Outgoing tourism boss denies dirty tricks role

OUTGOING Panama Tourism Authority(ATP) (ATP ) boss, Salomon Shamah, a President Ricardo Martinelli insider,  and widely believed to be a key player in dirty tricks moves in the last two elections, was in denial mode on Monday May 19.

The man who had his U.S. visa refused after Wikileaks reports revealed DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) investigations, denied accusations that he was the man in control of a call center financed by the National Assembly, working for CD presidential candidate Jorge Domingo Arias. 

“Nothing to do with me”, Shamah said during an interview on TeleMetro.
"I do not have experience in call centers. I'm not a technology person per se, and do not know how to run a call center, but I know how to give the message," he said.
Shamah said that all political parties have call centers.
Three weeks ago, Giancarlos Teran CD call center supervisor in the H20 building on Avenida Balboa indicated that the operations coordinator, María Cristina González , who had been removed as Director of Immigration, after a visa scandal, took orders directly from Shamah .
Teran receiving a check for $ 600 per month the Ministry of Trade and Industry, but did not work there He also said he saw Shamah visit the place regularly Shamah was emphatic: "I didn’t give instructions to María Cristina González ".
This is not the only recent fingering of Shamah. In April, the recently dismissed criminal judge Ballesteres Alexis filed a complaint against the Assembly Shamah and judges Jose Ayu Prado, Alejandro Moncada Luna, Wilfredo Saenz and Secundino Mendota, accused of influence peddling and abuse of authority.
According to Ballesteros, he was pressured by his superiors – who met and talked with Shamah – to rule in favor of President Ricardo Martinelli and his associates, in three processes that were in his office.
"I've never called a judge of the Supreme Court”, Shamah said when the journalist Alvaro Alvarado asked him about it. He also denied knowing Ballesteros.
He said that he has met with judges in social activities and in cordial conversation, "But no judge can say I've gone to them to ask for me or anyone."