OFF THE CUFF: Martinelli strategy meeting in public cafeteria.

RICARDO MARTINELLI, ex-president of Panama, who has been keeping a low profile since being named in the interrogation of  a former member of his zero (inner-inner) circle chose a public place on the morning of Wednesday, December 17, to meet with Edna Ramos, lawyer of his former personal secretary  Adolfo “Chichi” De Obarrio.

They met along with Martinelli’s  former political mouthpiece Luis Eduardo Camacho, and attorney Alejandro Pérez, in the Las Hadas restaurant, famed for its pastries in the Atlapa Sheraton Hotel,.

Without the $13.4 million snooping equipment of the previous Security Ministry it would have been hard to listen into the discussion as they tucked themselves into a quiet corner where the lights were dimmer but  it doesn’t need an 007 to figure out its subject with the front page headline in La Prensa on a nearby table screaming: “New arrest in PAN case” and Obarrio desperate to avoid being  added to the list.

Obarrio is potentially heading for investigation following  an anonymous tip from a protected witness linking him to the National Assistance Program (PAN) as the funnel inside the presidency for skimmed funds. He called a press conference to deny the allegations and submitted four Habeus Corpus appeals with the Supreme Court to avoid possible arrest. With three high profile people already under arrest, one of them under suicide watch in La Gran Joya it’s not hard to understand his concern.  All four habeus corpus requests were rejected. His next move was to lodge a complaint against the unknown informer to “clear his name.”

When the PAN scandal first came to light, Martinelli claimed he had no knowledge of the goings on, and said those involved should feel the full weight of the law. The response from President Juan Carlos Varela was: “It is irresponsible to say that anomalies in the PAN were unknown.”

 While the group discussed their next move they Martinelli sipped on a latte and munched a chicken empanada; Ramos ate a banana; and a churrosco was delivered to the table. At 8.30 am Martinelli left, Perez and Camacho remained huddled and Ramos moved to another table to talk with lawyer Alfredo Vallarino. The results of the breakfast soiree will appear as the scandal scenario unfolds.

Meanwhile in Rome, what Martinelli calls the Italian “Soap Opera” moves slowly on with one of his former Security Ministry employees playing cloak and dagger with a series of aliases to explain his presence in the court room where Valter Lavitola,  far from the arms of his  Panama mistress,Karen de Gracia, and Finnmecanica commercial director Paolo Pozzessere, try to explain away a shell company created to funnel a $25 million bribe into Panama’s former heirachy. Stay tuned for Panama’s “reality” production.