‘They are Letting Valenzuela and Annette Planells go Unpunished’: Panama’s Zulay Rodríguez asks that Complaints Against Foco not be Allowed to Expire
According to the former congresswoman, the prosecutors have refused to investigate, have not called witnesses, and have left the cases bogged down. Zulay Rodríguez pictured below right, hopes that the alleged extortions will be investigated.
Former congresswoman Zulay Rodríguez is advocating that the cases reported against the digital media outlet Foco for alleged extortion and other crimes should not be subject to the statute of limitations. According to Rodríguez, this behavior has currently allowed Annette Planells, Mauricio Valenzuela and Foco to remain unpunished.
“I have sent letters to the attorney general requesting audits of the prosecutors who dismissed cases against Foco. They let time pass and Foco goes unpunished,” Rodríguez stated this week. She added that the prosecutors have refused to investigate, do not call witnesses, and leave the files bogged down so that the cases expire.
Rodríguez recalled that there is also a recording known as 1056, part of Operation Jericho (use the search feature on Newsroom Panama to view stories on Operation Jericho), which reveals the alleged extortion of a congressman by the Annette Planells media outlet. The lawyer is asking for an investigation, taking into account that President José Raúl Mulino himself urged people to file extortion complaints; the United States ambassador, Kevin Cabrera, called Annette Planells, pictured below, an extortionist; former US official Louis Sola also did so, and Karisma Karamañites reaffirmed it.
She referred to a case of alleged extortion that she knows of, in which the person would have paid about 3 thousand dollars a month so that Valenzuela would not “become a beast” with Foco’s publications towards the affected person. She also mentioned that Foco had categorized the costs, with the Zulay rate being one of the highest. (Zulay Rodríguez is also a lawyer whose rate for legal services was openly publicized.) Weeks ago, Karamañites revealed an alleged conspiracy to prevent the candidacy of the current president, Mulino, in which Foco and Planells played an important role. Her revelations exposed her modus operandi and led to the US embassy’s crusade to strip Annette Planells of her anti-corruption champion award.
