 Good afternoon and welcome to CSIS. My name is Carl Meacham and I'm the director of the America's program here. It's an honor to have the ambassador with us today. I'm going to be very brief because I think most of you are going to want to hear what the ambassador has to say today. And just I'm just going to set the context a little bit for today's event. As many of you know the 25th anniversary of the U.S. involvement in Panama that removed dictator Manuel Noriega from power is coming up just in two weeks. This is a major marker in the bilateral relationship. Today the United States and Panama enjoy a strong and close relationship. Economically the two are linked through the Central American Free Trade Agreement not to mention their deep commercial interdependence related to the Panama Canal. And within multilateral fora the bilateral relationship is still more interesting. Earlier this year as political unrest in Venezuela reached a fever pitch the U.S. and Panama stood together at the OAS to support the Venezuelan opposition. Panama's delegation even seated its time at the OAS to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado bolstering the legitimacy of the opposition's cause. And most recently Panama's stewardship of the 2015 Summit of the Americas this spring has put the two countries on different sides on the issue, on an important issue of regional discussion which is the place of Cuba and regional affairs. Panama has invited Cuba to attend this meeting. We hosted an event here at CSIS just yesterday on U.S.-Cuba relations and we talked a little bit about this summit and about Panama's decision to invite Cuba and how this decision by Panama could create a decision-forcing moment for the United States as the White House decides how to react. And as if that were not enough the nascent canal project in Nicaragua continues to stir up some controversy. Nicaraguan opposition to the canal is increasing and it leaves us wondering what the implications are if there is to be another canal for Panama Canal. Panama Canal has been very successful and very efficient and its operation doesn't leave much to be desired. So there's a lot going on with Panama in the region and also with the United States and who better to have come and talk to us about it than the ambassador. The ambassador his Excellency Emmanuel Gonzales Revilla. Ambassador Gonzales presented his credentials this fall as the first representative in Washington of President Varela's administration. Before assuming this role the ambassador had a long career in private and financial in the financial sectors including roles at Panama Power Holdings, Lloyd's Bank and the Banco Comercial de Panama. I'm honored to host him today. Thank you ambassador for joining us before we get started. I just would remind you that we are on the record today. We are live streaming and when we open it up to questions I'd appreciate if you could identify yourself and make a short question. So with that the floor is yours ambassador. Well thank you Carl and thank you all for coming and for CSIS for inviting me today to speak to you. You know I'm here in representation of President Varela, the United States Government President Varela. He is the fifth elected government since Mr. Riedega was taken of power in 1989 and he actually based on campaign run on four different pillars. One being social inclusion and development. The second being the revitalization of democracy and public institutions. The third being economic development and the lastly national security. In terms of social inclusion and development you know President Varela is actually committed to do away with inequality and create equal opportunity for all in the country. Since coming into into office five months ago several initiatives have been launched to this effect which include improving sanitation and clean water. A low-income housing development, improving the healthcare system and not only the healthcare the provision of healthcare but also being preventive healthcare and most importantly education. President Varela believes that education is a cornerstone of progress and the way to actually fight a crime and poverty and specifically in that you know Panama being the center of in the center of the world trade it's extremely important that our people speak English and you know I think a lot of you know since we had you know American bases in Panama you know for almost you know 100 years little bit less than 100 years everyone thought that everyone in Panama spoke English that is not the case. So President Varela what he wants to do is actually in the next 15 years which will obviously will involve incremental investment in education and also that the next governments as we continue with the policy is to have a complete bilingual education by 2030. To that effect we have actually started a program whereby we're going to be sending about 2,000 teachers a year actually this in the month the first 500 come to the US to several universities in the US to actually for them to learn how to speak English and then we're going to send them back to Panama where we're going to have an additional training in pedagogy and for them to become better teachers and ideally and then you know that's about 2,000 a year so in five years it'll be 10,000 if we do 15 years that'll be about 30,000 teachers and these include both old teachers that are already in the system and newly graduated teachers that are coming out of the different local institutions. So that's something that it's extremely important one of the platforms of the campaign. We are very involved actually at the embassy here in DC coordinating all of these efforts since this is being done with exclusively US universities okay and I think we have so far we have over 14 universities that are participating in the program from the US to Pennsylvania, Georgetown, American and a lot of schools in the Midwest as well so this is very very interesting program and something that it's that is you know relatively new and in the region. In terms of revitalization of democracy you know President Barreta has served to say many times that the government is to serve the people not to benefit from it so you know we are his government is starting to be completely transparent honest corruption will not be tolerated at any level and will be prosecuted to the extent of prosecuted to the extent of the law obviously always a always abiding by the rule of law and the different and the different processes that need to be followed. There's an own wavering commitment to protect democracy and our institutions so that's something that he wants to leave as a legacy when he leaves that's that you know make sure that these institutions are not politicized and are not subject to whoever is empowered at the time. In terms of economic development the third pillar you know we've had tremendous growth in Panama over the last over the years but but we want we need to make sure that that continues you know that it continues but also that that growth actually gets to the most needed people in the country. It's to you know and by doing this you need to make sure that there's a level playing field that there's no how do you say that there's no favoritism or favoritism for anybody when it comes to doing business in Panama and that this complete transparency and an openness in every single a government bid or contract that something has been in question before and you know we are trying to make sure that that doesn't ever happen in Panama you know at the end of the day you know corruption is really you know has huge negative economic impact in in our country so we're not mature that doesn't happen in terms of national security you know we're striving to to have a safe environment for citizens and and we're actually tackling this at several levels even from the community side whereby we have programs to basically that are targeting kids that are at risk to join gangs and so forth to multilateral all international corporations in terms of money laundering programs drug trafficking etc etc which we work closely with the US and our regional allies at the end of the day you know that permeates that that elicit criminal activity permeates down to to to our batteries and so forth so we're not making sure that we fight those on both on both levels and and again these pillars you know are not separate from one another because you know without education you're going to have create opportunity without you know without economic growth you can't create opportunity so it's all interrelated today where are we today in Panama you know we're privileged we've we have an incredible asset that is our strategic location some people would say the Panama Canal is our biggest asset I say it's our strategic location without it we wouldn't have the canal so we know we've had tremendous growth as I said before in the past ten years we've grown about eight and a half percent average which is tremendous for for you know and anywhere in the world this year we're going to grow about six percent and next year they're forecasting that we're going to grow about seven percent which actually would be the fastest growing economy in Latin America for that 2015 so there's a lot of growth coming in and with that this you know so that that's that that's you know in terms of what's happening with the economy also as you mentioned in your opening you know we're getting set to to complete the expansion of the Panama Canal that should be done of course you know we've had problems you know we're not going to cover the song on one hand but it's a major major infrastructure project then and we've had some delays delays it's about 80 percent completed and we expect to have it done I would say probably first quarter 2016 of course you know that that's going to have huge impacts both locally and internationally locally you know we're going to double the capacity of the cargo or capacity of the canal which you know you can just multiply the do the numbers and and see what's going to happen to revenues and of course you know that would mean that the central government's going to have more more more more dollars to actually continue doing infrastructure projects additionally it's going to put tremendous pressure as well on on everything related logistic you know the logistic hub going to have to increase investment in ports and and and our our logistic related infrastructure but again that also ties up with with with our other the thing is you know the logistic hub is not just the Panama Canal that's one of the the pieces of the puzzle you know we have incredible air air interconnection we have incredible communication systems every single fiber cable that goes through region goes through Panama we have an incredible and very robust financial center that is part of the logistic hub and so so you know all of these things you know there's going to be so many interesting opportunities in there aside from the logistic opportunity in logistic sectors they're going to be incredible opportunities in the energy sector and that's power generation renewables and also gas we're trying to actually create a lng hub in Panama so there's going to be some some interesting opportunities there this is going to be of course also additionally with all this growth there's huge demand for hotel rooms so the hospitality industry infrastructure is going to it's going to see some some surges as well in demand and just basically basic infrastructure in terms of completing new schools completing roads we're about to bid the the second line of a metro and the third line is already in the working studies and and also there's a couple projects in mining that are that are being looked at of course all of this is going to be promoted with 11 playing field and everybody's going to be welcome to come and bid and and and and that's something that that I think it's it's it's one of the main messages that we want to send to to to the world in terms of foreign policy Panama is trying to to regain its role as a facilitator promoting dialogue and consensus in the region which which is a role that historically we've had you know it's it's it's you know we don't like to take sides you know and we believe we firmly believe that by having that dialogue we can come in we can come into to agreements and that's something that we want to actually concentrate on going forward you know and foreign policy we will continue cooperating in in security issues with our allies and you know to fight drug trafficking money laundering terrorism human trafficking every single kind of illicit activity that goes through a region and you know at the end of the day you know what is that we all want it's a safer western hemisphere I mean it's a for world but mostly safer western hemisphere we will continue working with the with the financial action task force to improve continuing improving our legislation and also we're about to actually to send to congress new legislation where other the banking system is seemingly well regulated but other sectors are not so we're going to actually improve that that regulation to do away with and curb any single industry where illicit activity can actually you know put his clothes in so you know this is something that person but it is very much committed to and you know we also like to we've been away from participating in most international organizations and and we're actually going to do an effort now to participate more and we're going to be nominating some some some panamanians to some of these posts specifically we just nominated as medallia tortini which which is a former supreme court justice to the uh uh courted americana derecho humanos uh so so and and and we foresee that we're going to be nominating you know other people as well um and then you know of course foreign policy the big topic is the summit uh we're thrilled to be hosting the summit in uh in april first week in april uh you know we we do have the infrastructure too to to uh to accommodate and we we're welcome you know we are looking forward to hosting our neighbors in Chile all the way to canada uh you know timing is very interesting uh you know the the region is doing extremely well uh as as a whole uh by some estimates by year 2020 you know lat america region is going to have a 10 trillion uh economy with about 640 000 640 million active consumers so it's very important um and and there's a lot of issues that that that apart from you know economic issues and trade that that that we want to discuss uh and we want to discuss issues such as you know illegal immigration we want to discuss issues uh such as uh energy resource scarcity we want to discuss issues of a drug trafficking and most importantly you know the role of democracy and human rights in the region uh and and i i believe these are things these are these are these are these are things that that almost everyone in the region is willing to you know it's willing and wants to talk about and and uh and we're looking forward to creating the forum in the summit so the things like so these you know these these issues can be in this goes up and openly um as i said you know we're thrilled to be hosting it and and look forward to having uh the 34 countries of the region uh in panama in april sorry great so you've given a wonderful sort of overview of the domestic situation in panama the priorities of the president of the new president uh the economic and commercial side as well as the foreign policy and i'll have a couple questions on on some of those things but i'm gonna go right to the question that you sort of uh or the issue that you sort of prompted there at the end which is the summit so on the one hand you have folks saying look we're not going to attend this summit or a lot of countries said the next summit of the americas has to have cuba at it and uh they feel that it's important to include even with cubans cuba's shortcomings it's important to include cuba in the discussion as i think you mentioned on the other hand there's others that say well if you invite cuba to the summit you're sort of undermining the institutions uh that are sponsoring uh this summit you're undermining their sort of cause which is the promotion of democracy by inviting a country that uh you know has a doesn't have a commitment to democracy um how do you respond to that and and the united states is trying to figure out if it will be sending the president or the secretary what they'll be saying what they'll be doing etc uh and that this has become a sort of a conversation that whoever follows latin america now has an opinion on that so um what do you think about that well um you know again it's it's you know we we see our role as as a facilitator okay and and and and democracy and civil participation are two of the of the main themes or sub themes if you will of of of the summit um again you know this is this is something that that uh that we have talked to you know that that has been uh a a it talked about the participant members uh uh that are coming and and in the last summit in kardahena uh the majority of all if not all of the of the participants that basically said you know cuba needs to be invited uh i think that that the fact that we are inviting cuba as we we haven't formally invited cuba yet uh the invitation haven't gone out but uh but we will be doing it sending invitation shortly to all of the members um the fact that we are inviting you know a q or an e or the government that doesn't mean that we are that we agree or don't agree with with with their policies so the members agree with the with the specific policies what we're trying to do say is say you know if we want to talk about the issues that that we all care the only way to actually push these issues and and for them to be heard is to have an open discussion uh you know again you know as i said earlier you know we've had our fifth a a a a democratic election in a row in 25 years before that before that you know no one knows better than panama you know what having a dictatorship is uh or whatever you want to call it you know we didn't have a democracy and now we do uh so so again you know we we we we will push democracy as far as we need to push it and and and and and and and we will create the the the the environment to talk about um so you know i think i think not inviting Cuba it's basically preclusions from actually talking about the issues with them so so you know again you know it's this is just my personal opinion okay okay i'm i'm sure might some people may have follow-ups on that but absolutely i'm i'm gonna sort of lay it out there and ask a couple of other questions and mix it up here you know you mentioned these figures about economic growth in panama that are quite impressive and and and it would look like you know panama is sort of en route to becoming sort of the singapore of you know the region and you know you have you know the trade that's from ocean to ocean the diversity of products is is massive um and it's such an important conduit to sort of bring the two the at atlantic and the pacific worlds together right on the other hand you've had all of this talk about this other canal in Nicaragua and a lot of folks feel that it's just a lot of talk uh but some commitments have been made and you're starting to see some of the issues sort of percolate domestically in Nicaragua and i guess my question is are there any implications are there is there any effect that having uh or that building another canal would have in the canal system that already exists i mean the capacity that you're going to have with this other one is is massive as well yeah i mean with with expanding canal we we we will be able to handle about 90 i mean it depends who you ask but it's over 92 percent of of all these ships that that that uh that transit you know the waters of the world yeah so so uh you know we are actually feeling you know that that necessary uh and again you know the the trading routes today will change once once the canal is open and that's going to have impact not only in Panama necessarily but you know you guys here in the u.s you know you're investing a whole lot more in the expansion reports to accommodate those large ships than we actually investing in the expansion of the canal yeah so implications are actually are actually uh massive um as to the canal in Nicaragua if it's going to get built it's not going to get built yeah you know i don't know you have to ask the Nicaraguans you know that question uh what we are doing in Panama is running the canal as efficiently as we can and as i said earlier uh the canal the Panama canal is only a piece of the hub of the logistic hub so it's not only the canal the the canal by itself it you know it's it's not enough you have to have all these infrastructure service infrastructure and actual physical infrastructure uh to be able to compete effectively um and i and i think uh and i think we have we have done that uh you know i think we show in the world that that we can operate a canal efficiently and and uh and we'll continue to uh to uh to operate that way and again you know as is as with any business you know if if another canal opens up you know it's competition and whoever gives the best service and and and and offers a better alternative will come out ahead you know we need to concentrate on what we're doing and uh and if something else comes along then we we will figure it out but but again you know we see we look in the business model we concentrate on running an extremely efficient canal and that's all we can do right now okay okay and the last question before i open it up to the audience um so you touched a little bit on this the several investigations that are going on and so far as corruption uh by former government officials if you could talk to us a little bit about that and i guess also what are the challenges that Panama is facing regarding organized crime and narco trafficking and how do you see uh the president's administration dealing with that so first is corruption that's two questions first is okay i mean in one big paragraph the first one is corruption and how do you see uh the president's efforts in dealing with uh former government officials accused of corruption and the second one is how do you see the government dealing with the issues having to do with organized crime and narco trafficking okay so so the first question you know um that's a beauty of free press you know uh uh you know we've talked there's been talked you know for years about you know corruption in in the government but there were no really you know no no hard facts uh so one of one of local newspapers actually did some uh investigative reports and you know and started you know assets coming out of some former government officials that couldn't justify so you know uh basically the attorney general's office started investigations uh about this also you know there's there's another case with supreme court just justice but that's that's outside of of the of the court or that's been judged by the by the congress so it's different rules depending on what what what your position is but at the end of it those are completely independent entities from from from the executive uh and and and and you know all the executive can do is actually put you know people to to run this to run these these agencies that are that are you know incorruptible that are you know uh very well prepared and and and are willing to actually do what it takes to do to to make sure that that we have you know that we don't have any corruption in our government so i think i think president varela cannot do anything about the form of corruption i think i think what he can do is make sure that his government you know has no corruption uh if there was past corruption in past governments that needs to be investigated by the proper authorities because there have been some cases that i've been pursued uh will there be more of that i would i would imagine so i would imagine so uh uh you know again i'm not privy you know i know what comes out in the in the in the in the newspaper uh but i would imagine that that that that may be the case okay that may be the case and uh and in terms of of of drug trafficking and all that you know again you know we have to uh 45 45 45 our our institutions uh again you know it's you know we're putting in you know the the financial analysis unit we're putting someone you know president varela just puts someone that it's a carrier uh officer okay so it's not it's not tied to politics or anything and and uh and someone who had been you know chasing down the bad guys uh uh uh now here uh the uh also the the the consejo seguridad security council yeah if you will also a carrier officer is in charge of that uh you know we're changing uh we are uh promoting changing legislation to to to to penalize or criminalize uh money laundering and it's it's uh related activities so you know we are trying to strengthen the the institutional institutional part of of of the penalties if you will of that uh and in parallel we are you know with both all the the the uh the what do you call it the uh the police force or with the police force and and and the and the attorney general's office prosecuting and changing down uh uh the illicit activity and then working jointly with our neighbors and and and with the u.s. as well and in actually securing our borders and putting in place structures to deter uh to deter this uh uh this criminal activity at the end of the day I think it's this is like a game of this is like you know those the frog game with a kid that you actually hit it in the head and goes down then someone pops up so you know this is an ever ending fight so you know they get clever we need to be more clever and uh but but it's it's a matter of just being putting constant pressure on the illicit activity and um chop okay well with that I think we're gonna open it up uh to the to the audience a little bit we'll start up up up here and then we'll move to the back hi i'm larry luxner news editor of the washington diplomat um in numerical terms mr ambassador can you speak uh about the effect of the free trade agreement that panama recently signed with the united states that specifically imports exports fdi etc and secondly uh what kind of opportunities does the fta offer uh for port urico which is like panama what kind of opportunities does the fta offer for port urico uh an american commonwealth that like panama is bilingual and trying to position itself as a bridge between uh latin america and the us mainland thank you i guess if port urico can learn from the panama case but panama but port urico is a commonwealth you know with with with f with a feature agreement i i think we're still trying to to figure it out how to explode it better yeah if you will uh i think uh if you look at at the numbers uh it hasn't really benefited benefited panamanian exports to to the us more the other way around uh if you look at just whole numbers uh panama imports to the us is around uh 11 billion whereby panama exports to the us i think it's not even 400 500 million dollars so this is huge huge imbalance so i think uh i think there's there's there's there's still a lot to do on that as far as for rico what i can learn from us you know i think it's too early still to to to say because i don't think we have been actually extremely successful in implementing the fta so and so that's just a personal opinion have a question up here you know like oh thank you richard downey from delphi strategic consulting thank you very much for great overview ambassador um i have two questions and ones a follow-up of carls on corruption let me talk about that one first but i was in panama about two weeks ago attending a conference in fact investor meister was there as well and i was moderating panel on governability and institutionality which i thought despite the very distinguished panelists was going to be really stayed and boring it turned out to be the most passionate panel i have ever been associated with and the reason was people focused on corruption and as carl mentioned there's a number of former officials that are being uh investigated and it all seemed to circulate around president martinelli uh do you see this getting closer in and and focusing on and eventually touching uh president martinelli uh in terms of corruption that seemed to be the the focus for most of these uh these efforts and viewpoints of people the second is you briefly mentioned energy uh you certainly have a lot of water resources there in panama but do you see opportunities for other renewable energy projects for geothermic solar types of energy as well yeah thank you and wind thank you i'll start with it with it with the easy question first actually yes actually what you said about the month ago there was a bid for a ppa for solar energy um and uh and i believe there were over 30 participants in that bid which is unheard of also uh there's uh 270 megawatt wind facility being built right now i think it's about 100 megawatts already up and running and in terms of geothermal nothing has been done in panama surprisingly though because we are actually a hotbed so i think uh i think there may be some actual opportunities in in that sector as well um as to the first question and sorry and and then energy you know we're going to be bidding out about 700 megawatts in about three months so and that's a a technology agnostic so it could be anything uh so if you have a a lng plant or or thermal or whatever you participate uh so so and and uh you know we continue to invest in in transmission infrastructure which uh the previous government did not really do a good job on off um and right now we actually we have restrictions on on the line so we need to fix that before we actually uh get this bit going on um on the other side uh you know i think the investigations need to take their course uh you know i'm not i'm not privy to information you know to be able to say yes or no to you know to answer your question yes or no uh i think the chips will fall where they have to fall and and and uh and but if you you know if if you look at what's been what's coming out and what's going you know and today for example there was another uh indictment uh we came out you know it's it's it's like you know at the end of the day i think if you see your company you know you're responsible for what happens in your company so uh that's that's what i need to that that that's all i can say uh i don't know what i don't know what the outcome is going to be but i think i think uh there's a lot more to the story that will continue to come out we go over here and then we'll move it to the back we're getting some tweeted questions so i want to get a couple of those in as well now i'm getting worried yeah now excellent see thank you very much for your very informative talk uh sergio de la pina from i'm an independent consultant given the nature of panama and the canal that's already there it only seems natural that at some point you're gonna have to connect into colombia through the that end i know that that's been sort of a hesitation for for some years but i think that as in the future that has to be considered do you see that becoming a reality anytime in the near decade say a i don't know i think i think uh a from the practical perspective i would tend to agree with with with your assessment but i think it's it's it's a lot more to to to that than you know historical situation you know uh you know i think as you move forward for example you know uh we talked about electric interconnection going back to the electricity energy uh that's gonna that's gonna move ahead so in the next probably five years we're gonna have electric interconnection with colombia and that just the beginning off so i think you know i i don't know i i don't have a crystal ball and it's more it's more a state of mind of panama than than than anything else so so i i wouldn't know how to answer that let me go in the back over here thank you uh mr. ambassador thank you very much thanks girl the uh i'm david nelson with g the general electric company um the i want to follow up on one of the issues that you raised about the summit of the americas and maybe this is a distraction from the central attention given to cuba but the there's a uh a group of business associations in the region are trying to create a business dialogue with government leaders at the summit of the americas they're calling it america's business dialogue and they've just uh come into ge to chair the energy working group as part of that engagement um and i wanted to understand if this is something that the government of panama considers to be an important part of the of the summit as well if looking at at this kind of engagement with business will get some priority attention from the government or is this just a pipe dream from some no no absolutely uh the thing is you know this there's actually several things going on around the summit so you have the summit of america's okay which where you know the regional leaders were coming and talk about these issues uh we're also going to have a ceo summit uh which i would imagine this is part of that uh if not then you need to talk to them that that's being uh coordinated with the idb uh and and the government of panama we're going to have a civil society summit as well uh in parallel to that we're going to have a youth a a summit and we're also going to have an education summit we're going to being we're going to bring uh uh uh chairs and presidents of universities in the region i think there's going to be over 350 of those in panama so in parallel we're going to have all these all these different uh it's going to happen a couple of days before before the the actual summit happens on the on the ceo summit or business summit if you will that actually ends the day that the summit begins and there's going to be participation from go from government leaders in the business summit as well and on the other summits as well so so yes absolutely let me get and and welcome you know you're welcome to call the embassy if you will if we can get you more information we'd love to do that let me get these this tweeted question in and i'll go right to you sir one of our followers asks does panama have a future in the pacific alliance how could that move forward uh well we we basically approved or signed the the necessary future agreements to join the pacific alliance there was they're just subject to the approval of congress of different countries in for example in colombia and in panama as well so uh our our goal is actually to be part of that sir i'll get you a microphone right here my name is braden mayor i'm actually moving to panama in about a month as a part of the fulbright program to be an english teaching assistant so i was wondering what role you saw in the future with president baria's priorities based on education what role you saw for young americans like myself or others in helping to build panama's bilingual capabilities well we're welcome as many as you use you want to come down to panama uh you know that's that's as i said earlier you know that's one of what that's one of president varela's main objective the only way you can actually access the things you know in panama i also i i i was talking to someone the other day and i said you know someone people talk about oh you gotta create opportunities to get people out of poverty you gotta create opportunities and and in panama we have actually done that this huge opportunity we created huge opportunities we have basically uh non-employment we've had to bring in people from from from other countries who feel the the the problem is we have to bring in people from other countries who feel the high paying jobs we haven't been able to use our own people to fill those jobs and that's actually that's actually our fault because we were too busy creating all this growth and we didn't invest in education and and that's something that needs to be done in parallel because you can you know it doesn't matter how much opportunity you create if you don't actually give the tools to your two people to actually access those opportunities you know you're gonna have to fill those from somewhere uh so so uh i think i think that uh that you know this is this is a government that is extremely committed to investing in education i mean there's a lot of there's a ceiling of other other initiatives that that that the government is doing in education but this is the bilingual is one that's is going to have i we believe the biggest impact a long term well i'm going to ask you another question um i thought you had all the questions you're not going to get away with that so you're you're familiar with some of the crisis that we had with unaccompanied children coming from the northern triangle to the united states the root causes of that the criminality issues having to do with the maras with cartels etc um the spillover and and you know the ambassador from costa rica's here too which i would recognize um the spillover to that to panama in costa rica has been limited there's been some issues with with some of the criminal uh with the transnational crime but do you see a role for panama in the region uh in so far as dealing with this issue i mean is there a leadership opportunity for panama uh in dealing with transnational crime in central america i think you know as i said earlier you know we we we have problems that are attacking the kids that are at risk to join this this this uh this uh uh criminal organizations or gangs or maras or whatever you want to call them uh the the gang problem is not as as as prevalent in panama as it is and i don't think it's the same case in costa rica uh as it is in let's say salvador and guatemala or honduras uh so so i think i think i think where we actually can help is is is just by sharing best practices and what being able to do in terms of curtailing the organized crime um but again you know the situations of each country you know our countries are completely completely different uh so you know i think what we can do is is continue working together with mexico with colombia and end the re and end and end the other countries in central america to to actually do away with this drug trafficking which actually what what creates all these problems internally in our countries uh at two different levels in different countries so okay i think ambassador may still has a question here there you go here's a microphone yeah yeah thank you mr ambassador thank you for your presentation and i want to commend you for your laying out of 25 years of panamanian democracy it is the real story of the hemisphere in every way your political system warts and all works democracy functions their panamanian style and the economic facts speak for themselves my question has to do with institutional and it builds on carls observation just now could you analyze two things cooperation institutional cooperation with the united states in everything trafficking drug business criminal organizations etc i think the record shows that all the governments have cooperated well with the united states covering different administrations the varela government is new there are new people could you comment on the plans i think the answer is pretty obvious but the proof of the pudding is in the eating the second has to do with finance panaman's financial center reputation the idea of wanting to be the singapore of the hemisphere which is to my mind achievable but there are issues of of in the financial area one that comes to mind is a case involving a big financial entity called is it financial pacific or first which is in the panamanian justice system is that going to be you can't predict but resolving it expeditiously and showing to the world that these institutions function as they should is is a very strong message i wonder if you could comment on each of those aspects of institutionality in in the varela government's panaman you know as i mentioned earlier uh you know one of one of president's varela's main goals is to is to have a secure and safe environment for all panamanians uh so so this government and the president varela's government is is extremely committed to eradicating you know illegal activities and that is you know a long list as he calls it anyone that lives outside of the rule of law so it's it's it's more broad than than just drug trafficking or money laundering or or or or any of that uh you're right when you say the panama has had a long tradition of cooperating with specifically the u.s as a matter of fact i was i was in panama i don't know three weeks ago we've been cooperating you know with almost every single agency in the u.s cvp a homeless in a homeless security uh treasury a d i you know fb i d a uh uh and and you know even for example in the airport in panama we have now the advanced passenger passenger information system apis which you know we just share that information with the u.s and you basically you know even though you don't have to do customs in panama we know exactly who comes through and and and and uh and we have presented a lot of a lot of wanted uh individuals uh you know we're implementing something something similar with uh with uh with customs uh and the containers to be able to to track where the containers are at at all point where the prognosis the thing is you know the the the the the the challenge that we have is as a country that as our logistic hub increases and and it becomes big it becomes bigger you know it's a lot more attractive for all these criminal organizations to come in to see how they can penetrate it so we actually constantly having to to protect that logistic the logistic system to make sure that it grows properly but also is safe from from from meddling of these criminal criminal activities so so it's it's a it's a it's a commitment that this government has uh you know as a matter of fact in the appeals government most of this initiative the eps and all those were started by president by the last minister of foreign relations before he he broke out with coalition so this is something that is very dear to his heart and and and and he said that it will do whatever he takes uh to make sure that that we have a safe country on the other side uh on the banking system we have a very robust banking system we have I think the 12th most robust banking system in the world today a a regulation on the banking system is extremely extremely good and and and that hasn't been an issue for a while but what is lacking in our country is is uh and you know you can attest to that in the in the in the fat off uh reports and guidelines is that you know we need to better regulate other industries that are actually being infiltrated by by by by organized crime you know called the casinos real estate uh and and and so forth so we actually implement the legislation now to actually you know regulate those industries better and make sure that that uh that you have that also you know we are strengthening um and you know with more more technology and more manpower and more funds uh the the financial analysis unit which is what tracks all these illicit activities and the flow of funds and then that is actually then passed on to the to the to the uh attorney general's office to for for investigation and then if they they want to bring up charges or not so I think you know we have to strengthen all of that to make sure that that we have a safe environment in Panama so uh and the financial Pacific you know financial Pacific uh specifically to your question you know that was intervened by the by the local SEC if you will uh it's liquidated and it's being liquidated right now and and and again you know there needs to be an investigation uh and actually there's someone in jail right now uh but I think you know that needs to actually follow its course and and and and and see you know who's at fault and and if this if there was any criminality related to that charges will come and and people will pay uh but you know other than that you know we'll just I I can't I can't really say what's what's going to happen with that specific case I think we have our last question here in the back thank you ambassador um very heartened by your remarks and very glad your initiatives on education which I think are really important uh my name is Brian walch I run international government relations here in dc for a university I was with the state department for a number of years I worked under the Torrijos administration I ran the narcotics and law enforcement session in our embassy in Panama a lot of great cooperation and always was particularly impressed by the management of the canal um two questions and they're pretty direct one is the Darien issue with the connection between Colombia and Panama because it was already mentioned during my time there the government of Panama was completely against the opening of the of the of the route the government of Colombia under Alvaro Ribe was they hit away at that subject every day they wanted it to happen so first of all I wanted to find out I'm a little bit removed from some of the Panama dynamic for a couple of years what's the position of president Varela formally on that what's the position of president Santos on that issue and then the second question is Taiwan China there's always been a back and forth with Panama diplomatic recognition etc how again what's the position of president Varela and the administration at this moment and coming at the transparency issues there's always been a lot of largesse by Taiwan and China when they court um relationships with countries so I just wanted to find out what the government is doing to make sure that kind of largesse and assistance that comes to the government is handled transparently so you have a smorgasbord of questions there and well again you know you can pick whichever one no no the the Colombia the Colombia issue again it just depends who you ask I mean I don't I don't think we have a formal I don't think we have a formal this government has a formal position on that I could be wrong do we do we got a lot we don't know but anyways we can get back to no you know it's it's it's again you know I think I think traditionally Colombians one day one day the the tapon that didn't open and Panama doesn't want to open so you know I don't I don't know I don't know where that's gonna go again you know that's something that that is a bilateral between Colombia and Panama they need to figure out what they want to do in terms of in terms of of any aid if you know it's sort of Taiwan or or the US or anywhere I think you know we you know as I said earlier you know we will make this government is making sure that there's no corruption and that the proper procedures are followed and whoever breaks those will be brought to justice so it's as simple as that it doesn't matter where the aid comes from it just you know it needs to be handled properly and and used in the manner of which it was you know supposed to do so okay and with that I think we are done with our session thank you ambassador Gonzales Revilla thank you it's been great thank you everybody for coming thank you all