The Panamanian government on Monday said it would not intervene in a dispute between the Trump Organization and a new majority investor in a hotel in the country’s capital, after the US president’s family business asked for help.
Last month, legal representatives of the Trump Organization wrote to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela asking him to help the group in its fight over ownership of the 70-floor hotel complex, according to a letter seen by reporters.
The letter from a law firm, dated March 22, asks Varela to use his influence and alleges that its due process rights had been violated.
However, Panamanian Vice President Isabel Saint Malo on Monday said that getting involved in the dispute would be outside the government’s remit.
“I don’t think that the executive branch has a position to take while this issue is in process in the judicial branch,” Saint Malo told reporters.
Asked for comment, the Trump Organization sent a statement from its representatives, confirming that the letter was sent, but rejecting any assertion that the letter sought to “pressure” the president or any other official.
“The drafting of this type of letter was such a routine matter for our firm that the authorization of Trump Organization for its delivery was not requested,” the statement said, adding that no one at the Trump Organization knew about it until Monday.
The dispute surrounding the Trump-branded hotel has shone a fresh light on the business dealings of US President Donald Trump.
When it was completed in 2011, the building in Panama City was Trump’s first international hotel venture, a waterfront complex including apartments and a casino that has earned him between US$30 million and US$50 million.
Trump licensed his brand to the luxury project and provided hotel management.
However, workers last month removed the Trump name from the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower after the Trump Organization lost control of administration of the property.
The letter alleges that legal decisions contravened a 1983 trade deal designed to protect US investors in Panama.
The case is now in international arbitration.
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
RSS