POLITICS

Navarro, Herrera look to the future

LA PRENSA

moving ahead: A defeated Navarro calls on his supporters to close ranks around PRD presidential nominee Balbina Herrera.1093024

Juan Carlos Navarro’s failure to win the presidential nomination for the Partido Revolucionario Democrático earlier this month will not deter the Panama City mayor from running again in the future.

During a political event over the weekend in Santiago, Veraguas, Navarro admitted that he’s been thinking about campaign strategies for the 2014 elections since September 8, the day after he lost the primaries to Balbina Herrera by a 5 percent margin.

Navarro met his supporters Saturday, urging them to close ranks with PRD candidate Herrera. He told the crowd that during a meeting with Herrera last week, he had counseled her on issues such as public safety and the basic food basket.

Meanwhile, during a meeting Saturday in the city of Chitré, Herrera announced that she intends to form a commission to evaluate the possible candidate for vice president within the next few days. According to Herrera, she’s looking for a man between 35 and 45 years, with experience in the business sector, a hard worker with a vision for the future of the country. Being a member of the PRD isn’t a prerequisite to the veep position, she added, as long as the young entrepreneur meets the other criteria.

The commission is expected to deliver its recommendations to the PRD presidential hopeful on October 7, when her supporters will meet in the Atlapa Convention Center.

Herrera, meanwhile, said she still has bitter memories of when in 1999, Mireya Moscoso took control of the Canal from the United States, after defeating the PRD. “We can not allow history to repeat itself and, as happened in 1999, when those who never fought for the transfer of the Canal, received control of it. This time it will be different,” she said.

The next Presidente de la República (2009-2014) could have the honor of opening the Canal’s expanded areas, which are currently under construction.