Ana matilde gomez1/7/2024 Then he boarded his private jet and flew to Italy. At a news conference in January, he denied ever stealing a penny. He has said efforts to prosecute him are purely political. Martinelli is somewhere abroad, in the United States at last report, avoiding, so far, an accounting at home. Martinelli’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. Martinelli “didn’t even care how it looked,” she said. “With all their excesses, the last presidents in Panama cared about appearances,” said Ana Matilde Gomez, the attorney general ousted by Martinelli in 2010 who now is Panama’s only independent member of Congress. Although his attempt to make it possible to run for reelection failed, he did handpick his party’s candidate, who lost to Juan Carlos Varela, the president now pushing for many of the corruption inquiries. Martinelli also stacked the courts and other key government institutions in a bid to shield himself from scrutiny and change the constitution to allow him to run for reelection. Wrong, Barria and others have now concluded politics was big business for Martinelli, these critics say. Like many, Barria initially supported Martinelli, who won election with 60% of the vote, and thought that because he was already so rich that he would not be tempted to stick his hand into the till. He would let people know he knew things about them.” He would say that controlling information is power. “He would brag he knew things that no one knew. Martinelli “was a man who needed to know gossip,” said Aurelio Barria Jr., a businessman and one of the leading civic opponents of Gen. Rebuffed, Martinelli bought sophisticated surveillance equipment from an Israeli company run by former Mossad and other intelligence agents, investigations revealed. “His penchant for bullying and blackmail may have led him to supermarket stardom but is hardly statesmanlike.” Ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson, according to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. government demurred: “He made reference to various groups and individuals whom he believes should be wiretapped, and he clearly made no distinction between legitimate security targets and political enemies,” said a cable written by then-U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to expand his wiretaps, according to leaked diplomatic cables. Martinelli attempted to enlist the help of the U.S. You could be Mother Teresa and they’d invent a scandal.” “First he tries to buy you,” she said, “and then they try to humiliate you. She said an aide to the president also threatened to publicize a video of her having sex. She found this out when a recording of a private conversation with her husband - a bitter argument, in fact - was made public in social media. The victims reportedly included Zulay Rodriguez, a leftist congresswoman and Martinelli critic. The spying took place from boardrooms to bedrooms, according to revelations in the Panamanian press and a criminal investigation opened by Atty. Targets included politicians and activists, as well as priests, diplomats, trade unions, indigenous leaders and businessmen. Yet the cases mounting in the aftermath of the Martinelli administration, which concluded in July 2014, are mind-boggling.Ī passel of “megaprojects” that Martinelli pushed, such as sprawling hospital complexes, highways and Central America’s first metro, routinely resulted in a cut of about 15% to the government, according to business groups, activists and politicians. The relentless construction has helped fuel the highest growth rate in the Americas, year after year.īut now that boom may result in a bust - several busts, in fact, of prominent Panamanian figures under criminal investigation, perhaps including former President Ricardo Martinelli.Ĭorruption has long been seen as a way of life in little-regulated, intrigue-drenched Panama, the skinny canal-bisected country that links the two American continents. Like the canopy of a forest, about 300-odd skyscrapers have redefined the city’s skyline. Sometimes it seems that to find your way around today’s Panama City, you must look up.
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