The Panama Scam: The Political Cost of María Corina Machado

Published at: 17/06/2026 10:36 PM

The recent meeting of María Corina Machado in Panama has generated a wave of devastating criticism, being described as a “political scam” that has hit her image hard. While the country is going through urgent crises, such as the lack of water supply, Machado has chosen to prioritize summits with figures such as Lilian Tintori and “progressive” sectors that, far from providing solutions, represent a burden for the opposition, deepening its political indebtedness.

Longliner Daniel Lara Farías and Juan Acquaviva have harshly questioned this strategy, demanding immediate answers to what they consider to be dangerous improvisation. For them, it is unacceptable to try to buy time under the excuse of a supposed hidden “strategy”; they maintain that, if the leader's plan is deficient, the population has the right to know before it is executed, because the time to act is now and not five years from now.

The discontent is evident, with polls showing an overwhelming rejection by the opposition sectors themselves of this meeting, considered profoundly harmful to unity. The comparison is inevitable: sectors that today ask for blind loyalty to Machado are the same that in the past did the same to Guaidó, a precedent that, according to Lara and Acquaviva, shows that the cult of personality inevitably ends in a new disappointment for the country.

Mazo News Team