You can pull the wool over people's eyes for only so long, goes the proverb. And so the supposed independence of Movin, if it ever seemed likely, is now being heavily questioned. From is very beginnings, Movin has been an organization with a strong affiliation with President Juan Carlos Varela.
If its own participation in the Varela election campaign was not a sufficient giveaway, then the multiple appointments of many of its own members to government positions has left no doubt over its closeness to the current government.
Movin has been a proactive participant in the process of the selection of candidates for government posts. There have not always been successful. Announcing his departure from the movement, Alfredo Motta tweeted "today I leave @MovinPTY so that young people can rise through the organization", having failed to clench a government post for himself.
The group has also been highly selective and biased in its anti-corruption discourse. For instance, if has been notably inactive with respect to the scandalous direct award of multiple state contracts at Tocumen Airport under Fidanque III; or on the international money-laundering saga involving disgraced law firm Mossack Fonseca, whose cofounder was Present Varela’s very own ministerial advisor.
According to panameñista party member, Jorge Gamboa Arosemena, "people at Movin may be slowly beginning to realize that those that they support in government are a bunch of rascals".
Mr. Arosemena went on to advocate that civic society organizations such as Movin should not engage in demagoguery: “Panama does not need any more demagogues, not one more person preaching one thing and doing the opposite”. The politician went on to say that Movin has had sufficient clues of wrongdoing to justify taking some distance from the government.
“This government of Juan Carlos Varela will probably go down in history as the most ineffective of all the governments that Panama has had: if Movin really preaches the respect of the rule of law and of transparency, they should really distance themselves from the government”, he warned.
Political analyst Jaime Porcell goes further: "one cannot rule out their political aspirations: they have not denied the possibility of turning themselves into a political party for the 2019 elections".
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