Racial Discrimination against Saladino

During an interview with RPC radio, Saladino said that everything started last Thursday when he was parking his car. Valdez appeared from nowhere and started asking him who he was. That same day a letter arrived to the champion’s apartment asking him to leave.

Later in the day Saladino went out and when he returned to his place he could not enter because his card had been deactivated. He added that Valdez had been making inquiries asking who was that delinquent “nigger”.

Saladino has decided to file a lawsuit against Valdez for acts of racism. “This sort of situation cannot happen in my own country.”

Meanwhile, Valdez has a different version of what really happened and said there was no racism involved. “Nobody called him “nigger”. It was just a matter of security with regards to the building. I admire him very much and if I could I would give him a house, but I have never set eyes on him.”

Valdez said that the real problem was that somebody sublet the apartment to Saladino in a transactional chain that involves at least three people.

The People’s Defender, Ricardo Vargas regretted the incident and said “situations like this cannot be allowed in Panama in the 21st century.”

At the beginning of the year, Saladino was attending an event at the trendy Guru discotheque, when he was asked to leave by one of the bouncers because of the color of his skin.

The latest incident has caused such indignation on the streets that even the television journalist Alvaro Alvarado suggested that Mr. Valdez should be deported from Panama.

Cases of racism are growing in Panama, especially in certain discotheques and restaurants where customers are banned from entering because of their skin color. The People’s Defender always investigates these cases.