Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades said on Monday that he “won corruption, but democratically” after the presidential triumph on the eve of José Raúl Mulino, the dolphin of former President Ricardo Martinelli, with 34% in the general elections in Panama.

“I write these lines with great regret. I was categorically mistaken in believing that J. R. (José Raúl) Mulino would not be elected president of Panama,” Blades wrote on his blog ´La Esquina´.

“On the contrary, in a public demonstration of support for corruption, a candidate chosen ‘by finger’ by a convicted and fugitive declared corrupt, with only 33% of the votes in today’s election, May 5, 2024, has become the new president of the Republic of Panama, despite the combined rejection of 67% of the rest of the electorate,” the famous singer added.

Mulino replaced Martinelli as a presidential candidate in these elections after he was disqualified by the sentence of more than 10 years in prison for money laundering, which led him to take asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama.

Mulino had a controversial in extremis candidacy that up to 48 hours before the elections was pending the Supreme Court of Justice after being sued for her alleged “unconstitutionality” because she was not elected in primaries or having a candidate for vice president, as established by the Magna Carta.

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Blades, a critic of former President Martinelli who on other occasions has called him “corrupt,” questioned the “How can we insist on the youth that civic virtue is superior to opportunism, to the trap, to the ´play alive´? Almost 900,000 (nine hundred thousand people) gave their approval to Ricardo Martinelli by voting for his chosen one.”

“That’s the harsh reality,” the winner of multiple Grammy awards and former Panamanian Minister of Tourism categorically added.

He said that “for months” he had the “hope that this result would not occur,” because he knows that the country “has a spirit, a special soul that makes it wonderfully unique.”

“Young people like Juan Diego Vásquez and Gabriel Silva, and those who participated in the ‘Vamos por Panamá’ coalition as candidates, confirm my certainty that Panama can create honest and intelligent responses with which to carve out an honorable and successful destiny, despite the sorrows and disappointments that many of us experience today,” described the singer-songwriter.

Blades refers to the platform ´Vamos´, which he himself supported when he went out to campaign with those young independent deputies who rose in these elections with 19 seats in Parliament.

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“So let’s prepare our minds and souls for what is to come. I fear that it will not be what some think will happen, a magical period of prosperity, and unlimited progress for Panama,” said the former minister, since Mulino promised a “pro-private enterprise” government that will resene the Panamanian economy, one of his campaign commitments.

And Blades concluded: “Whatever it is a matter of making up, a convict, corrupt and fugitive from justice has won the presidency of our republic through his anointed front man, with the direct vote of a people self-condemned for their irresponsibility and their refusal to consider the benefit that can result from living and accepting the consequences of civic honesty and the rejection of the poison of clientelism and ‘living play’.”