The president of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, insisted on Friday in an interview with Efe in Jerusalem, where he traveled for an official visit to Israel and Palestine, in which his country will not recognize the presidential elections in Venezuela on Sunday and affirmed that the opposition should participate "without feeling persecuted". "Panama has a public decision not to recognize the elections on May 20 and calls for a profound, intense and constructive dialogue between the period of May 20 and January 2019, when the current constitutional period of the president would expire Maduro, "said the Panamanian president. Varela recalled that his country recognizes the current constitutional request of Nicolás Maduro and expressed his hope that "in these eight months that are opened a space for dialogue to evaluate what happened and avoid the Venezuelan mass exodus to other countries and the economic situation so difficult that crosses the town of Venezuela and the more than thirty million inhabitants who are there ". The policy, he said, is to seek the well-being of the people, of the citizens, and in the case of Venezuela, it is up to them to "rethink their strategies" and decide "whether what is being done benefits their people or not." "We do not recognize May 20. We remain united with many Latin American countries because, without a doubt, in a democratic country the elections have to be with guarantees and participation of the opposition, if one wants another political system, then that is another issue, but, at the moment, Venezuela is a democratic country and Venezuelans want to live in a democracy, that has been their tradition, "the president argued. And he pointed out that, in his opinion, the cases of Cuba and Venezuela are very different: "Cuba had a revolution, it was overthrown by armed means to a dictator, and Venezuela is a country that lives a democracy that has to correct some situations so that there is a broad participation of all its citizens. "