Of course you won't read about this in the Panamanian press, but Corruption Transparency International did not just publish a fake report, authored by a military coup plotter, about the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, but they continue to defend and distribute knowingly false information, reveals Calvin Tucker:

Another week passed, and still no answers from TI. I tried their regional office for the Americas . An official told me that they “stand by their report”. Even though it’s wrong? “That’s your opinion,” she replied.

“But the information that you say doesn’t exist, does exist.”

“Talk to our press office,” she advised.

Despite having a strong sense of déjà vu, I phoned the press office and spoke once again with Gypsy Kaiser. She was positively seething. “Calling our staff is inappropriate behaviour,” she barked at me, like an angry school teacher. “But you won’t answer my questions,” I protested. “We will,” she responded.

“But when? I’ve already waited three weeks. ”

“I’m not giving you a date. Let’s just say it will be sooner rather than later.”

A week on and I’m still waiting. Obviously her definition of “sooner” is my definition of “later”.

In the meantime, TI are busy mailing their inaccurate report on Venezuela to businesses, NGOs and governments all over the world. No investigation has been held into what went wrong. And their Venezuela bureau continues to be run by a person who backed the 2002 coup against democracy.

Not a word either from Panama's chief "transparency" Angelica Maytín either, of course. Nor from her boss, I. Roberto Eisenmann.

More proof that Panamanian politicians are, with few exceptions, nothing but corrupt sleazeballs. In the CEMIS case file sits this piece of paper on which Stephen Jones dotted down how the bribes for the project were to be distributed. And guess who we find? Balbina Herrera, presidential candidate for the Piñadistas. Also there is the name of De la Hoz, a former PRD legislator who caused a lot of trouble when he felt left out of the deal. He talked about it with Perez Balladares aboard the latter's corruption yacht, and that conversation was recorded. De la Hoz describes for example how he attended a breakfast meeting with Balbina and Hector Aleman at Martin Torrijos' house to discuss how to divide the CEMIS loot.

Hat tip to Dealante