During the Eucharistic Appointment, held this Sunday, April 12, the Archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa, highlighted the contributions to the country made by Luis H. Moreno and Roberto Motta Alvarado. Moreno and Motta Alvarado died this week.
“We also raise a special prayer for two men who have marked the life of our country with their testimony and their service: Don Luis Horacio Moreno and Don Roberto Motta Alvarado, great collaborators in the works of the Church and their commitment to Panama. To their families we express our closeness, our affection, our prayer, with the hope of the promise of eternal life and the strength in the love that passes through us,” said Ulloa in the first part of the homily.
Moreno, born in Chitré, developed an extensive career in the financial and civic fields. He began his career at The Chase Manhattan Bank in David, where he worked as a “banker on horseback,” touring farms in the province of Chiriquí.
Later, he moved to New York, where in 1970 he became the first Panamanian to occupy the general management and presidency of The Chase Manhattan Bank.
Moreno assumed the management of the National Bank of Panama (BNP) in 1990, at a critical time for the financial system. From that position, he became a fundamental piece of the economic machinery of the government of Guillermo Endara Galimany, which faced the challenge of stabilizing a country with weakened public finances.
He was part of the team that, in a single presidential term, managed to direct economic recovery, amid fiscal limitations and battered institutions.
For his part, Motta Alvarado was a shareholder and director in entities such as Banco General, La Prensa, ASSA Compañía de Seguros, Gold Mills and Calox. He also participated in the founding of the Santa María La Antigua Catholic University and was a member of the Panama Sur Rotary Club.
He was president of the Association of Business Executives, director of the Chamber of Commerce and activist of the Civilist Crusade.
Those close to him remember him as a man focused on work, faith and the country, whose career integrated the business field with education.
