Public Ministry conceals Varela´s links with Odebrecht
After the Attorney General of the nation, Kenya Isolda Porcell, avoided talking about possible links between President Juan Carlos Varela in the case of bribes by Odebrecht, some communication means from other countries which have had access to the documentation provided by the public prosecutor in Brazil have revealed the alleged links of the Panamanian President.
- Actualizado: 02/6/2017 - 01:11 pm
After the Attorney General of the nation, Kenya Isolda Porcell, avoided talking about possible links between President Juan Carlos Varela in the case of bribes by Odebrecht, some communication means from other countries which have had access to the documentation provided by the public prosecutor in Brazil have revealed the alleged links of the Panamanian President.
According to a publication of German media Deutsche Welle (DW), there is information provided by the General Attorney of the Republic of Brazil, through an institutional spokesman.
"The investigations initiated as a result of these reports have reached, among others, the current Presidents of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, and of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, as well as former Peruvian President, Alejandro Toledo" '.
This produced that in Panama sectors of society, including lawyers groups claim the authorities that there is no real intention for the truth to be known.
This took place after Attorney General Kenya Isolda Porcell, last Wednesday, avoided responding about the link of President Varela, during a press conference during which she looked nervous and upset by the questions.
Porcell said: "We don't have that answer," when she was asked if the President that was mentioned by one of the whistleblowers in Brazil was Juan Carlos Varela, and if he received pressure to not collaborate with the Brazilian justice.
As a result, sectors of the opposition claim that the only clear intention by the justice management heads is to cover up names of people involved, including the Panamanian President.
The president responsible for Democratic Change (CD) Alma Cortés, faced Porcell by saying: "You have orders from President Varela to not reveal names".
At the same time, the former Minister of Security José Raúl Mulino said that "the hypocritical and misleading treatment with which the Odebrecht matter has been managed has made it clear what they are trying to hide.”
Also because the actions carried out by the Security Council are aimed at hindering the progress of the process in Panama.
Prosecutor Porcell also dodged a question of why there exists an 18-month delay in the judicial assistance requested by Brazil.
She is even trying to lessen the effect of the statements of the presidential former advisor, Ramón Fonseca Mora, who faced preventive detention, after declaring that President Varela received donations from Odebrecht company for his election campaign.
Sectors also criticized the intention to cover the link of other similar companies with the government.
Among them, the law firm of Legislator Jorge Alberto Rosas, of which two of its employees have already been called to render accounts before Justice, and accounts of Active Capital Internacional, owned by Margarita Niño, sister-in-law of Legislator José "Popi" Varela, which were allegedly used to move money from the construction company.
Opposition is blamed
On the other hand, the investigations have been accused of being used to act in a biased fashion by trying to link some former government officials. Among them is the former presidential candidate of Democratic Change, Jose Domingo Arias, who was called upon to render his declaration yesterday, but in the end this proceeding was suspended.
The authorities of other countries that made 22 requests for documents count on confessions or awarded whistle-blown denunciations of senior executives of Odebrecht, however, the scope of these is unknown in Panama.
The countries that received the confessions did so on commitment of secrecy and discretion of the statements.
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