Wikileaks revelations — U.S. regarded Martinelli as threat to democracy

A damning report released by Wikileaks indicates that the U.S. State Department regarded President Ricardo Martinelli As “A threat to Panamanian democracy".

This emerges from messages sent to Washington by former U.S. ambassador to Panama, Barbara Stephenson, leaked by Wikileaks and published Monday March 14, in the the online edition of Spanish newspaper El Pais and its web site elpais.com.

"His strong personality, his lack of commitment to the rule of law, his exaggerated presidentialism and its popularity can be damaging to democratic institutions in Panama," said Stephenson, in messages sent to Washington from September to December 2009. The messages reveal that just two months after his inauguration as president, Martinelli, was “quarantined” by the Embassy, and the State Department proposed a certain distance be kept to "make clear our support for democratic institutions in Panama as a whole." {jathumbnail off}
According to the messages, the embassy recommended that, without weakening cooperation on matters of mutual interest, it should set out a timetable of meetings with opposition leaders, and support the calls for strengthening judicial independence and work with civil society.
The U.S. believed that Martinelli’s administration was characterized by its fixation "on personal interests and the pursuit of powerful businessmen, including several Americans, supposedly favored by state grants, against leaders civil society and politicians andagainst the former ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
Messages state that Martinelli pressured other institutions like the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, the Attorney General and the press, defined as "more flattering than vigilant”.
"The excessive concentration of power in the hands of one man, with his attempt to involve the U.S. Embassy in illegal activities (the wiretapping of opposition using the infrastructure of the DEA) and the reports on judicial intimidation cause concern about the stability of democratic institutions in Panama in the medium term, said the U.S. Embassy in one of the messages.
According to Wikileaks, the president of the National Assembly, Jose Luis Varela, acknowledged that U.S. Ambassador Martinelli "ordered" Rafael Barcenas appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal.
The day of his appointment in Parliament, the new administrator "thanked the president for his appointment and not the Assembly” the report added.
Messages also criticized the contraverisail naming, by Martinelli of two supreme court judges after a ratings committee had listed 71 who were not considered.