Panamanian ex-leader Martinelli remains in the Nicaraguan Embassy after window to leave expired

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panamanian ex-President Ricardo Martinelli, a convicted felon granted asylum by Nicaragua, remained inside that country’s embassy Friday more than a year after he first entered and a week after Panama said that it would allow him to leave.

The former leader declared Panama’s original offer a “trap” after the government declined to extend the deadline for him to safely leave for Nicaragua late Thursday.

“It was a vile trap what they wanted to do to me, which on one hand was giving me a supposed way out, (while) on the other they wanted to (expletive) me, making up a bunch of things,” Martinelli said in a video posted to Instagram early Friday.

Minutes before the midnight deadline, Panama’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that it wouldn't extend the window for Martinelli to leave.

It said that the Nicaraguan government hadn't responded about moving Martinelli out of its embassy and eventually out of the country. Panama would continue to respect the asylum Nicaraguan granted to Martinelli, it said.

Martinelli has been inside the Nicaraguan Embassy since Panama moved to arrest him after his appeals ran out on his money laundering conviction. The 73-year-old former leader maintains that his prosecution has been politically motivated as he sought to run for a second term of office.

Martinelli is a businessman and supermarket magnate who governed Panama from 2009 to 2014.

In 2023, he won his party’s nomination to seek the presidency again. However, he was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and fined $19 million.

Once the Supreme Court denied his appeal, he was ineligible to run.

Ultimately, Martinelli supported his running mate, current President José Raúl Mulino. At the time, Mulino said that Martinelli would remain on the ballot and return to Panama once he had won.

Nicaragua granted Martinelli political asylum in February 2024. Panama had refused to grant Nicaragua permission to move Martinelli to Nicaragua.