Ex-President Martinelli gets Panama's permission to take asylum in Nicaragua

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Ex-President Martinelli gets Panama's permission to take asylum in Nicaragua

2025-03-28 06:20 Last Updated At：06:31

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli will be allowed to leave the Nicaraguan embassy where he’s been holed up for more than a year to travel to Nicaragua for humanitarian reasons, Panama Foreign Affairs Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez said Thursday.

Martinelli has been inside Nicaragua’s embassy in Panama since Panama moved to arrest him after his appeals ran out on his money laundering conviction. The 73-year-old former leader maintains that his prosecution has been politically motivated as he sought to run for a second term in office.

Martínez-Acha Vásquez said that by leaving the embassy and going to Nicaragua, Martinelli would be able to manage his legal defense under better conditions and receive medical treatment for unspecified issues.

“Given that justice’s timeline does not always coincide with health’s timeline, the Foreign Relations Ministry has decided to recognize the asylum granted to Mr. Martinelli Berrocal by the Nicaraguan government,” the foreign affairs minister said.

Martinelli has until midnight on March 31 to leave Panama.

Martinelli is a businessman and supermarket magnate who governed Panama from 2009 to 2014.

In 2023, he won his party’s nomination to seek the presidency again. However, he was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and fined $19 million.

Once the Supreme Court denied his appeal, he was ineligible to run.

Ultimately Martinelli supported his running mate, current President José Raúl Mulino. At the time, Mulino said that Martinelli would remain on the ballot and return to Panama once he had won.

Mulino said a month ago that he was going to meet with Nicaragua’s new ambassador to Panama and that permission for Martinelli to travel to Nicaragua was among the issues they would discuss.

Nicaragua granted Martinelli political asylum in February 2024. Panama had refused to grant Nicaragua permission to move Martinelli to Nicaragua. So Martinelli stayed in the political mix using social media to advance his agenda during last year’s presidential campaign.

Just before Thursday's announcement, Martinelli posted a video to Instagram in which he said that a special police force had surrounded the embassy and was checking everyone who entered. It was later reposted to X.

“I don’t know if they want to assault the embassy. I don’t know if they want to do something improper to me and I don’t know the reasons,” Martinelli said.

But an AP journalist outside the embassy saw only two police pickup trucks with fewer than a dozen normal police officers in them.

In a separate video published by the local newspaper La Prensa, Martinelli said he was with his dog Bruno and his lawyers analyzing the government’s announcement, which he described as a surprise. He reiterated his innocence.

The government did not immediately respond to a request to explain what the process for Martinelli’s departure would be.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Houston's defense carries Cougars into 7th Final Four with 69-50 March Madness win over Tennessee

2025-03-31 06:57 Last Updated At：07:01

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Houston’s relentless, harassing defense had Tennessee's shooters dancing around.

Now, the Cougars are two-stepping it back to Texas.

L.J. Cryer finished with 17 points, Emanuel Sharp scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half and the nation’s stingiest defense delivered a historic NCAA Tournament performance, leading top-seeded Houston past second-seeded Tennessee 69-50 on Sunday for the Midwest Region title and its seventh trip to the Final Four.

Next up is Cooper Flagg and five-time national champion Duke on Saturday in San Antonio, just a 3 1/2-hour drive from Houston’s campus. First, the Cougars wanted to savor the journey they took to this net-cutting celebration, one that failed to materialize each of the past two seasons when they were eliminated in the Sweet 16 as a No. 1 seed.

“It's a good feeling knowing what we've been through," Sharp, the region's most outstanding player, said of Houston's first Final Four appearance since 2021. “A lot of people doubted us.”

The Cougars (34-4) broke the school's single-season record for wins, extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 17 games and gave coach Kelvin Sampson a third chance to reach his first national championship game.

Houston has played on college basketball's biggest stage twice, losing title games in 1983 to N.C. State and in 1984 to Georgetown during the Phi Slama Jama era.

They're back this time thanks to Sharp, who made two of his four 3-pointers in quick succession to thwart a second-half charge from Tennessee.

Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey scored 17 points apiece for the Volunteers (30-8), who again fell short of the program's first Final Four appearance. Coach Rick Barnes' team was also eliminated in a regional final last year.

Houston won this one with a familiar formula.

The nation's top scoring defense held the Vols to 15 first-half points, the fewest in an Elite Eight game since 1979. It was also the lowest first-half scoring total by any No. 1 or No. 2 seed in a tourney game since seeding began that same year.

“I feel like we always want to throw the first punch," said Milos Uzan, who scored four points after making the decisive basket against Purdue. “Emanuel was able to get a jump ball early. I feel like that shook those guys up a little bit and it was super important to keep our foot on their neck."

The Cougars stayed locked in even when the Vols could have cut the deficit to single digits in the second half. The nation’s top 3-point shooting team quicklye extended the margin back to 17.

How bad was it for the Vols?

They made only 6 of 28 shots in the first 20 minutes and missed their first 14 3s before Zakai Zeigler finally ended the drought with 38 seconds left to make it a 34-15 game, an all but insurmountable advantage. Tourney teams that trailed by 19 or more points at halftime fell to 0-244 all-time.

Tennessee’s top scorers, Lanier and Zeigler, were a combined 5 of 27 from the field. Zeigler had five points and five assists.

“When Zakai came off, it hurt me because I knew how much he cared. He said, ‘I’m sorry,’” Barnes said. “He's got nothing to be sorry about because he gave us everything. I know those guys. They know I’m an older guy, they know I'd love to win a national championship, but they have not one thing to hang their head down or be sorry about.”

As the Vols head home, Houston is getting ready for this season's last dance — close to home.

“There's probably 16,000 Tennessee fans here,” Sampson said when told the attendance was about 18,500. “That's awesome for Tennessee — jump on the interstate and get here. That's what we'll do next week — jump on the interstate and head down to San Antonio.”

Georgetown had the previous lowest-scoring first half in March Madness with 16 points in a second-round victory over SMU in 1984. That Hoyas team went on to win the national title. The paltry first-half total was matched by Miami in a 2013 Sweet 16 loss to Marquette and by Michigan in a 2019 Sweet 16 loss to Texas Tech.

Peyton Manning watched his alma mater, Tennessee, from a courtside seat Friday. On Sunday, it was Jim Nantz's turn.

The longtime CBS Sports play-by-play man wore a sweatshirt from his alma mater, Houston. Nantz retired from calling NCAA Tournament games in 2023 but continues as the network's lead announcer for NFL games and, perhaps most notably, the Masters — which he hopes to continue calling through the 100th edition in 2036.

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