politics

Herrera, victim of mudslinging

Cambio Democratico vice presidential candidate Roberto Henríquez delivered a blow to Partido Democrático Revolucionario candidate Balbina Herrera’s campaign yesterday when he said that Herrera should explain the killing of Carlos Guzmán Baúles, who was fatally shot on September 13, 1987, during a Civil Crusade march through San Miguelito, where Herrera was mayor.

The incident occurred when the anti-dictatorship protesters were crossing the San Miguelito bridge and were ambushed by a paramilitary group allied to the government. Baúles suffered a gunshot to the head before falling from the bridge.

Additionally, Henríquez asked the ruling party candidate to address her brother and Panamanian ambassador to Belgium Pablo Garrido Araúz’s role in the loss of Panama’s preferential trade agreement with the European Union. Araúz has been blamed for letting the agreement expire, which will cost the country’s export sector millions of dollars.

Henríquez’s attack followed a recent television ad in which Herrera described Cambio Democrático presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli as a man “who became an arrogant millionaire” by raising food prices in his Super 99 supermarket chain, which operates across the country.