There have been over ten resignations in the government of Juan Carlos Varela, mostly as a result of corruption scandals and the poor management of critical situations.
The case in point is the recent departure of health minister Javier Terrientes in the middle of a type A (N1H1) flu epidemic hitting the country. According to sources, the straw that broke the camel's back in the case of the departed health minister was an ill-judged trip to Chicago to watch an Argentina- Panama football match, when he was instead due to accompany first lady Lorena Castillo de Varela to New York for a UN general assembly meeting on HIV aids.
Yet this is just the latest in a series of ministerial departures there have been linked to questionable behavior and corruption scandals. The first to go was former commerce and industry minister Meliton Arrocha, who renounced his position to return to the National Assembly.
Mr. Arrocha was one of President Varela's closest campaign advisers, and was also charged with implementing one of the central electoral promises of the current government: price controls. During his time in office, Mr. Arrocha shelved a bill of law aimed at supporting the economy of the city of Colon (Colon Puerto Libre).
The former minister also increased taxes on nonferrous mineral extraction (rock and sand), in order to finance an increase in public pensions. And while his departure was not related to differences with the president, Mr. Arrocha was reported to have fallen out with a number of colleagues.
The president has been notable for his unwillingness to make cabinet changes even when circumstances demanded it. Faced with serious dysfunction and the sensitive security ministry -where minister Rodolfo Aguilera's in-fighting with vice minister Rogelio Donadio caused serious repercussions for public safety across the country - President Varela failed to take action. The saga
was splashed across the media: it ended with the minister’s resignation and a lawsuit by the institution’s human resources director.
According to political analyst Mario Rognoni, the president’s procrastination in taking decisions is the main issue. Having announced back in January forthcoming cabinet changes, the president's
inaction has left many ministers as ineffective sitting ducks. “It would be preferable if the president took action and dismissed nonperforming ministers”, explains Mr. Rognoni: “instead, you have minister’s walking out fed up, which is a much worse scenario”.
Former vice minister for government Alejandro Perez goes as far as denouncing some departures has “irresponsible”, such as in the case of health minister Javier Terrientes.
Others point out that some ministers have resigned for an apparent lack of support on the part of the president: such is the case of former minister for agriculture and fisheries, Jorge Arango, whose departure union leader Roberto Troncoso qualified as “regrettable”; as well as of the national Secretary for science and technology (Senacyt), Jorge Motta, who recently resigned because of alleged differences with economics and finance minister Dulcidio de la Guardia.
Terrientes: My resignation had already been agreed with Varela
In an interview with news channel Telemetro, outgoing health minister Javier Terrientes declared that his departure had been planned with President Varela months ago.
He denied the allegation that he was leaving the ministry in the middle of a health crisis due to the A (N1H1) flu virus epidemic, arguing that the ministry was fully in control of the situation.
Dismissing the lack of vaccines as an inevitable reality, Mr. Terrientes defended his stewardship of the institution arguing that the ministry had bought more vaccine units this year than last.
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