politics

Torrijos completes 65th trip

President Torrijos has broken ex-president Pérez Balladares’s record of 49 trips abroad.

He recently returned from El Salvador and Brasil, where he spoke on trade issues.

AFP

will travel: Torrijos has made 65 trips to other countries since taking office in 2004. He’s shown above with Brazil’s President Lula.1032563

Yesterday President Martín Torrijos returned from his 65th trip abroad since taking office in 2004, which means that the president leaves the country on average about once a month.

Torrijos travel record trumps those of his jet-setting predecessors, including former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, who made 49 excursions in his five-year term. Even ex-President Mireya Moscoso, who Torrijos accused of undertaking political tourism, traveled only 40 times during her administration.

So what business calls the president from his domestic duties? Political observers reported that Torrijos was in New York last September 21 to throw the first pitch at a Yankees game. The Panamanian head of state then stopped in Germany and went to Spain, where he visited the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of the Real Madrid soccer team.

President Torrijos went to Washington, D.C. earlier this year to promote the Tratado de Promoción Comercial (TPC), endangered free trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama. And he was in Peru this earlier this month, participating in the Fifth Latin America and European Summit.

On his most recent trip, Torrijos attended the inauguration of the Central America Integration System (SICA) in El Salvador, before heading to Brazil, where he spoke on trade issues, climate change and the rise in food prices.

His fondness for travel inspired the director of the Movimiento de Jubilados y Pensionados Independientes, Eladio Fernández, to nickname him "el muñeco que pasea," or "the walking doll."