Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is a good president

story by Don Winner
A wave of rumors generated by the publication of two separate reports supposedly containing information from security and intelligence organizations but without official or named sources that appeared in the Costa Rican online newspaper El Pais that attribute criminal acts to Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, which also allege a supposed diplomatic distancing or pullback by the United States from Panama as a result of those criminal acts, as well as pressures supposedly being applied against journalists Jean Marcel Chéry and Fernando Correa, were dismissed on Monday by various official sources. El País, a publication relatively unknown in Panama, said in two different publications that were widely distributed in Panama via the Internet that Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and his company were tied to dirty business. None of the allegations were substantiated with any official investigation, US Agency, or serious publication.
Another rumor that was being passed around on Monday morning was that the Secretary of Communications of the Presidency, Alfredo Prieto, had been fired. HORA CERO was able to determine that in fact Prieto remains in his position.

Panama's Vice President and Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Varela called for an investigation of the stories based on anonymous sources published in El Pais in Costa Rica, which he attributed to unidentified Panamanians. Varela who traveled on Monday to the United States denied the existence of any kind of a rife with Washington. Varela recalled that he, President Martinelli, and other members of the government were businessmen before entering politics.

Sources within the government who requested not to be identified were surprised by the articles published in the El Pais online newspaper in Costa Rica, the contents of which they rejected when speaking to HORA CERO. But the reports that were published in El Pais in Costa Rica on Firday circulated like hot cakes among thousands of email users in Panama.

HORA CERO asked if there was any truth to the emails that have been circulating during the last three days regarding pressure supposedly being applied by the government asking that the El Siglo newspaper fire its director Jean Marcel Chéry and the director of the Open Debate program of the MEDCOM corporation, and both versions were rejected by members of the government consulted by HORA CERO. "There are a number of rumors and misinformation being spread through chats, e-mail and the SMS system trying to discredit the government and cast doubt on the relationship with local and international press, which are tendentious, false and removed from reality," said a high ranking government official. According to the sources those who are spreading the rumors are trying to create a climate of "hostility" between the media and government "and to cast doubt on the honesty of government officials." (Hora Cero)

Editor's Comment: First of all, extra credit to the source for having used the word "tendentious" which means "marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view, biased." Excellent word which perfectly describes a couple of the other sources of English language news in Panama - tendentious. I'm going to stick that one in my back pocket for later use, so thanks.

About The Article: Now, in regards to the content of this article I think it's right on. The El Pais articles have been blasting around Panama for a few days now. There are no official investigations or complaints that have been raised by anyone with regards to the primary allegations and speculations in the articles. It is a fact that Ricardo Martinelli's cousin has been arrested in Mexico and charged with money laundering. It is a fact that the US Ambassador to Panama, Barbara Stephenson, has been promoted and will assume the position in the United Kingdom. However the allegations that drug money was supposedly funneled into the campaign of Ricardo Martinelli by his cousin are unfounded and unsubstantiated with any official source or solid information.

Recurring Theme: Just last week Balbina Herrera made the illogical and wacky allegation that Martin Torrijos and the PRD had supposedly given $4.5 million dollars to Ricardo Martinelli's campaign. And remember back in November 2009 when Mitchell Doens, the Secretary General of Panama's Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) was trying to do as much damage as possible with his allegations regarding Panama's Minister of Economy and Finance, Alberto Vallarino, and supposed allegations that Vallarino appeared in a DEA document with connections to money laundering through the Banistmo bank. In Panama the cocaine goes North and the money comes South. The PRD is absolutely convinced that businessmen like Juan Carlos Varela and Ricardo Martinelli simply have to be tainted in one way or the other with money laundering, however they don't have any real solid evidence that they can latch onto.

New US - Panama Spin: I see these articles that appeared in El Pais in Costa Rica as nothing more than the most recent efforts to gain traction with these themes, and they added in the extra "spin" this time that supposedly there is a breach in the relationship between the United States and Panama. Ironically, the first article was published on exactly the same day that Arturo Valenzuela, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the US State Department was visiting Panama. Valenzuela is the highest ranking State Department official for Latin America, and his boss is Hillary Clinton. His presence in Panama signals exactly the opposite of what the article alleges - for example Valenzuela didn't go down to Caracas to have his picture taken with Hugo Chavez, right? Of course conspiracy theorists point to Valenzuela's visit and proclaim "See? I told you there's a serious problem between Panama and the US. If not, then why would they send down such a high ranking official?" Because he was visiting several Central American countries to help determine the best way to send more aid to help fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, that's why.

Why Costa Rica? First of all, the "El Pais" online publication is both new and relatively unknown. Working from the premise that the basic allegations appearing in the articles are, in fact, both untrue and unfounded, then there are only a couple of possibilities of what might be motivating the people at El Pais in Costa Rica;

•They Like The Traffic: In this business, money from advertisers can be directly related to the volume of traffic to the website. There are unscrupulous websites that portray themselves as "news" outlets, but in reality they are nothing more than machines used to manipulate information space. Think information warfare. The explosion of the Internet now means that anyone with a website who is willing to publish the most outlandish crap will have their headlines picked up and spread quickly. In this case, the articles about Ricardo Martinelli went ricocheting around Panama at light speed. Why? Because the stories were well crafted enough to be intriguing. The allegations they contained started from a known point (like - Martinelli's cousin was in fact arrested in Mexico) and then spin off into speculation and conjecture. These are the things that make for good soap operas, and therefore they generate interest and traffic to the website. More traffic means bigger numbers, bigger numbers means more advertising, and more advertising means more money. Ask yourself - before this weekend had you ever visited the El Pais website? I had not, and now I've been there about four or five times. So if that was their objective, it's working. I imagine their editors are giddy over the traffic and attention they have received.


•Ideological Bent: That goes back to the use of the word "tendentious." If the editor's of the El Pais website are politically biased, and if they want to find ways to help the PRD in Panama and to cause damage to Ricardo Martinelli and his government, then this is the way to do it. The editors simply pointed to unnamed DEA sources that supposedly connect Martinelli to money laundering. Sound familiar? Personally I think the El Pais publication went down this road for both reasons. They apparently have a political bent (tendentious) towards anything anti-Martinelli, and they also wanted the traffic and notoriety the publication of such allegations would create.


•Pay to Play? These kinds of gutter level, biased fake "news" outlets generally have no journalistic ethics or morals. Some of these take payments from people who want to cause damage to their political or business opponents in order to publish damaging information about them. The fact that El Pais is based out of Costa Rica is convenient for whoever wanted to do the damage, because no Panamanian publication in their right mind would have touched this stuff. Giuseppe Bonissi would send over the National Police to beat the hell out of the journalist, before launching an official investigation that would end in a conviction, confirmed by the Supreme Court. In Panama, Ricardo Martinelli is now firmly in control of every rein of power that matters - in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government, as well as the supposedly independent centers of power such as the Office of the Comptroller, the Public Ministry, and even the Electoral Tribunal. He's taken over, and in short there's nothing left (except the media.) This weekend a photographer from the Panama America was beaten by a police officer because he took pictures of the Attorney General who was at a party with some women. One of Bonissi's body guards even told the photographer "today is the day you go to prison" for taking the photos. While the photographer was wrestling with the police, they were trying to erase the pictures he took. So, now that Martinelli has taken over everything else, is the news media next? Anyway, it makes perfect sense for the people who want to do harm to Martinelli through the publication of slanderous news articles to do so from Costa Rica and not Panama City. If those allegations had come out here, people would already be in cuffs.
What If It's True? There is always some small degree of possibility that the allegations published in the El Pais online newspaper in Costa Rica might be true, however remote those possibilities might be. Political leaders in Latin America are frequently corrupted by the lure of drug money. Just yesterday I ran a story about a Mexican politician who got paid $500,000 for every shipment of cocaine that he let go through Cancun. Manuel Antonio Noriega would traffic cocaine through Cuba, and now Hugo Chavez is doing the same thing. Panama is a well known banking and financial center, and I have published countless stories about how people who have gotten caught in one scheme or another always seem to have money and accounts in Panama. And, there is an undeniable culture of corruption in Panama which dates back to the Conquistadors. People here want to be politicians because they can make money by selling their position and influence. So, while I think at this point the majority of the allegations in the El Pais article are baseless, politically motivated, and stemming from the Panamanian PRD and their efforts to drag down Martinelli, in this country one must always keep an open mind and remember that anything is possible. Maybe Pedro Miguel Gonzalez is actually innocent. Did I really just say that? Wow. Anyway, in 1995 nobody would have through that the all powerful Ernesto "El Toro" Perez Balladares would be on house arrest for corruption. Lets see where Ricardo Martinelli is in 2025 - that's the only valid position to take from a strategically logical point of view.

About Freedom Of The Press: Another element were the allegations about supposed efforts to shut down dissenting journalists in Panama. When I was serving in the military we had a tongue-in-cheek expression that "the beatings will continue until moral improves." Who knows where it came from, but the same sentiments seem to be appropriate for the current situation on the ground for journalists in Panama. "Excuse me, Mister Attorney General, will you have me beaten if I take your picture or ask the wrong question?" For many years it was my standard practice to take my SLR camera with me everywhere I went. Due to the growing crime wave I stopped doing that to a certain extent, not wanting to either draw attention to myself or make myself a target for crime. Thanks to the events of this weekend I will be taking my camera with me everywhere I go, and I'll be searching out opportunities to take photos of police officers in public spaces. The simple idea that this kind of thing can first happen at all, and then secondly be brushed aside by the government like nothing happened, is simply appalling, and an indication of what this government is capable of. Bonissi was embarrassed by the photos of him with the women. Does he have another girlfriend? Why was it "uncomfortable" for him? I don't believe his denials for a second - he's full of shit. I really don't need to know anything else about the man at this point. He's the wrong man for the job, but Martinelli wants him there, so this whole thing will be glossed over. Those are the facts of the matter. Everyone knows it, and there is nothing anyone can do. Welcome to the police state. The government's denials and statements to the contrary are just so much more spin and bullshit. This was a photographer from the Panama America, for crying out loud...