Sex, drugs, blackmail, extortion put Panama on world stage

THE LATEST chapter of a Panama “Novela" involving blackmail, sex, drugs, extortion and alleged bribes is already circulating in media around the world.

The “Novela” definition comes from President Ricardo Martinelli’s spokesman,Luis Eduardo Camacho over ongoing revelations is Italian courts of alleged bribes to acquire contracts from the Panama government with the alleged involvement of members of the Martinelli family and the presideent'sclose associates.

An “Italian –Panama novela” has been Camacho’s standard response as more details have emerged over the last two years, of controversial contracts between Finamecanica an Italian conglomerate, and Panama. Many of the top hierarchy of the company and its subsidiaries have been charged with involvement in the scandal.
A witness told Italian judges earlier this week of the existence of video footage in which former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the President of Panama Ricardo Martinelli , supposedly appear in a meeting with prostitutes and with intent to use cocaine report La Estrella and La Prensa report. Elsewhere in the world the reports say the video shows Berlusconi having sex with the prostitutes.
“The author of the video is none less than one of the main actors of the scandalous Italian- Panamanian script of the last three years : Valter Lavitola,” says, La Estrella.
Lavitola former editor of the Italian newspaper L' Avanti , was re-arrested on Friday, December 20 on charges of international corruption and extortion, intended to use the video as a blackmail tool.
Angelo Capriotti , former partner of the firm Svemark, – a Finnamecanica subsidiary – has given evidence that Lavitola organized a party in Panama , during the visit of Berlusconi, in which there were prostitutes and drugs, and he secretly filmed the two presidents.
Lavitola reportedly told the Italian ambassador to Panama about the videos. Capriotti said he knew that the company Devor Diagnostic, of Rogelio Oruna – close to the president – 'was used for the laundering of monies allocated to President Martinelli' and it was the 'hidden partner used to transfer the money to entrepreneurs. '
These revelations are supported by the prosecution with the statements of Capriotti in April this year , which explained the role of the company and the conversations between Lavitola and Oruna reports La Estrella.

The Presidency responds to the negative image it is having on Panama in the eyes of the world with “It's an Italian junkie and a Panamanian political opponents , and it’s not going to upset our management , expiring on June 30, 2014”
The Uk’s prestigious Daily Telegraph reports:

The secret footage was allegedly taken by Walter Lavitola, a businessman and associate of the former prime minister who has previously been convicted of attempting to blackmail him.
Lawyers for Mr Berlusconi, 77, called the claims, which related to an official visit to the Central American country in 2010, "pure fantasy" and prosecutors said the ex-premier was not himself accused of any crime.
The claims were made by Angelo Capriotti, another businessman, who told prosecutors that Mr Lavitola first procured the call-girls for the billionaire tycoon and then covertly filmed the encounters as part of an extortion attempt. At least one copy of the video was made, prosecutors were told.
"Lavitola had video footage of Berlusconi with prostitutes in Panama and was using it to blackmail him," Mr Capriotti told prosecutors in Naples, although he said that he himself had not seen the video.
He recruited the women just as he had done when the prime minister visited Brazil."
It was claimed in 2010 that Mr Berlusconi hired six lap dancers to entertain him in his Sao Paulo hotel during a trip to the South American country that year.
The women were reportedly paid around £900 and promised jobs as showgirls and starlets on Italian television channels he owns.
At the time, the prime minister's office admitted that he had been entertained by a group of performers, but classified the show as a "typically Brazilian folklore spectacle".
Mr Berlusconi was forced to resign in late 2011 amid Italy's worsening recession and credit crisis.
Mr Lavitola, the former editor of an Italian newspaper called Avanti! (Onward), was arrested on Friday on suspicion of extortion and bribery in relation to a hospital construction project in Panama, where he spent lengthy periods of time before returning to Italy last year.
In March he was convicted of trying to blackmail Mr Berlusconi in return for covering up payments that were allegedly paid to escort girls to take part in the then prime minister's "bunga bunga" parties.
He was sentenced to prison for two years and eight month but last month it was halved on appeal.
He is due to be questioned on the latest allegations in a Naples prison on Monday [December 23]
Mr Berlusconi's legal team said the sex tape claims were baseless.
Niccolo Ghedini, one of his lawyers, denied that Mr Berlusconi had hired prostitutes, either in Panama or Brazil.
"The claims are without any foundation," he said. "There were no encounters (with call-girls) and so this alleged video cannot exist. These are claims based on pure fantasy."
Mr Berlusconi has been dogged by "bunga bunga" sex scandals ever since Veronica Lario, his wife of 20 years and the mother of three of his children, announced in 2009 that she intended to divorce him.
In June he was handed a seven year prison sentence after being found guilty of abusing his office and paying for sex with an underage prostitute, a teenage erotic dancer known by her stage name as Ruby the Heart Stealer. He is appealing the conviction.
Last month, after a 20 year career in parliament, he was stripped of his seat in the Senate as a result of an August conviction for tax fraud involving his Mediaset company.
Despite all the sex scandals and court cases, Mr Berlusconi has insisted he will remain in the front-line of politics and recently relaunched Forza Italia, the party he founded two decades ago.