Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli will leave the Nicaraguan embassy on Monday, where he has been taking refuge to evade a prison sentence for money laundering, and will travel to Managua despite an Interpol arrest warrant, the Police reported this Sunday. “We received an order from Interpol (…) but this alert will not interrupt the process with the protocol for the former president to travel to Nicaragua” on Monday, before the safe-conduct expires at midnight, the Director of the Panamanian Police, Jaime Fernández, told journalists.
The police chief reported that “early tomorrow (Monday)” the operation to provide security for Martinelli from the embassy, in the north of the capital, to the airport – at an unspecified time – will begin, in compliance with the political asylum status granted to him by Daniel Ortega’s government. Martinelli, a 73-year-old magnate who governed Panama from 2009 to 2014, took refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy on February 7, 2024, shortly before a local court issued an arrest warrant for him to serve his sentence of almost 11 years in prison.
Fernández said he received the Interpol alert on Friday, when the Panamanian government granted Martinelli safe conduct, according to him, for “humanitarian reasons” so that he could continue his legal defense “in freedom” and address health problems. “Later we will see what the dynamics are regarding the Interpol alert that is in place because he will be in Nicaragua,” the police director added.
Martinelli, who claims to be a “political persecuted person,” was convicted in 2023 for money laundering, a ruling that was appealed in various instances until it was confirmed on February 2, 2024. Five days later, he entered the Nicaraguan embassy.
The former president is also listed as a defendant in a trial scheduled for November related to the bribery scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. Nicaragua, under the government of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, has given refuge in recent years to foreigners with pending cases with the justice system, including the former Salvadoran presidents Mauricio Funes – now deceased – and Salvador Sánchez Cerén, and at least two former Honduran ministers, all accused of corruption in their countries.
