MEDIA WATCH: changing horses sends wrong message

hoyporhoy, La Prensa May 17

THE FINANCIAL Analysis Unit (UAF) is the most important mechanism with which the country prevents money laundering.

Precisely at a time when many international scandals have put Panama in the eye of the financial storm, the head of the UAF is appointed as the new Deputy Minister of Public Security, leaving  the key body in the most important administrative and judicial investigations in the country headless.

This is not the message of confidence that we  should send to the world, giving the appropriate signals of starting to strengthen the UAF and   the Public Ministry, and to clean up our financial system. Not  changing  riders halfway through the race. Staying  the course in the UAF is vital to fulfill the promises that have been made to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the rest of the international community.

Panama cannot afford a  crisis caused by the appointment of friends and party members in sensitive positions generating  a vacuum in state management  ,leaving it.