Ex-Panama President Ricardo Martinelli, 2 Sons Banned From Entering U.S. For Corruption

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that the State Department is banning former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli from ever traveling to the United States.

According to Blinken's statement, the U.S. is barring Martinelli's entry into the country due to "his involvement in significant corruption."

The former president of Panama allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for improperly awarding government contracts when he was still in office.

Blinken noted that this designation against the former president reaffirms "the commitment of the United States to combat corruption, which harms the public interest, hampers countries' economic prosperity, and curtails the ability of governments to respond effectively to the needs of their people."

Former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli's Sons Also Barred From Entering the United States

Aside from former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli, the ban also applied to his two sons.

According to the Associated Press, Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares and Ricardo Martinelli Linares have recently completed prison sentences in the U.S.

Martinelli's two sons were convicted of conspiring to launder millions of dollars after they acted as middlemen for some $28 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to a Panamanian official while their father served as president from 2009 to 2014.

The Department of Justice said they laundered millions of dollars in bribe payments through bank accounts in "New York and elsewhere."

The brothers returned to Panama on Wednesday, an official from the Central American country's National Immigration Service told the AP.

The Martinelli brothers will be among the 36 people who will be going on trial for the Odebrecht scandal. The company allegedly bribed several officials from the Martinelli administration to be awarded a government contract.

Their father and another former president of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, are also among the individuals going on trial for the same case.

The Martinelli brothers reportedly paid around $14 million bond ahead of their arrival to avoid detention in Panama. The two brothers had just completed three-year prison sentences in the U.S.

They were also previously held in Guatemala for 23 months before they were extradited to the U.S.

Ricardo Martinelli Claims He is Innocent, Plans to Run as President Again

Despite the scandal, the elder Martinelli still hopes to run for re-election in the 2024 national elections. He publicly announced his intention to run for the presidency again last year.

The former Panama president maintains that he is innocent and the accusations of corruption and bribery that were thrown against him and his administration are all just politically motivated.

He faced a preliminary hearing last November for a different corruption case, and it showed that the funds used in the purchase of a news outlet during his term were illegal, according to the Guardian.

The former president is expected to testify in both cases this year, with the Odebrecht trial expected to happen in August.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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