Juan Carlos Varela

Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez ( born December 12, 1963 in Panama City, Panama ) is a Panamanian politician.

Biography

Varela, who comes from a family of entrepreneurs from the province of Herrera, graduated after attending the High School Colegio Javier a degree in engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated as an industrial engineer. Upon his return to Panama in 1985, he joined the family business Varela Hermanos, and remained until 2008 Executive Vice President of the company.

His political career began Varela, who belongs to the Partido Panameñista, 1994 as Deputy Head of the election campaign of the then defeated presidential candidate Mireya Moscoso. In 1999, he became the Manager of this time successful campaign paraphernalia Moscoso. In 2006 he was finally elected as Chairman of the Partido Panameñista, the second largest party in the country.

2008 Varela was ultimately self- nominated by his party as their candidate for the presidential election in May 2009. In the opinion polls, he was, however, significantly behind that of Ricardo Martinelli, the chairman and presidential candidate of Cambio Democratico, and Balbina Herrera, candidate of the Partido Revolucionario Democrático back. He then joined an electoral alliance with Martinelli and was elected as Vice President in the presidential election on May 3, 2009, while Martinelli with more than 60 percent of the vote was President of Panama. On 10 May 2009 he was also nominated by Martinelli as Foreign Minister.

On 1 July 2009 he was sworn in alongside President Martinelli as Vice President and Foreign Minister.

On September 1, 2011 Varela was dismissed by President Ricardo Martinelli as Foreign Minister. It is said to have neglected this post because of his many other commitments. He asked him to resign as Vice- President took office. The Minister of Finance and housing were in protest against the decision back also.