The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, today asked the new diplomatic team that will accompany his government to make Panama’s voice heard abroad in rejection of the discriminatory lists that affect the country’s international image.

“The country that has us on these lists will not be entitled to anything from Panama, neither to a vote in favor nor to contracts with the Nation, much less to important tenders. They’re not going to be that easy,” Mulino said at the opening ceremony of the update day for the new officials of the Panamanian foreign service.

The president announced that the rejection of Panama being included in these discriminatory lists is part of an international campaign that will begin with the speech he will give at the next assembly of the United Nations (UN), where he will highlight the injustice committed against the country.

“We don’t have the ability to react like a foreign power has, because we are not. But we do have dignity and we are going to apply it properly, where appropriate,” Mulino said.

He indicated that, through the Foreign Ministry, the position of the Panamanian Government has already been raised to the different accredited embassies in Panama that have to do with the preparation of these discriminatory lists.

“It is not true that we are friends, cooperators, a tremendous country, a great government on the one hand and some thugs on the other. We are not and we reject it,” Mulino said.

As a country, the president acknowledged, we can have problems and failures, like everyone else, but it is not true that Panama is up to Iran or North Korea “so that they are our travel companions on these lists. No, sir, that is unacceptable for the Government of Panama,” he remarked.

Another guideline that President Mulino asked the new diplomatic team to include in their agendas is the issue of the crisis in Venezuela and illegal migration by Darién, stressing that each ambassador or consul will be “Panama’s voice in the world.”]