Balbina Del Carmen Herrera Araúz (born c. 1955)
is a
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
nian politician and presidential candidate in the
2009 Panamanian general election
General elections were held in Panama on May 3, 2009.
Presidential race
Balbina Herrera was the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate for President of Panama. She had previously served as President of the National Assembly of Panama ...
. On May 3, 2009, she lost the race to the presidency of the Republic of Panama to center-right candidate
Ricardo Martinelli
Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal (born March 11, 1951) is a Panamanian politician and businessman who was the 36th president of Panama from 2009 to 2014.
Early life
Born in Panama City, Ricardo Martinelli is the son of Ricardo Martinell ...
.
Career
She finished studies in the National Institute and the University of Panama, where she obtained her bachelor's degree with honours in Agronomy Engineering. She also holds post-graduate studies in education.
She served as Mayor of
San Miguelito, congresswoman, and
President of the National Assembly (1994-1995) with the
Democratic Revolutionary Party
The Democratic Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD) is a political party in Panama founded in 1979 by General Omar Torrijos. It is generally described as being positioned on the centre-left.
History
Since its creat ...
(PRD). When a male legislator once interrupted her to say that women should be at home with her children, she punched him and yelled, "Respect women!"
As a National Assembly member in 1994, she opposed outgoing President
Guillermo Endara
Guillermo David Endara Galimany (May 12, 1936 – September 28, 2009) was a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1989 to 1994. Raised in a family allied to Panameñista Party founder Arnulfo Arias, Endara attended ...
's granting of temporary asylum to 10,000 Haitian
boat people
Vietnamese boat people ( vi, Thuyền nhân Việt Nam), also known simply as boat people, refers to the refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its h ...
, but supported his initiative to abolish the armed forces. In 1996, Herrera supported President
Ernesto Pérez Balladares
Ernesto Pérez Balladares González-Revilla (born June 29, 1946), nicknamed ''El Toro'' ("The Bull"), is a Panamanian politician who was the President of Panama between 1994 and 1999.
Educated in the United States, Pérez Balladares worked as ...
's bill to grant amnesty to 950 former officials of military ruler
Manuel Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) was a Panamanian dictator, politician and military officer who was the ''de facto'' ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. An authoritarian ruler who amassed a personal f ...
, dismissing criticism of the bill as an attempt by fractured opposition parties to find a new common cause. In the same year, she spoke out against an attempt to revive
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
after a wave of murders of bus and taxi drivers.
Herrera was elected as President of the National Assembly in 1994, the first woman to hold the post.
She also served as chairwoman of the Parliamentary Trade Commission in 1998, calling on pharmaceutical companies to rein in rising prices or face government price controls.
In December 2000, human remains were discovered at a Panamanian National Guard base, incorrectly believed to be those of
Jesús Héctor Gallego Herrera, a priest murdered during the
Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – July 31, 1981) was the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard and military leader of Panama from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, ...
dictatorship. Moscoso appointed a
truth commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
to investigate the site and those at other bases. The commission faced opposition from the PRD-controlled National Assembly, who slashed its funding, and from Herrera, who threatened to seek legal action against the president for its creation. The commission ultimately reported on 110 of the 148 cases it examined, concluding that the Noriega government had engaged in "torture
ndcruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment
Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention ...
", and recommending further exhumation and investigation.
In 2001, Herrera led opposition to President
Mireya Moscoso
Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez de Arias (born July 1, 1946) is a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1999 to 2004. She is the country's first female president.
Born into a rural family, Moscoso became active in t ...
's appointment of former Interior Minister
Winston Spadafora to the Supreme Court. The following year, National Assembly member
Carlos Afu, who was being expelled from the PRD for his vote in support of Spadafora's nomination, accused the party of taking bribes ''en masse'' under Herrera's leadership from the San Lorenzo consortium, a government contractor.
During the presidency of
Martin Torrijos Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
(2004–09), Herrera served as Minister of Housing.
2009 presidential election
Herrera served as the PRD candidate for
President of Panama
This article lists the heads of state of Panama since the short-lived first independence from the Republic of New Granada in 1840 and the final separation from Colombia in 1903.
Free State of the Isthmus (1840–1841)
Republic of Panama (1 ...
in the
2009 election. She won her party's primary on September 7, 2008, defeating
Panama City
Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
Mayor
Juan Carlos Navarro with a ten-point lead.
Herrera was endorsed by
Ruben Blades
Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob.
Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugue ...
, a popular salsa musician who had previously run for president and served as Torrijos' Minister of Tourism,
and was initially considered the favorite for the presidency.
If elected, she would have become Panama's second female president.
However, Herrera was badly damaged in the election by her "reputation as a henchwoman of General Manuel Noriega"
and by the perception that she was a "Chavista", a supporter of leftist Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez
Hugo or HUGO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese
* Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback
* Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...
.
Ricardo Martinelli
Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal (born March 11, 1951) is a Panamanian politician and businessman who was the 36th president of Panama from 2009 to 2014.
Early life
Born in Panama City, Ricardo Martinelli is the son of Ricardo Martinell ...
, the candidate of the opposition coalition led by his
Democratic Change party, was also helped by strong support from the business community.
On May 3, 2009, Martinelli won 60% of the vote to Herrera's 36%.
Former president
Guillermo Endara
Guillermo David Endara Galimany (May 12, 1936 – September 28, 2009) was a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1989 to 1994. Raised in a family allied to Panameñista Party founder Arnulfo Arias, Endara attended ...
also ran in the race, finishing a distant third.
Personal life
Herrera has three children. She was divorced some time before 1999.
[
]
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Balbina
Living people
1950s births
Government ministers of Panama
Democratic Revolutionary Party politicians
Presidents of the National Assembly (Panama)
21st-century Panamanian women politicians
21st-century Panamanian politicians
20th-century Panamanian women politicians
20th-century Panamanian politicians
Women government ministers of Panama
Women legislative speakers