Word: martinelly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Given that national angst, it's less surprising that conservative tycoon Ricardo Martinelli upset Panama's powerful ruling party on Sunday to win the presidency in a landslide. Martinelli, 57, is a U.S.-educated free-marketeer, a millionaire whose business empire includes supermarkets, banks and agricultural firms. Just as important, earlier in this decade Martinelli was chairman of the Panama Canal's board of directors and Minister of Canal Affairs when the ACP decided on a $5.25 billion expansion of the canal, approved by voters in 2006, which has already created 2,000 new jobs and promises to engender thousands...
...Martinelli is bucking a leftward trend in Central America - a region that, despite its signing of a free-trade pact with the U.S. a few years ago, has since seen leftist Presidents take power in Nicaragua and El Salvador and more centrist governments like those in Honduras and Costa Rica join energy alliances with left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. "I think this shows that, at least in countries where the democratic rules of the game are accepted, more right-of-center politicians like [President Alvaro] Uribe in Colombia or [President Felipe] Calderón in Mexico...
...host of other problems aggravated Panama's electorate, chief among them security, education and an antiquated public-transit system. "I have voted for the PRD for the past 25 years, but this time I [tried] my luck with Martinelli," says Pedro Gomez, owner of a small Panama City cobbler shop who says he was finally tired of "receiving nothing in return. At least Martinelli promised to give scholarships and free books to children, and my sons need them." Martinelli has also proposed construction of a $1 billion metro, both under- and above ground, along with a light-rail system. (Read...
...even hot campaign issue down the home stretch. Presidential candidate Balbina Herrera, of the incumbent Democratic Revolutionary Party, promises her government would build an elevated monorail, which she says would be the most "aesthetic" and "least invasive" way to modernize the city's public transportation system. The opposition's Martinelli scoffs, "Monorails only work in Disney World," and insists the solution lies with a $700 million metro system...
...sophisticated and worldly ambitions. But getting rid of the second-hand busses has become one of the trickiest parts of Panama City's extreme makeover - and now a central issue in the May 3 presidential elections. "All modern cities have a metro system," said presidential frontrunner Ricardo Martinelli, during a recent speech to the city's top business leaders. "This will be the flagship project of my government. It will make this a first world city...