Government struggling to deflect twin scandals

Government sponsored TV advertisements are  trying to deflect the twin scandals of alleged contributions by a convicted fraudster to the Ricardo Martinelli election campaign, and the loss of  the tourism minister’s U.S. visa,

But the ads, paid from the public purse, have failed to turn off the heat from local media or to bury concerns that Panama’s image is being damaged around the world.

The “king of the pyramids,” David Murcia Guzman, is  currently waiting sentencing in the U.S for money laundering, already sentenced in Colmbia to 30 years jail for a pyramid fraud, who is alleged to have funneled money to the Martinelli campaign, and flown with Martinelli  on a plane piloted by the brother of Panama’s Tourism Minister, Salomon Shamah,

Murcia has now says he has proof of the donations he made to the Martinelli campaign.

Maria Córdoba, an advisor  to Murcia’s defense team said that Murcia –has "photos and videos" related to the donations and will bring them to Panama if he is authorized to participate in his preliminary hearing in Panama for the alleged illegal collection of funds.

On Friday May 6, , Enrique Ho, Director of  Panama’s sanitation authority AAUD, admitted to having received a personal loan in the amount of $380,000 from Chong Coronado for the  Martinelli campaign of but denied that the money came from Murcia Guzmán.

Ho said the loan was given because the two are friends. Chong Coronado was a witness at Ho's wedding to his former wife, Katherine Villaverde, in 2008. {jathumbnail off}

Villaverde became head of marketing for the Panama Tourism  run by Salomón Shamah, whose brother, Alberto Shamah, was a pilot for Murcia. A Photo of  the Tourism Minister has appeared on local web sites and allegedly from a DAS intelligence file connecting him with illegal arms deals on Colombia. The former head of the DAS,  charged with wire tapping political  opponents  journalists and judges fled to Panama last November and was given sanctuary by President Martinelli.

As more  revelations of the multiple connections to associates of Shamah and Martinelli continue to appear, the government is struggling to cope with the fall out, with Vice President Juan Carlos Varela neither confirming or denying that the Tourism Minister, a Colombian, has lost his U.S. Visa because of suspected links to narco trafficking.