Today a new hope is born for Panama.

Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino (Chitré, 1963) is the son of General Omar Torrijos Herrera (1929–1981), who led the recovery of sovereignty over the Canal with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977. Martín continued that commitment to Panama: economist from Texas A&M, 35th Constitutional President (2004–2009), driving force behind the Canal Expansion and today founder and leader of the Movimiento UNE.

Martín Torrijos completed his secondary studies at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin. He later earned two university degrees at Texas A&M University: Political Science (1986) and Economics (1988). In the private sector, he worked between 1988 and 1992 as Administrative and Operations Manager for McDonald's Corporation in Chicago (USA) and has been an international economic advisor in maritime, construction and agro-export areas.

During the presidency of Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Torrijos was appointed Deputy Minister of Government and Justice. In that position he led the modernization of the Panamanian prison system and the professionalization of the National Police, promoting the police career and respect for human rights, work that was expressly recognized by the United Nations (UN) and by the Government of Spain.

It was one of the main milestones of his presidency. Martín Torrijos promoted the project for a third set of locks and, in strict compliance with the Constitution, called a national referendum held on October 22, 2006. The proposal was ratified with 76.8% of the votes cast. The engineering works formally began during his term in 2007, culminating successfully in 2016.

Facing an imminent technical bankruptcy of the pension fund, Torrijos convened a tripartite National Dialogue with workers, doctors and businesspeople. This process gave rise to Law 51 of 2005, which maintained the institution's public and solidarity-based character, established a mixed model with individual savings for new generations, incorporated fiscal contributions from the State and increased the number of active contributors to more than 920,000 people, guaranteeing the system's stability for more than 15 years.

His administration reorganized the State's social and technological apparatus by creating:

Martín Torrijos is a full member of the Club de Madrid, the largest international forum of democratic former heads of State and Government dedicated to strengthening democracy, the rule of law and global leadership. He has also participated as an electoral observer for the OAS and in Ibero-American integration forums.

After publicly denouncing the kidnapping of the PRD by clientelist cliques linked to corruption and to the distribution of community budgets without oversight, Torrijos left the party and ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential elections (backed by the Popular Party). He achieved second place nationally with more than 700,000 citizen votes. That popular force is the base of the current UNE Movement (Une Panamá).

UNE is a broad, plural and inclusive organization built on 4 ethical principles (work that progresses, education with employment, guaranteed health and territorial equity) and 10 programmatic axes with concrete costs, deadlines and responsible parties. It defines itself as a civic platform with no owners or intermediaries.

Registration is free, voluntary and can be done directly online through the official platform validated by the Electoral Tribunal at uneregistro.com, or in person with the authorized books and delegates of each provincial chapter.