Ruben Blades hopes US  win continue to finger corruption in Panama

The Panamanian singer-songwriter and activist Rubén Blades said  Saturday that his hope is that authorities from the United States and other governments continue to denounce the “acts of corruption committed in Panama” and that the evidence thereof is presented in a timely and public manner. Blades was commenting on the decision of the United States to designate Juan Carlos Varela Thursday for “significant corruption”, the second former president (2014-2019) who is prohibited from entering the country in a year, since it took the same decision regarding Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014).

Both ex-governors are among the thirty people who will be prosecuted in Panama for Odebrecht bribes, a case for which two of Martinelli’s sons have already served jail time in the United States, and confessed there that they laundered $28 million and led to carried out bribes in favor of the Brazilian company “by orders of the father”, as alleged by their defense.

 “Hopefully the announcements made by foreign authorities, from the United States and other governments, denouncing the acts of corruption that occurred in Panama, and identifying their executors,” said Blades adding that he hopes that “the evidence of such acts will be presented in a timely manner by these authorities (complainants), in a public manner, to answer any questions from the public related to the veracity of the information provided.”

“Now, for the first time in decades, it really seems that there is a will to confront and defeat the corrupt system and scheme that controls and impedes the true development of the promise that is still Panama, and the correct and honest use and of its immense resources, natural and human,” added the lawyer and political activist on his website. Iin InPanamaVarela, 59, reiterated on Thursday after the US announcement that he was an “honest” president, who managed more than 20,000 million dollars in works with “transparency”, and that he will do “everything he has to do to defend” his honor and that of his family.

In addition to being head of state, Varela was vice president and chancellor during the Martinelli administration, with whom he was an ally until 2011 when they distanced themselves amid mutual attacks.

Blades emphasized that the US declared Varela “corrupt” for “accepting bribes to carry out public works” when he was in his activity “as vice president” of Martinelli, but “does not clarify at what point in his five years” in that charge “the alleged bribery occurred, and it also does not specifically identify which of his acts as a public official was identified as corrupt..”Blades also opined that the accusation against Varela “creates a range of emotions” in Panama, including “thanks to the US authorities for helping to uphold the rule of law, by putting pressure on an inconsistent and nationally perceived corrupt Judicial body and force it to denounce, investigate, and prosecute corrupt public servants and their accomplices from the Panamanian private sector.” But it also causes “the shame of recognizing that, had it not been for investigative activities carried out from abroad, it would not have been possible, by Panamanian initiative, to initiate and advance judicial cases against criminal activities, or illegal acts committed by alleged servants against the national economy and the interests of our population”.