Government in Need of Foreign Experts to solve Scandal

President Varela has announced that the country will call on foreign experts to aid the investigation into the offshore companies scandal that has rocked Panama. According to details given by Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo, the government will convene a committee that will include renowned figures such as Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Eugene Stiglitz. The announcement was criticized across social networks as yet another example of the government inability to handle the situation on its own strengths. The possible cost to the state coffers of such a high-profile event also caused alarm.

President Varela has been heavily criticized for both being bent on defending the interests of his long-time friend’s law firm, while speaking out of turn of “retaliatory measures” against France upon learning of the European country’s decision to include Panama in its list of tax havens. Having first condemned the action of the French government as “misguided and unnecessary” in the wake of a telephone conversation with French President Hollande, Mr. Varela later changed his tune by announcing diplomatic efforts aimed at avoiding a fiscal spat. These would appear to include a meeting between Dulcidio De La Guardia, Economics and Finance Minister, with its French counterpart.

Weak

According to former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, the government’s response to the crisis has been weak and ineffective. “The President of the Republic is supposed to defend the interests of the whole country, not those of his friends”, he claimed. He went on to add that the President should have taken decisive actions from day one, applying measures to ensure that the “misdeeds of a firm” such as we have seen cannot happen again.