hace frente a las cámaras de televisión. Esta debe ser una lección para nosotros, un castigo por ser un pueblo que gusta del dramatismo y del escándalo. Bosco es la personificación de todo eso llevado al extremo y ya fuimos testigos de su tragicomedia que en buena parte también es la nuestra.