Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez (; born 13 December 1963) is a Panamanian businessman and former politician who served as the

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 ...

from 2014 to

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. Varela was

Vice President of Panama The vice president of Panama is the second-highest political position in the Government of Panama. Since 2009, the position of Vice President has been held by only one person. Before 1945 there were positions of presidential designates elected ...

from 2009 to 2014, and Minister of Foreign Relations from July 2009 to August 2011. He was President of the Panameñistas, the third-largest political party in Panama, from 2006 to 2016. Varela won the 2014 presidential election with over 39% of the votes, against the Cambio Democrático Party, led by his former political partner

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 ...

, whose candidate was

José Domingo Arias José Domingo Arias Villalaz is a Panamanian economist and politician, and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2014 presidential elections. Background and early life José Domingo Arias was born on 26 October 1963 in Panama City.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 ...

to Luis José Varela Arjona and Bexie Esther Rodríguez Pedreschi. Varela is a businessman and entrepreneur, whose family hails from

Herrera Province Herrera () is a province in Panama. Named after General Tomás Herrera, the province was founded on January 18, 1915 from a division of the Los Santos province. The capital city of Herrera is Chitré, which is located near the province's coast ...

. His paternal grandfather José Varela Blanco emigrated from Bergondo, Galicia in Spain and settled in the district of Pesé, Herrera in

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 ...

. After graduating from Colegio Javier, he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1985.

Career

In the private sector, Varela has been on the board of his family company since 1986, serving as Executive Vice-President of Varela Hermanos S.A. until 2008. Varela entered politics in the early 1990s, becoming chief of the Panameñista Party campaign in 1994 and was the Panameñista Party's presidential candidate during the 2009 election; Varela joined forces with his rival,

, as vice-presidential candidate, being sworn in on 1 July 2009 as Vice-President of Panama under President Martinelli. Varela won the 2014 presidential election, winning against the ruling-party candidate

José Domingo Arias José Domingo Arias Villalaz is a Panamanian economist and politician, and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2014 presidential elections. Background and early life José Domingo Arias was born on 26 October 1963 in Panama City.Cambio Democrático, a party led by outgoing President Ricardo Martinelli. Varela won about 39% of the vote against 32% for Arias. The subject announced he would seek to change the legislative body through constitutional changes. He is suspected of being involved in the

Odebrecht Odebrecht S.A. (), officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company w ...

corruption scandal (a Brazilian company that paid bribes to politicians) Close to the U.S. government on foreign policy issues, in October 2018, following a visit by U.S. Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...

on " China's predatory economic activity," he canceled five infrastructure projects with Chinese companies. His popularity is affected by declining economic activity, rising living costs, corruption scandals and the crisis in the health and justice sectors.

Controversies

Juan Carlos Varela was indicted in July 2020 for money laundering in the

case. In October 2021, his name is mentioned in the

Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 3 ...

Personal life

He is the son of José Varela and Beixie ''née'' Rodríguez. Varela married Panamanian journalist Lorena Castillo in 1992.

References

External sources

Vicepresidente de Panamá · Presidencia.gob.pa Toma de posesión Juan Carlos Varela Biography of Juan Carlos Varela Twitter: Juan Carlos Varela Facebook: Juan Carlos Varela Website: Juan Carlos VarelaBiography by CIDOB
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, Juan Carlos 1963 births Living people People from Panama City Georgia Tech alumni Government ministers of Panama Presidents of Panama Vice presidents of Panama Panameñista Party politicians Panamanian people of Galician descent People named in the Pandora Papers Recipients of the Order pro Merito Melitensi

Career

Controversies

Personal life

See also

References

External sources