The Zulay Rodríguez Story – Part 1

You may have noticed that one of the candidates for President of Panama, Zulay Rodríguez, has been asked to attend the courts of justice recently to answer charges regarding the theft of 66 kilos of gold.  Zulay did not attend many of the recent court sessions and neither did her lawyer.  If you don’t follow politics closely in Panama, or you just haven’t heard about this story, this could make a Hollywood movie.  Pick your own set of movie stars to play the roles.  You may ask, ‘How and why did such a thing happen in Panama?’  Let me begin the story and over the next day or so, I will relay those parts that began back in March of 2009.   

Here is some background:  On March 9, 2009, Mexican goldsmith José Luis Penagos Hernández was detained in the transit area of ​​the Tocumen International Airport in possession of 35 kilos of gold that the Customs Department seized alleging that it not been declared.  Penagos Hernández was traveling accompanied by a fellow goldsmith, the Venezuelan José Felipe Mendoza, from whom Customs also confiscated 31 kilos of gold. Both had, in total, just over 66 net kilos of gold.  Penagos Hernández argued that he did not have to declare the gold, since its final destination was not Panama, but Colombia.

However, everything became complicated after authorities found traces of methamphetamine in the gold.  The Mexican ended up in pavilion 6 of the La Joya prison, with several cases brought against him.  He was held in the prison system until his deportation on December 28, 2009.  The complaint shows that Penagos Hernández had an order preventing him from entering Panama, which is why they could not process the return of the gold.  As a result, Hernández hired the services of lawyers Zulay Rodríguez Lu, and Rafael Augusto Álvarez Canto and signed a power of attorney before the Third Circuit Notary of Panama.  Let’s continue this Zulay Rodríguez story tomorrow with Part 2.