Did you get into politics because it was born to you or because you already had a history? I understand that you are the son of Pancho Brea, mayor of Cañazas, correct?
That’s right, mayor for the period 2024-2029, but he died a year ago. I think I saw a lot in his example and it naturally became that I became interested in politics.
And you told me right before we started that you ran for the first time when you were 29. When was that first time, when you were 24?
I ran in 2019. We achieved 11,206 votes and the difference was 1,256 votes with whoever was the winner. We choose to continue.
Tell me a little about your circuit, the 9-3.
It is the third largest in geographic radius, with approximately 4,500 square kilometers and four districts: San Francisco, Santa Fe, Calobre and Cañazas. Circuits are determined by population, not density — you can have the same amount of people as the deputy next door, but covering a lot more territory. The most curious thing is that on the map the entire north of the Veraguas coast seems united, but on highways we are not. To get from Cañazas to Calobre I have to go down the Interamericana, go to El Roble in Aguadulce and then go up towards Calobre.
How would you describe the main economic activities of the circuit?
The bulk of production is really subsistence. There are serious problems of overcrowding, housing, and school dropouts. An economic development that is quite lagging behind for the population of northern Veraguas.
What is done from the Assembly then?
We attack the problems that make us more vulnerable, for example, to the crime of human trafficking. Veraguas is one of the provinces that has the highest cases. Because human trafficking is not only what we saw in Takenfor example, but also when one person exercises or has certain power over another.
In Takenthe movie in which the guy’s daughter is kidnapped.
Exact. And that happens a lot in some places where there are alcoholism problems, where they use that power over another person to exploit them for money.
Sure, it makes sense. Because in my head, you tell me human trafficking and I imagine a kidnapping. But it can be very static and simply exercising power over a person in the same place remains more or less the same.
That’s the way it is.
You are currently secretary of the Budget Commission. Is it true that there is a little room?
The little room that I know is when you enter through the parking lot and there is like a waiting room. The funny thing is that anyone who enters the Commission from the parking lots enters through that, so it’s not like it’s exclusive to certain people. It’s like a waiting room.
And what have you found as a secretary?
That the margin to move resources towards investment projects is very small, because a series of special laws compromise the State’s finances very strongly. And I’m sure that whoever sees this interview begins to say: why don’t they start with the Assembly? And there is the famous issue of the spreadsheets.
And I want to start this with the context that, according to Espacio Cívico, you made the forms transparent. But at one point, I think La Prensa published that he was among the deputies with the highest payrolls.
That was one of the hardest experiences I had. The Comptroller’s Office portal did not upload all the payrolls and they told me that I had 60 thousand dollars in monthly payroll. And I only had my 2020.
What is 2020?
The list of the 20 thousand dollars that each deputy has. Then the investigation by comptroller Anel Flores came out, where the amount was truly detailed. And I also found out that there are ways in which deputies manage to put people in other places that are not counted as payroll, so it can appear on paper that they have a reduced payroll. I still can’t understand the monster from the inside, I tell you the truth.
Maybe you need a couple more periods to finally understand how it works.
And there are others who go through a single period and learn much faster, believe me.
How has the experience of working with Herrera, who currently presides over the Assembly, been?
We were both sick with covid-19, with the same doctors, in the same place, the Panama Clinic Hospital in 2021. We were both almost, almost, almost intubated. The positive: Jorge’s spending was 144 million dollars, 21 million less than in the previous period and much less than in the last five years, when it reached 220 million. We managed to bring modifications to the regulations to a second debate to prohibit appointments up to a fourth degree of consanguinity. And we had the summons from the Minister of Social Development, which was discussed for eight hours.
Nepotism.
Exactly. And Jorge Herrera should have been the previous secretary general, what happened is that Mario Etchelecu betrayed him at that time.
What happened to the Ombudsman? Don’t you see a danger in it coming with the approval of the government itself?
The Commission never said that this person was not qualified. There we know that other types of manipulations took place. But in the end, she was elected and we will have to know if we were wrong or right in the appointment.
You definitely haven’t always been aligned with the government. One of those was your trip to Taiwan. Mulino came out saying why did you leave.
It was a group of deputies, it was not me alone. When there was the topic of Taiwan, it was with the first group that Jhonathan Vega, Betserai Richards and Ernesto Cedeño traveled. The second group, which was with José Pérez Barboni, Neftalí Zamora, Tin Guardia and myself, the waters were already much calmer. In fact, it was like three, four, five days after the Panama Ports ruling. I can’t tell you that I have had any message from the government telling me not to go.
One of the projects under discussion is bioethanol, and also concerns about possible conflicts of interest with people involved in the sugar mill business.
In my circuit there are many settlers who supply cane to the Santa Rosa sugar mill and the La Victoria sugar mill. Opening the debate is necessary, it is good. In the end, the decision rests with the plenary session, which is sovereign.
Vamos deputies say that the Comptroller’s Office is withholding salaries from officials as a measure of pressure for their position on bioethanol. Have you heard about this?
Of course, they are my colleagues. I also have staff who have not been paid. An audit cannot last five years: it has to have a start period and an end period. Hopefully it will be clarified soon and we can get out of this misunderstanding.
Any projects of yours that you want to see come true?
There is the rural electrification project that eliminates the estimated bill: when they go to your house and do not take the meter, they estimate you based on your previous consumption. It happened especially in the pandemic, there were businesses that when they opened, the next day you had Naturgy trying to cut off your electricity because you owed eight months of bills. Eight months from where? If I was closed. Oh, no, it’s just that we gave you an estimated reading. There are also the pigeon pea project, the sound traffic lights, and the Agropreneurial Woman project.
Maybe next Christmas he will be eating rice with pigeon pea from his circuit.
I hope you can come. It would be worthwhile for the entire editorial line of The Press Join us to see the development of this association and how it impacts the development of the communities.
