The trial scheduled for next week of former Panamanian presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela over the alleged receipt of bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht was postponed again due to delays in legal procedures, the Judicial Branch reported Friday.
This is the fifth postponement of the trial against Martinelli, who has asylum in Colombia, and Varela, now a deputy in the Central American Parliament. The delays have fueled a climate of impunity and sharp criticism of Panama’s justice system.
According to a court record, the trial was rescheduled for January 12 to February 13, 2026, because the court has not been able to notify one of the defendants in Colombia of the hearing date.
Martinelli’s attorneys and a Judicial Branch official were contacted, but neither would confirm whether the defendant is the former president. The trial of the ex-presidents and about twenty other defendants for alleged money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in Panama, had been set to begin next Tuesday in a court in Panama City.
“The Odebrecht case in Panama is the most perfect symbol of impunity,” said Lina Vega, president of Transparency International in Panama. Martinelli has been in Colombia under asylum since May to avoid arrest over an almost 11-year prison sentence in a separate money-laundering case.
In 2022, a Panamanian court ordered Martinelli, 73, and Varela, 61, to stand trial. According to the trial order, there are Odebrecht payment orders that did not go directly to accounts in Martinelli’s name, but he was allegedly the ultimate recipient and had full knowledge of the illicit origin of the money.
Varela acknowledged receiving funds from Odebrecht as a donation through third parties for his 2009 campaign, but not as bribes while he was in office. However, prosecutors say he also received payments while serving as president and while he was Martinelli’s vice president, at times when Odebrecht was winning multimillion-dollar public works contracts.
In 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to distributing more than 788 million dollars in bribes, mainly in Latin America. In Panama, it admitted paying 59 million dollars in kickbacks in exchange for public contracts.
Two of Martinelli’s sons were sentenced in the United States in 2022 to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving Odebrecht bribes while their father was president. Both Martinelli and Varela are barred from entering the United States, which accuses them of corruption.
