Scandal plagued immigration director follows tourism chief out of the door

The second boot to fall in the reshuffle of Panama’s ruling administration, is the ousting of the Director of Immigration.

 Maria Cristina González will be replaced as director of Immigration by Javier Carrillo,  who currently works for the police. 

Her fall was predictable. While not facing any charges of corruption, she and her fiefdom  have  been tainted in recent months by reports of smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants  and there is an ongoing  an investigation into allegations that the agency improperly awarded visas to 10 Eastern European women who came to Panama to work as prostitutes. They were hired to work as exotic dancers in a night club on the Amador Causeway. Seven of them have disappeared.

As reported in Newsroom on Tuesday,  Tourism Director Salomón Shamah will also be replaced, but his succesor has not been named President. Ricardo Martinelli said Shamah will move to another position within the government.

 Security Minister José Raúl Mulino explained that he nominated Carrillo who is not a member of any party, to prevent the office from being "politicized."

Shamah has been under scrutiny since  Wikileaks released U.S. cables  accusing him of having ties to drug traffickers. {jathumbnail off}