No one believes Wikileaks –Martinelli
Panama’s Minister of the Presidency, Demetrio Papadimitriu asked the United States for help to deflect the President's obsession with political wiretaps says a Wikileaks report.
The information was published Saturday, April 16, in Panama America. The report also revealed the "frustration" of Papadimitriu with the way security policy in the country was being handled by the Vice President and Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Varela, the security minister, Jose Raul Mulino, and the director of Police, Gustavo Pérez.
According to Wikileaks a message from the then U.S. Ambassador to Panama, Barbara Strephenson confirmed that she met with, Papadimitriu on October 23 2009 asked her to help him "focus attention" on the Martinelli issue of national security.
Martinelli’s response says La Prensa was: "No one believes to Wikileaks. I do not believe this. This is a last telenovela to which I give no importance."
The president declined to elaborate on the content of the information released yesterday by the newspaper.
Juan Carlo Varela, aspiring to run for president in the next election was more cautions in his statements and said that all messages on Wikileaks were an internal issue of U.S. diplomacy. Mulino said he had the backing and confidence of the government.
Panama’s former Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez confirmed the concerns of the former Ambassador. She said that by September 2009, when Martinelli was about to say his first speech to the United Nations in New York, she met with the U.S. diplomat to discuss the concerns.