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.

Of course our beloved government is handling the crash of the helicopter professionally and quickly went into full spin and lying mode.

The chopper, a present from human rights champion Jimmy Carter to dictator and murderer Omar Torrijos, was in perfect condition, says Minister Daniel Delgado Diamante, a former Noriega crony. That is why, we must understand, it crashed. Because it was perfect.

And that spare parts were urgently needed to keep the motorized tea pot flying is not true, says President Martin Torrijos, even though evidence to the contrary is still available on the web. All that was on order, says the baby-president, was an ashtray for the co-pilot. Ash tray? Smoking pilots? Maybe this was to keep the museum piece original, as Omar liked to fly while smoking a cigar and pretending to be on the A-Team?