national

Clan dominates politics in Chepo area

The influence of the Altamirano family has been felt for generations and carried the day on Sunday.

Víctor Arosemena/LA PRENSA

Ismael Batista y Tomás Altamirano M.982380

Politics is sometimes a family affair. In an event yesterday in which President Martín Torrijos, three of his ministers and almost all of those aspiring to a position on the Comité Ejecutivo Nacional (CEN) of the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) showed up to ask for delegates' votes in the March 9 election, the historic leader of the PRD in Chepo, Tomás Fito Altamirano Duque, showed again that his family and loyal followers still have tremendous influence in the area.

Legislator Tomás Altamirano Fitín Mantovani, Altamirano Duque's son, received 40 of the delegates' votes. His rival, Chepo representative Ismael Batista, received 10, according to an official count by the Comisión Nacional de Elecciones. This was the Comisón's first congress in the country's 21 organizational districts The event took place in the Tomás Gabriel Duque Center, a public space built by Altamirano Duque´s family in honor of his great grandfather.

Many prominent public figures were present at the event, including Balbina Herrera, Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Juan Carlos Navarro, Pedro Miguel González, Benjamín Colamarco and Belgis Castro. President Torrijos's adversaries in the race for the position of Secretaría General of the PRD were notably absent.

Each of the 47 candidates for the CEN, as well as two candidates for party chief in the Chepo district, were given two minutes to appeal to the 54 Chepo delegates. In the end, the Altamirano clan won out. The four elected board members are loyal to Altamirano Mantovani. One of them is his father.

But Batista does not see the outcome as a defeat. He said the winds of change are still blowing. For his part, Mantovani gave assurances that the results "help the people in different ways," and he denied that Chepo has political bosses. "This territory does not belong to me or anybody else. Here democracy rules," he said.