World headlines that Panama doesn’t need

This week, Panama slipped into the headlines of the international media to report on an unprecedented event in the country. Ricardo Martinelli was pointed out as a participant in significant acts of corruption. In the past, the furthest the US had gone was to remove the entry visa to that country. But what happened, I am sure, is only the first step, which can undoubtedly be escalated – depending on how far Martinelli wants to go – and which could culminate in a list that is more like a kind of cemetery, but without being dead.

Martinelli’s arrogance and the veil that his servile court has put over his eyes prevented him from seeing the signs that were given last week. The visit to Panama of former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Otto Reich, for example, who enjoys enviable influence in Washington. His visit was not secret, he appeared on social networks together with the general director of Revenue, Publio De Gracia, who, at the time, audits the “corrupt” businesses.

I suppose that Reich would have also met with Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte, who, in her statement parallel to that of the State Department, made it very clear that, in addition to the designation of Martinelli as corrupt, “this will not be our last designation in Panama ”.

Imported justice
Our judicial authorities have been genuflecting, complacent, sold out, and corrupt, and that is why justice comes to us from outside.

There will be no shortage of those who allege that this is not justice, but a whim of the US and Ambassador Aponte, whom they accuse of meddling in the internal affairs of Panama. But I don’t see anyone protesting that we stop using the US dollar and instead use balboas bills as legal tender. Nor do I see anyone protesting so that our banks no longer use Gringo correspondents.

What I do see is that when our internal affairs affect the security of another country, that has consequences. In short, Aponte has shown in just a couple of months more courage than the magistrates of superior courts have almost never shown in a lifetime of practice or the ten years that a lot of magistrates are in office.

Now, if everything is a whim, why not advise Martinelli to defend himself in the US, a country that, if he was good at partying, is better for clearing his name. But it takes courage, to overcome cowardice. And cowardice has turned out to be a formidable, unbeatable adversary.

Let’s take Aponte’s statement as good: “I know how concerned Panamanians are about corruption and fighting it is one of our priorities as an embassy, because corruption undermines the well-being of the population, the economy, and democracy.”

In Panama, corruption is not a monopoly. This government has shown to have as many guts for theft as the other. Many will end up rich, and along the way, they will affect the lives of others, because if they fall on the same list of corrupt, the family that has nothing to do with the thief’s activities will tell him: “I don’t care if you steal as long as it does not affect me”, in the same way, that the US acts because the internal affairs of a country affect its national security.

Rolando Rodriguez B …(La Prensa)