Detention a health challenge for Martinelli elite

LIFE  in detention has not proved good for the health of former high profile members of the Ricardo Martinelli administration with “hypertension” high on the list of ailments.

In the last 3 years, more than 10  accused who were in good health when arrested have mysteriously, deteriorated when behind bars says an El Siglo report.

One of the most notorious  cases has been the former director of the General Revenue Directorate (DGI), Luis Cucalón, who was arrested on May 25, 2015 for allegedly paying  $47 million in commissions to Cobranzas del Istmo S.A. and who spent two years in Panama’s most expensive hospital in  Punta Pacifica for alleged health conditions.

Cucalón was transferred to El Renacer Prison in August 2015, but suddenly his health deteriorated in less than a month because in September he was taken to the private hospital where he remained until September of this year.

In addition to him, José Raúl Mulino, Minister of Public Security 2009-2014, also alleged health problems and obtained a pass from preventive detention.

Mulino was imprisoned on October 26, 2015, also in El Renacer, but on March 7 of this year he was granted country arrest and ordered to report on the 30th of each month before the Third Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and reside in his current address.

The former minister is being investigated for the alleged commission of crime against public administration, to the detriment of the Ministry of Security.

The ex-director of the National Police, Gustavo Pérez, was another of those who asked for a change of precautionary measure after suffering several health problems while being locked up; among them was an infection in the eyes and later hypertension. Before being moved from the new La Joyita prison to El Renacer he had complained of claustrophobia.

Alejandro Garuz, the former secretary of the Security Council, claimed to have diabetes which afflicts a large percentage of Panamanians.

Miracle Cures
The action of the lawyers of those investigated when requesting deals in favor of their clients using as an excuse that they suffer from a disease, is not well seen by civil society,  which alleges that this is only a strategy to get out of prison, because when they leave ‘the symptoms miraculously disappear’.

Annette Planells, of the Independent Movement (Movin), told El Siglo, that in the process they abuse the trust of the system, making the cases in which a precautionary measure other than preventive detention must be applied. The most serious, in her  opinion, is when they use that strategy to delay the process ‘as it seems to have been the recent case of Mr Cucalón’, she  said, <eanwhile  hundreds of detainees in Panamanian prisons suffer from chronic diseases and are not benefited with house or country arrest because they do not have the money  to pay for a lawyer to use alleged  illness as a resource.

Richard Morales, political analyst, said that many times detainees simulate the suffering and even bribe doctors to rule on a more serious illness, a situation that reveals the corruption and dysfunctionality that exists in the justice system of Panama.

When ex-judge Alexandro Moncada Luna was under investigation, he delayed an appearance with a note from a cardiologist who later admitted she had not examined him.

While serving his 5-year sentence in El Renacer, attempts by Moncada Luna to play the health card have failed.

Before being moved to Renacer, Cucalon got a clean bill of health from government doctors.