Just as the international community is demanding that it shine the light on those responsible for the illicit actions revealed in the Panama Papers scandal, the Public Ministry's focus is instead on dishing out, once again, preventive detentions against former government officials who served the previous administration. According to multiple sources, this would appear to be part of a government strategy, executed in cohort with the PM, to divert the attention of the local population from the global scandal that has hit Ramon Fonseca Mora, former ministerial advisor to Presiden Juan Carlos Varela.
More Arrests Last week, Carlos Tason, former director of Innovation and Transformation at the Panamanian Social Security System (CSS, in Spanish) was apprehended on charges of embezzlement and of bribing public officials. At the same time, it transpired that Mr. Tason had previously been strongly pressured by the National Security Council into setting up third parties in the case at hand. Headed by Rolando Lopez, the National Security Council has already been linked with attempts to involve government officials from the former administration in high-profile judicial cases.According to Alejandro Perez, a lawyer, the preventive detention of Mr. Tason is untenable, as the PM has produced no proof of the supposed funds used in the alleged bribery scheme. “It is plain to see that what the PM and the government are trying to do is to set up a parallel judicial case, to divert the attention of the local population from the Panama Papers scandal, thus making a cover up of the latter easier to execute”. Mr. Perez went on to add that the PM’s “senseless action” will only serve to send the wrong message to the rest of the world. Noting that not a single person has so far been apprehended in relation to the biggest scandal that Panama has faced in living memory, he declared that “in today’s Panama, if you are an official from the Martinelli administration, you face the certainty of persecution; but if you are friendly with the current administration, you are sure to be sheltered from the reach of the law”.
Ties that bind?
Mr Perez also highlighted the risk that the statements of public support that President Varela made in favor of his old-time friend, Ramon Fonseca Arias, coupled with the inaction on the part of the PM, belie something more than mere “friendship”. “To me, this smells of something bigger, something beyond the legitimate concern for the well-being of a friend: there must be a hidden truth behind the stubborn protection that the government has shown towards law firm Mossack Fonseca.”Enrique Montenegro, of the Anti-Corruption Front, concurs, noting that the 10 days that it took the PM to spring into action, in the face of a scandal of global proportions, show little interest for finding evidence and pursuing those guilty of illicit acts. “The Attorney General has shown a lamentable lack of action in this case, while acting very diligently, almost to a fault, in other instances”. Mr. Montenegro went on to state that “this is just terrible for the image of our country internationally. The declarations of Attorney General Kenia Porcell to international news channel CNN – that in Panama the PM is independent of the executive branch – ring hollow. We all know that to be untrue. The Mossack Fonseca case is just another example of that”.
Spain The flimsiness of the Panamanian government’s response to the ongoing scandal have not gone unnoticed in the international press, which has cast doubts both on the good intentions of President Varela, as well as on the country’s financial system. A case in point is a report published by Spanish newspaper Vozpoluli, titled: “Why Panama is failing to shed light on the scandal: tax evasion is no crime over there”. The article reports the controversial declarations of Attorney General Porcell, who essentially gave a green light to tax evasion in Panama. The report also highlights the “strong links between the current government of the country and the principal partners of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm implicated in the Panama Papers scandal. Add to that a culture of impunity in which political elites merge with business interests to form one single entity.”
