All they found in the office of "El Periodico": Unsold papers.

Omar Wong Wood is a corrupt publicity hitman masquerading as a journalist. When he still worked for La Critica, he used to publish smear pieces for which he was paid by Tomas Cabal, who in his turn worked for such honorable clients as Marc M. Harris, Tom McMurrain and the Jumet/Torrijos PECC tandem. In other words, Omar Wong happily served those interests and those people who have tried time and time again to silence honest, real journalists, by filing criminal libel complaints, threats and harassment and what have you.

Wong expanded his business and started El Periodico, a sort of La Cronica, a publication masquerading as a newspaper. Someone paid him to publish Herman Bern's tax returns, and now Bern is frying his ass and has shut him down.

But guess what? What passes for civil society in this country is now up in arms because they see this as an attack on press freedom. If, say, a CIA agent poses as a journalist and starts a publication to further his sinister goals, they would out him and applaud it when the fake paper was shut down. If one of these Uribe soldiers posing as Telesur reporters would have been found out and shot during the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt, only a madman would try to spin it as an attack on press freedom. But if a corrupt impostor like Omar Wong impersonates a journalist and is eventually silenced, it is suddenly an attack on the press and civilization itself and the sleazeball gets to use civil society as his own human shield. They probably want corruption to be a constitutional right as well?

UPDATE 8 SEPT.: Now Reporters Without Borders, Eric Jackson of The Panama News and the Bernal for Mayor campaign have both come out in support of Wong. Plop!