No summons. Not even courtesy of the room. The comptroller Anel Flores did not appear this Monday, April 13, before the plenary session of the National Assemblydespite the fact that the chamber had approved giving him the floor to hear his version about why he burst into an interview that an anti-corruption prosecutor was conducting with two auditors from the Comptroller’s Office.
The interference occurred last Thursday when the auditors were testifying about the audits that support the investigation against the former vice president. Jose Gabriel Carrizoprosecuted for alleged unjustified enrichment.
The emergence of the comptroller is investigated by the Attorney General’s Office and has provoked multiple criticisms. In other words, it unleashed an institutional crisis.
this monday Luis Eduardo Camachodeputy of the ruling party Realizing Goals (RM), presented a proposal to grant him courtesy of the court, an initiative that was endorsed by the majority of his colleagues at the vote of the seat.
But, Camacho himself later explained that Flores, “had to return to the Comptroller’s Office in the middle of that roadblock in the Cinta Costera,” because “the Vamos bench prioritized the show over the explanations that the comptroller wanted to give.”
Courtroom courtesy was suspended.
Strategic move
The move was not accidental. Camacho presented the proposal for court courtesy after it emerged that deputies from the Vamos party were planning to formally summon the comptroller to the Assembly to be held accountable for what happened.
The Assembly has the power to summon him. It is, after all, the same State body that appointed Flores to office.
And indeed that is what happened. After the period of incidents, the deputy Janine Pradofrom the Vamos bench, read the proposal. Then, a recess was declared. And when the session resumed, the representative supported the initiative.
First he called what Flores did “serious.” He said it was “a pattern of institutional interference.” He then recalled that when Attorney General Luis Carlos Gómez requested more tools to fight anti-corruption, the Comptroller opposed it.
Likewise, when Irma Hernández, mayor of San Miguelito tried to fix the garbage problem, she also opposed. “And he advocated for the company that had San Miguelito sunk in the trash,” he added.
He remembered that he also said that he had dossiers. “Now, when justice tries to clarify a high-profile case, the shadow of interference appears again. A person is not at stake. Respect for the separation of powers and the credibility of the rule of law is at stake (…),” he maintained.
The bench had drawn up a questionnaire of 11 questions. However, 40 deputies voted against.
You may be interested in: Plenary of the Assembly appoints Anel ‘Bolo’ Flores as comptroller of the Republic
Prado was not the only one who put the issue on the agenda. Several of his Vamos colleagues gave similar speeches.
Luis Duke He recalled that the summons to the comptroller had been raised in an expanded board meeting.
‘However, it was rejected but I now understand why, because they already had everything planned under the table to hear the monologue. Why are we going to have a high official if we are not going to ask him questions? This Assembly cannot be complicit in the direct interference of senior officials in judicial processes,’ he assured.
Shirley Castañeda reveals private conversations
But Flores also received support in plenary. In addition to Camacho, Shirley Castañeda, from RM, also advocated for him.
She said that she could not ignore Vamos’s defense of Flores “with so much disrespect,” without giving her the opportunity to hear her side.
Castañeda, lawyer of former President Ricardo Martinelli, showed printed conversations before the plenary session in which, according to her, Juan Diego Vasquez, leader of Vamos, instructed his party to bring the comptroller to the Assembly.
“They sent me a screenshot of the Vamos conversations (…),” he stated.
Vásquez responded from social network X with a resounding message: he would report her criminally because, in his opinion, she had committed a crime. “I am not afraid of you, deputy, and I am going head on, not like you,” he wrote.
Greetings Deputy @ShirleyCastRM I see that without a doubt you seek to imitate your boss, especially in THE BAD THINGS.
I want to tell you straight up that I am going to file a criminal complaint against you because what you did is a crime. I’m not afraid of you, Deputy, and I do go head-on, unlike you. pic.twitter.com/ykcc1lEtb8
— Juan Diego Vásquez (@JDVasquezGut) April 13, 2026
Incidentally, in another message he called Flores a “coward.” “He instructed his allied deputies not to vote in favor of the summons because he wants to go to the Assembly only to give a monologue and not to render accounts or answer questions,” he said.
