Ricardo Alberto Lombana González (born 26 November 1973) is a Panamanian lawyer and politician. He ran for the presidency in the

2019 Panamanian general election General elections were held in Panama on 5 May 2019. Due to constitutional term limits, incumbent President Juan Carlos Varela was ineligible for a second consecutive term. Businessman and politician Laurentino Cortizo of the centre-left Democra ...

as an independent candidate receiving 18.78% of the vote.

Biography

Lombana was born in Panama City. His father, Roberto Lombana, is a native of

Proaza Proaza is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north by Santo Adriano and Grado, on the south by Teverga and Quirós, on the west by Yernes y Tameza and Teverga, and on the ea ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

, Spain and he is the great-nephew of Clara González, who founded the National Feminist Party of Panama in the 1920s and was the first Panamanian female lawyer. Lombana studied at the Lasallian school of Colegio De La Salle in Panama City after which he attended the

University of Panama The University of Panama () is a public university in Panama City, Panama. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 student ...

, where he obtained a law degree in 1998. Two years later, in 2000, he moved to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he obtained a master's degree in International and Comparative Law at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

. He then went on to study International Human Rights Law at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and International Economic Policy, Securities and Tax Law at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Following his studies in 2002, he was appointed special delegate for freedom of expression in the Ombudsman's Office before working in the Panamanian embassy in Washington, D.C., first as Minister Counsellor, before being appointed counsul general from 1 September 2004 till 19 March 2007. Lombana also worked at the newspaper

La Prensa La Prensa may refer to: Argentina * ''La Prensa'' (Buenos Aires) Bolivia * ''La Prensa'' (La Paz), a newspaper in Bolivia Chile * ''La Prensa'' (Curicó) Cuba * ''Prensa Latina'', the official state news agency of Cuba Ecuador * ''La Pren ...

as chief of information and then editorial deputy director. In 2008, Lombana joined the law firm Galindo, Arias & López and remained a part of it until 2013, when he founded his own law firm Lombana Law & Media. Lombana also ran an anti-corruption campaign called "‘Juego Limpio Panamá" (Play Fair Panama). In 2017, he announced his intention to run as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

for President in the May 2019 election. On 24 December 2018, Lombana chose the former magistrate of the Electoral Tribunal, Guillermo Márquez Amado, as his running mate. After obtaining 108,492 signatures, Lombana was accepted as a candidate. His campaign called for austerity, a new constitution, anti-corruption measures, social security reforms and immigration control. In the election, he came third with 18.78% of the vote. He announced that he would run again in the 2024 election and as a first step announced the creation of the Movimiento Otro Camino political party, but eventurally still lost in the second place with 24.59% of the vote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombana, Ricardo 1973 births Living people Panamanian politicians People from Panama City