Maybe it's just paper and ink. There are allegations of corruption that should be clarified by the justice department, but the objective facts of Panamanian reality do not match the poor results from opinion polls on the Martinelli administration.
EDITORIAL
An opinion piece published in Martesfinanciero.com by Gustavo Chelew is blunt in pointing out, under the title "What we are doing", the damage that constant criticism and inflaming public opinion against President Ricardo Martinelli and his governing actions causes to Panama.
Funes and Martinelli have maintained high levels of approval from their countrymen, while Ortega is recovering, Colom and Lobo are still low and Chinchilla is still falling.
With the first few years of presidency behind them, Mauricio Funes and Ricardo Martinelli are the leaders in the area with the most approval from their citizens: The first for having faced difficult opposition, and for his education, personality and charisma.
The Salvadoran president has a 72% approval rating, while Martinelli has 65%, Lobo 51%, Chinchilla 45%, Colom 41% and Ortega 40%.
Mauricio Funes, although still in second place in Latin America, falls three percentage points from a previous survey and now has 72% approval rating, topping the list of presidents in Central America with high evaluation.
El Salvador is not an easy country to govern, but despite all the difficulties faced during his presidential term, Mauricio Funes has the support of 79% of the population.
That makes him the most popular president in Latin America and this despite the fact El Salvador has the highest murder rate in the world and despite the fact its economy shrank 3.6% during the global economic crisis.
Mauricio Funes has an approval rating of 76%; he is followed by Ricardo Martinelli (66%), Laura Chinchilla (64%), Porfirio Lobo (60%), Alvaro Colom (50%) and Daniel Ortega (38%).
CID-Gallup unveiled its Central American public opinion poll for July 2010. It remarks that Funes remains the president with the highest approval ratings, and that Honduran president Lobo slipped from the third to the fourth spot, mainly because he is disliked by opposition and unregistered voters.
Martinelli and Funes lead in Latin America with 91% and 88% approval ratings. In Central America, they are followed by Colom with 46%, Arias 44% and Ortega with 38%.
Mauricio Funes from El Salvador and Ricardo Martinelli from Panama share, together with Brazilian President Lula Da Silva, the privilege of being in the group of "Outstanding Evaluation", composed of those heads of state with approval ratings above 75%.
In Central America, Mauricio Funes leads with an 84% approval rating, followed by Ricardo Martinelli (77%), Alvaro Colom (46%) and Oscar Arias (37%).
In its Presidential Evaluation of September 2009, "Consulta Mitofsky" remarked the approval ratings of Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes, who tops the ranking of American heads of state.
This ranking is computed by Consulta Mitosfky through a compilation of surveys and polls published in electronic media.
In Central America, Antonio Saca is first (66%), followed by Oscar Arias (49%), Martín Torrijos (48%), Álvaro Colom (45%), Daniel Ortega (38%), Manuel Zelaya (25%).
A ranking by Consulta Mitofsky compares the approval ratings of 18 presidents of the Americas, led by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with a 70% approval rating, followed by Alvaro Uribe of Colombia (69%), and Felipe Calderón of Mexico (68%).