Panama: Wikileaks Reach Panamanian Government
This post is part of our special coverage WikiLeaks and the World.
The diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks have wreaked havoc in global politics. Panama is not an exception. The last few weeks have been marked by scandals and suspicious behaviors of several members of the current administration. A cable that links the government party CD -Democratic Change- with the Colombian drug dealer David Murcia has triggered outrage among Panamanian citizens.
La Prensa [es] informs:
Investigaciones llevadas a cabo por este diario, así como información contenida en cables de Wikileaks entregados a La Prensa, revelan una serie de hechos que vinculan a altos cargos de la actual administración, con el colombiano convicto David Murcia Guzmán o su socio local Ernesto Chong Coronado.
Enrique Ho Hernandez, the current head of the Aseo Urbano y Domiciliario, has apparently received money from the Colombian government. La Prensa [es] points out:
Ho, quien en las elecciones de mayo de 2009 manejó las finanzas de la campaña del hoy presidente, Ricardo Martinelli –según declaró ayer a este diario Alma Cortés–, fue citado en una asistencia judicial que pidió a Panamá un juzgado del Principado de Andorra, por presunto blanqueo de capitales, en el que se vinculaba a Chong Coronado y a su padre Ernesto Chong De León.
Panamanian outrage is expressed through different ways. One of them is on social networks.
Meijan Adams Morales (@MeijanAdams) believes that the unveiled information has revealed a hidden role of the current president and his administration:
Los #WikiLeaks han desenmascarado al gobierno de @rmartinelli #Panama. La verdad ha de prevalecer ante la mentira
However, Ricardo Zanetti (@ricardozanetti) thinks that it is hard to believe a man like Murcia whose business was money laundering by deceiving people:
Quien le va a creer a un tipo que su ‘negocio’ era MENTIRLE A LO PANAMEÑOS? #Panama #Murcia #Martinelli
Diego Barria (@diegoorlandob), on the other hand, does not believe that the Wikileaks cables are true:
#panama los wikileaks es un grupo de cobardes que los ambiciosos medios utilizan para subir sus ratings! Deberian hacer las acusaciones.
President Ricardo Martinelli used his (@rmartinelli) to assert that those accusations were part of a conspiracy against him and his party by accusing him about every single unfortunate event.
Esta es una campana sistemática para desacreditar al cd más la gente cercana al presidente y acusarlos de todos los males del universo
He had also written a previous tweet [es] referring to this campaign as devised by people greedy for power:
Hay una campaña orquestada para acabar con la credibilidad del gobierno. Ellos quieren el poder para olvidarse del pueblo por sus intereses
Joao Q in his blog Medio Cerrado [es] expresses his anger because the president has easily accused others of his mistakes, instead of taking responsibility for them:
ya sabemos que Martinelli cada vez que puede arremete contra la izquierda (que casi ni existe en Panamá), contra el PRD (que está manga por hombro de la juventud para arriba, y para abajo también) y contra los medios (que mal que bien hacen su trabajo), pero bueno, como dice Manuel Vázquez Montalbán: Lo peor para un paranoico es que en verdad lo persigan.
Cables released by Wikileaks have shaken Panama, the dirty roles of many politicians have been unveiled and people are hungry for answers and justice.
This post is part of our special coverage WikiLeaks and the World.
