Panama City, Panama - May 5, 2024

Jose Raul Mulino won Panama's single-round election with 34% of the vote, with more than 94% counted, and upon receiving the news of his victory from the Electoral Tribunal pledged to form "a government of national unity as soon as possible".

A 64-year-old lawyer, Mulino reaches the pinnacle of power in his country after a long political career, something that perhaps also seems contradictory to the popular discontent expressed by Panamanians towards their ruling class.

He is the son of a former governor of the province of Chiriqui, in Panama's western region bordering Costa Rica.

Married with four children, Mulino holds a university degree in law and political science, a master's degree in maritime law in the United States and has worked in the private sector as a partner in a law firm in Panama.

He entered politics by participating in the "civilian crusade", a movement that brought together different sectors of Panamanian society against the military regime in the country between 1968 and 1989.

After the US invasion and the fall of General Manuel Noriega's regime, Mulino was deputy foreign minister and foreign minister in the government of Guillermo Endara (1989-1994).

Years later, he became more notorious and controversial as minister in the Martinelli government (2009-2014), first of Justice and then of Public Security.

From this position he promoted "iron fist" policies, whether with police checkpoints in the streets or with the repression of protests against a law that resulted in two deaths and dozens of injured people in the province of Bocas del Toro in 2010, events for which the state had to compensate the victims with life pensions.

After leaving the ministry, Mulino spent six months in pre-trial detention for alleged embezzlement in a multi-million dollar government contract to purchase radar from an Italian firm.

But the case was eventually quashed and Mulino, who called himself a "political prisoner", has always vindicated his actions.

He was a presidential pre-candidate for the 2019 elections for the Democratic Change party with which Martinelli had come to power, but was defeated in the primaries by Romulo Roux, a lawyer who ran again this year.

Mulino switched to the Realizando Metas party that Martinelli founded in 2020 and was its vice-presidential candidate for these elections, until the former president was disqualified in March because of his conviction for money laundering.

It was then that Mulino suddenly became a presidential candidate in a coalition with the Alianza party.

SHOTLIST
1. various public acts of the new president of Panama (March 13, 2024 / Apr 9, 2024 / Jun 4, 2023);
2. various of the speech after being proclaimed winner.