 I'm Rosana Fuentes-Verine, I work in the group Espansión. Of course, my intention is for you, at some time we'll participate. I see friends here, acquaintances, and it would be responsible for me, and not to allow you to at least ask a few questions. And here we have the Panamanian press today. They are covering the electoral process in their country. I welcome my colleagues, friends in Panama. I have had the privilege of coming to this beautiful country several times during electoral times, and it's a privilege and honor as a Mexican journalist to participate in these exercises, which shall be the same for the three candidates. Juan Carlos, if it's okay with you, may I start? I would like, as I mentioned, for you to talk to us a little about how you got started in politics, about your background, your career path has been as an environmentalist with NGOs. And today, we would like, they say that you are disputing the first place with a so-called official candidate, ruling party candidate. Good morning all, thank you for being here. We have agreed to this format, so it's simpler, more user-friendly, more informal, more so than a presentation, or formal presentation would be. I'd like to start by saying that I'm very grateful. For all of you to having allowed us to take some of your time, I would like to share my thoughts on the future of Panama, which is bright. I would like to thank my staff that's here with me this morning. I begin with Nito Cortizo, who will be the chief of my social cabinet in my new government as of July 1st, God willing, and Samuel Luis Navarro, my cousin and great friend, who is also with me, supporting me, helping me, and he shall continue to do so in the government. Also, before addressing the question, I would like to tell you that I will try to be brief in my answer so that we can answer as many questions from you as possible to deal with the issues that you're interested in. I study geography. I remember when I told my father back then, father, I've decided to study geography, and he said, perfect. Four years in one of the most expensive universities in the world to study geography, I'm sure that'll really help us with our businesses. The truth is that I've been lucky. Actually he became the first person to support me, to help me find my path, and that's what I did in Dartmouth. I finished my bachelor's degree there. I studied geography and government. My last year, I began a program at that Dartmouth offered called Senior Fellows, where you would just write on a particular issue that interested you. And I began to write a book that I never published, a book about parks, no, a book on the systematic geography of Panama. And I was able to traverse my country to journey through it. I crossed from one ocean to the other, following the path of Vasco Nunes de Balboa. And I returned to my roots, because when I was a child, I learned to love nature in my home. And when I undertook this journey from the Atlantic, the Caribbean, we began this journey at a point in the Caribbean where the Alatiwa River, in the Kuna language, where it opens up to the Caribbean Sea. In that location, the Spanish who were dreadful geographers and worst linguists, I founded Agla, which is what they thought the Kunas meant when they spoke of Ayla. So we crossed from Agla, which was the first village, European village. We crossed the jungle by foot, and we actually crossed the mountain range. We did that twice, because one time we made a mistake. We tried to traverse the San Blas mountain range. It took us about 10 days through the jungle, and this actually reinforced my passion for the environment. And your political journey, when does it start? To me, there's no difference between what I did in Angkor, which was to protect my country's biodiversity. This organization that I founded with business and academic leaders, Dr. Ira Rubinoff helped me. He was the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute director back then, and Mr. Gabriel Luis Calindo, Samuel's father, businessman, diplomat, ambassador, well-known in Panama, important business leaders. And in a short time, we built this foundation into a force for nature. And starting then, we began, we turned Panama's national parks into true shelters with park rangers we trained. And sometimes we hired them, or we provided the money for the state so that in Renare, which was later the National Environment Authority, could hire them. And we tried to turn the parks we had into true parks. We created half the parks existing in Panama today, including Coiba National Park, which is a system of islands, coral reefs, which are the most important on the Pacific side. The Bayadidamas coral reef is there, probably the most important one in the Pacific, about 200 hectares. And it is the largest in the Mesoamerican Pacific with its own native species. I know I'm diverting a bit. And how are you going to make this economically feasible? Because Panama's theme is tourism and economy. Well, when I finished studying geography, I studied public administration at JFK School of Government. And when I graduated, I came here and founded Ankun. And my father told me then, so now, after six years in these schools, you are going to establish an NGO, and will you explain that to me for the environment, for ecology? And I told my father, this is what I want to do. Back then, the next day, I was able to talk him into providing me with a second hand four by four car. And I began to do fundraising so I could pay my own salary and job security that way. But we did a wonderful job with pro-social entrepreneurship. Ankun is still one of the most important environmental organizations in Panama, perhaps the region. We made a true difference, an extraordinary one. Not only what we did physically on the field, but also in the minds, the conscience of Panamanians. Thanks to that, Mr. Fernando Iletar Marán, founding president of Ankun, and Mr. Nicolas Gonzales Revilla, whose son is here. They gave us free advertising, and free advertising, we became one of the biggest announcers on TV, and we changed how people regarded ecology, the environment. So for me, that was just a jump to public life, and politics was natural because I have always worked, and I have always been blessed with being able to do what's in my heart. And what's in my heart is to serve my fellow man. And I have done this with extraordinary enthusiasm, and I am having a wonderful time. I'm enjoying myself in this campaign, trying to reach the position, the post, of being a public official and an employee of all Panamanians, which is a presidency for me. And in this campaign for the presidency, polls say that the two candidates, Jose Domingo Arias and yourself, are getting closer, but there's also another Juan Carlos, Varela, getting closer. It seems to be a struggle between three, and you all talk about poverty and inequality, but it seems that you, in your heart, hold this topic very dear. Can you talk to us about the people that cannot find a job in Panama? Panama's amazing. It's a country that's ready to take off with extraordinary talent. It's a country with fantastic biodiversity, forests, rivers, and the Peruvian environmental environment minister is here. He's a great friend. He is here. Our wealth is our people, more so than the wealth of our soil, our land. Panama, besides being a wealthy country with an almost 50 billion dollar GDP, with an annual budget of 19 billion, the state's budget, with a fairly small population, 3.8 millions. It has everything to be wealthy. It is wealthy. We have a canal in the middle of an expansion, and we won't speak about the Spanish company that's building it, but we will talk about the costs. We will finish it. We'll talk about that later, but it's a wealthy country full of poor people. About 28% of Panamanians live in poverty or extreme poverty. 90% of those are Afro-Panamanians in remote areas, such as the coastal areas of Cologne, Darien, Bogas, El Toro, I know these areas very well because of my work, or they live in the indigenous reservations, and I know those indigenous reservations very well. I was baptized in Umbara, one of our native peoples. I know the other very well. It's about 340,000 Panamanians who live in these conditions of poverty. Our goal is zero hunger in 2019, extreme poverty, 0% in 2019. How will we accomplish this? Not only through an educational revolution, which is one of the pillars of our government, and we consulted, we did not impose, Nito Cortizo led this process. Besides educating for future generations, the short and long term, we will create a ministry for the social development of indigenous peoples, so that as of the first day of government, for the first time ever, a Panamanian indigenous person shall sit to my right at the cabinet. For the first time, they shall have voice, resources, to have the basic things in life. They are not asking. They're asking for what's fair, and they shall receive much more. They shall receive paved roads, drinking water, electric power, health centers, schools. The basic things to have a decent lifestyle, and we will also support them so they can have a better yields for their agricultural crops, leading to our sustainable development. We will respect nature and traditional culture. We spoke about education, economy, I'd like to hear more in geopolitics. One more thing. Indigenous peoples in Panama are in my heart. That's all I want to say. And this issue of geopolitics, which at the end of the day is a topic that reminds us and unites us as Latin Americans, not only you have problems with inequality and genie index factors that we shouldn't have, the second worst one in Latin America is ours besides Brazil, and that's unacceptable. But let us talk about another country that has arrived in another way to fight against poverty, but it seems to be at a crossroads, to say the least, and clear situation at Venezuela. Panama has officially stated in favor of certain of the movements that are fighting against President Maduro, who today, by the way, has an article in the New York Times. Where will your government stand on this specific issue? I think Venezuela is only one of several geopolitical issues, but let's be clear, I'm a Democrat, I believe in freedom. I believe that in these times, these are the times of freedom, of democracy. I think that anybody who swims against that current is condemned to fail. Let us speak one more time about the tradition of Panamanian diplomacy. We're not just any other country. Panama has a canal and a treaty of neutrality regarding that canal. Our political tradition, and Samuel, he used to be our foreign minister, his father, too. He can also speak on this, like I can. Panama has always maintained a policy in its foreign relations of complete neutrality, total opening to work on a consensus basis in the region to maintain relations with every country in the world in Latin America, and to respect the fundamental principles of self-determination of people with a foreign policy that reflects the values of Panamanians that include respect for human rights and freedom. Having said this, I would like for the crisis, the serious crisis going on in Venezuela to be resolved, and if anybody here knows how to do it, please talk to me now or at the end of the session, because I don't think there's any magical solutions, nor easy ones. My mission is that it has to be through dialogue, and we are in a room called Contadora, which is actually, it was one of the projects that helped at a very high level of diplomacy between countries in the 80s to resolve some issues, some conflict of regional issues. One moment, please. I know we're short on time. Precisely, the Contadora group, for all those of you who perhaps have a little more gray here than I do, the Contadora group was the expression of this long tradition of Panamanian diplomacy of working with consensus based on consensus. It's called Contadora because it was founded on the island in the Pacific called Contadora, developed by Mr. Gabriel Luis Navarro, where with the leadership of many Central American presidents and the Mexican president, of course, a participation support that allowed us to attain peace in the region. That is the labor, the struggle constructive within a team to build consensus that Panama has played in an extraordinary way in the region, reaching much more than our weight, like any boxing fan can tell you. Panama has always climbed higher, higher than our weight, than our championship weight to articulate, very different from what we're seeing now. I was terribly ashamed that Panama assumed the role it played at the OAS presenting emotion that was defeated. I was in favor and I will do everything in by power to support a peaceful solution to this terrible conflict in Venezuela, which pains us all because we cannot allow this to go on, it can't be happening, but we have to support each other as a team to resolve this, looking for the solution through dialogue, not isolating them, not acting, just as a third-rate messenger. We need to act as a team like we have done it in Panama before and that will be our foreign policy to go back to that teamwork trend where we work based on consensus and where our adversaries can come and discuss issues. Candidate, let me allow the public to start participating. We have very few time. I'll ask you to please turn on the lights. There are two people that approached us. I would like for my colleague from Reuters to ask you a few questions to see if you can talk a little bit about the economy and how you're going to double the trade in the canal. You have to go over the figures as you have mentioned, but the canal is there and the world trade depends on it. So my colleague from Reuters is here. Would you please stand up and ask your question, if you will? Give her two minutes. We'll go on to the next one. Nicaragua is here. Somebody from a fund that lives in Houston. He's from Nicaragua and he's going to talk a little bit about one of the most important neighbors where it's a pleasure. We have a lot of friends in common in Nicaragua and from Central America. We are always on the lookout to see what would be your vision in terms of external policy, especially toward Central America. We know that Panama has had significant historical roles right now. We see there is a very important role. How do you envision the integration of Panama in Central America? Panama is a logistic center that can be the spearhead for the Mesoamerican region beyond Mexico. I believe that Panama has the Cologne trade's free zone. We have the Tocumen International Airport, the canal. There were 12 million passengers that traveled through our airport. We have the COPA hub, the services that are built around Panama, all of the intermodal transportation resources. This is extraordinary for Central America and Mesoamerica. I believe that this is a win-win situation, Felix. In fact, here we can integrate more Central America. We can complement one another. There are things that are done by other countries where they are more competitive, and likewise we are more competitive in some of the areas that I have already mentioned. We can complement one another so that the region through the free trade and economic integration can have attained a larger index of development. Let's talk a little bit about economy. Panama has everything for its development. We have sustained growth in terms of development over 10 years. We've had it for over 10 years. Look at these statistics. Panama has grown when we built the Panama Canal thanks to Marto Rijo Cerrera. That economic push of building the canal that allowed us to take off, the second takeoff, we had it when we announced the enhancement of the canal through Martín Torrijos, his Torrijos son. Nito Cortiso was a part of that just by announcing that expansion of the canal or economy grew by 7% to 10% on an annual basis, and then the third time was when we actually started the expansion work, or economy is still propelled by this resource which is the canal. You were right when you told your dad that you needed to study geography. That was your destiny. Yes, it was. It was my fate, because I think that is the reason for Panama's trade. It is our geographical position. Why is Singapore what it is today? Why do we have the canal working at its max capacity? It's because of our geographical position, because of our vision, because of the vision of Omar Torrijos who made our canal, a Panamanian canal, and because of all of us who are working on the expansion. By the way, this delay in the expansion is something that is something that we need to be ashamed of. We hired a company that didn't have the means to conduct the work, and these are the results. These are the results of all of these decisions, and the next government, the team that will be working with us is the team that best knows the canal, and our party, our political force will be ruling with the best. The team that we're putting together and that it's already in place is the one that knows this work, the expansion that knows the canal. Our priority one would be to finish the expansion of the canal with the highest quality standards. That would be priority one. The second priority would be that by complying with the highest standards, we finish this the fastest possible, and the third priority would be that it should be done within budget as much as possible. This year, on August the 15th, the canal will have a hundred years since it started. Back in the day, Panama was working, the Panama Canal was working under budget. Let's give the floor to Coronel. It's a friend that has been with us for two, on two previous occasions. He works with the McLarty firm, Steve Pleas. Mr. Candidate, thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us. There has been a lot of criticism from the international sector based on the lack of priority in Panama in spite of the economic growth. What do you ensure in terms of the performance of a government under your control for that particular topic? The first thing that I can say is that I want to talk for five seconds of the record. We have a corrupt president now on the record, I'm sure that you won't tell anyone about this. Yes, imagine this is of the record in this environment and being recorded. The countries are no longer growing if they do not have transparency and solid justice systems. The Panamanian economic model, the current one is already finished. We are being ruled by the reincarnation of Somoza Garcia. This is not leading us into the future. That is the past. Now, in order to grow, we need to build on a totally independent judicial branch. This will imply that we need to make changes to the constitution if need be. We will do it. And that requires the social consensus within our country. But do not have any doubt that we will do that. We will build an independent judicial branch. We will name a prosecutor on December of this year that will be completely independent so that based on forensic audits of the current government or previous governments, we will not pay a single cent out of the Panamanian pockets for projects like the one for film mechanical that had obviously a lot of corruption elements in it or any other projects that did not meet the technical standards for which they were hired. We will also ensure that the new Supreme Court will be constituted of judges that have very high moral values and capabilities. That is the condition for me and for my team. That is one of our pillars of our government plan, just like education. That is what will ensure for economic growth and foreign investment to continue to come to Panama. And in addition to that, we will create a transparency program that will be historical that will provide complete transparency for all of our government institutions. I believe that this is the great trend in our times to live in a country that is completely democratic, that is completely transparent, that is completely free, where there is media that is completely free. For me, this is not something that I'm aspiring to. This is something that is essential. It's part of our DNA, especially in the particular case of Panama. So Steve, you can be sure that there will be a climate adequate for investment that will be insured by a good justice system. Justice will be timely. The processes will have to be conducted in a timely manner. And we need to make sure that the justice system will be able to tackle all of the issues within the proper timeframe. We need to have a completely renewed system, a controller's office, a controller that is completely independent that will have an impeccable resume. These are the times that are coming towards times of complete freedom, of complete transparency, of complete legal security, because obviously our judicial branch is affecting not just the investors but also many other entities. We have a lot of people in prison that are waiting for trial. Here in Panama, somebody can wait for trial while being in jail for five to eight years and then they'll be declared not guilty. Obviously, this is a violation of human rights and this cannot continue. I feel that transparency, as Justice Brandeis said, sunshine is the best medicine. The transparency, sunlight, when you open the window and feel the breeze, when you get the information, when the media has all this public information so that we will not allow for what has happened during this government to happen ever again. We see that the President, that the Vice President purchased newspapers and a TV station while being in office and they're paying for their advertisement with money from the government. In the next government, there should be a clear separation between the officials and post and the media. We know that the press has the obligation of transmitting information clearly with transparency and we know that that will reflect upon our country. Thank you very much, Mr. Candidate. We have run out of time. We wish you the best of luck. Like we will wish it to all of your adversaries and to all of you, you see what he has said off the record in front of so many people. Let's see how that ends. Thank you. Thank you very much.