We’re taking a break

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Your Bananama Republic is taking a break. Holiday. Sabatical. Rethinking the whole concept. Mojitos.

We don't know exactly when we'll be back. Or how. New features? Podcasts? Do you, dear reader, have any ideas about what you'd like to see on our Panamanian cyber-outpost?

So, where to get your daily fix of news about the isthmian theme park? Here. Staying abreast of the WikiLeaks about Panama you do here, and here. News about Petaquilla is served here.

Stay safe!

 

13 thoughts on “We’re taking a break

  1. What? A break? So who’s going to give us the real news behind the story?

    Too bad.

    Or did you have an information overload, burn out so to say because of all dirty tricks of our new strongman in Panama, Berlus…. sorry Ricardito….

  2. A great holiday with lots of leisure! Maybe you meet a smart parrot, big enough to hide a miniature WiFi video camera in its feathers and who is willing to work as undercover reporter 😉

  3. After a year of being a faithful follower I must say I admire your effort and energy. It’s not easy being a salmon and swimming against the current. I wish you a relaxed break in which you’ll come up with an outstanding alternative to keep us all indignant and informed. Seriously, thank you Okke and all the best. By the way, if I have some sort of brainwave I’ll let you know.

  4. Above all, don´t give up! Panama and its people are worth it!

    You should concentrate on uncovering “organized crime” in Panamas Government , which drags their operations down from Government to Government and is in control of all of its political parties.

    Your exposure is a great aid to those who are freely allowed to be victimize by political criminals who; through contacts, friendships and political bribery, twist the noble purposes of the institutions of Panama´s Government and are allowed to utilize them to advance and finance, with government resources, the criminal designs of a privileged few who are the first to pretend to uphold democracy and deny this nations people the essence of democracy;

    Justice and Due Process.

    I can only criticize your site in that the common citizen, has no direct access and is not summoned by your organization when he contacts you and raises the red flag, and wants to make available documents to you, which prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Public Ministry in Panama is a “criminal organization”, that the Judicial Organ is an “active crime scene” and that the rest of the Governments Institutions are obliged to provide falsehoods to sustain the criminal acts perpetrated within the confines of Panamas Government to aid and abet pompous untouchable criminals.

    I have repeatedly tried to make documents available to Bananama Republic that show that Dulcidio De La Guardia, Panamas Vice Minister of Economics and Finance, is utilizing resources of the State and the power of his post to politically attack United States investors and try to derail their promising tourism projects in order to facilitate, aid and abet “organized crime” here. Which by his participation is freely operating within the realm of power and influence of President Martinellis government. Dulcidio´s undeniable aiding and abetting of Coclé Crime Boss, Raul Hernandez Lopez, to take over the valuable properties and the promising business ventures of United States investors is well documented.

    Dulcidio is, hand in hand in this matter with Raul Hernandez a Lopez who styles himself a Panamanian “Tony Soprano” and who was Minister of Commerce when the Petaquilla contracts were negotiated and signed, during which time, his partner, Richard Pheifer, was also the Governor of Coclé.

    These two gems sold their 49% of stock in Petaquilla a few years ago for many, many millions of dollars. Stock which they were obliged, in the exercise of their government posts to negotiated on behalf of, and in the benefit of the State, and not for themselves.

    Raul Hernandez Lopez has adopted the walk, talk and smirk of his adulation “Tony Soprano” and was elected to the Legislature, by promising the private properties of United States investors to unfortunate locals which he utilizes in summoning up acts of public violence against them. Hernandez is in the practice of utilizing these unfortunate locals to pose as fishermen and invade the tourism projects along the coast of Coclé, in order to set up U.S. developers for extortion scams. He is in total control of Police in Coclé

    These scams are the reason for which the recent Governor of Coclé, Mr. Pinzon was relieved of his post by Martinelli when he ordered that these pretentious fishermen be evicted from what has been proven to be private property, with duly registered title and not the public beach.

    Among other wrong doings of De La Guardia, is that he gave away State owned properties to a group of squatters installed by “Tony Soprano” on a beach, in front of a property which he was developing, in order that they would vacate the area. Reason for which he now does all, that “Tony” commands! Lest the word get out!

    He is also covering up and obstructing justice by having the Director of “Catastro” refuse access to expert witnesses, named by the Third Supreme Court in a case in which “Tony Soprano” is trying to usurp properties of these United States investors, to files which show that in Juan Hombron, 183 beach front properties were segregated from State land and titled to a who is who list of politicians, without applying the mandatory 200 meter set back ordered by law from the high tide line which is applied when properties are segregated from State owned land. The list is long on Dulcidio!

    On another count which affects these very same United States investors, the 8th and 3rd Attorneys Office of the Public Ministry is aiding, abetting and concealing a “securities fraud and Trust scam” committed against these same United States investors, by which the administration of their companies was “taken over”, overnight by arbitrarily printing up stock certificates of their company and filing bogus Shareholders meetings in the Public Registry, without their knowledge and by stealing the identities of its Directors.

    The Courts have since 2003, reneged to consider indisputable evidence and forensic reports that prove that these false documents which are latent with forgeries and which are proven to steal the identity of company Directors were elaborated within the offices of Patton Moreno & Asvat and Assets Trust & Corporate Services Inc.

    A family member of President Martinelli is a major stock holder, in both of these firms, which are directly incriminated in falsifying documents and falsely attributing these to an agonizing partner of the assaulted company in order to secure the shares of the company, of these United States investors, for a “Trust”, which these firms were planning to elaborate in the future with the aid of the future beneficiaries of this supposed Trust, to which the shares of the companies owners would be transferred by impossible acts contained in the false documents which they elaborated and with which they took over the companies daily control and have extorted their true owner since 2000.

    This case in which Ebrahim Asvat , and Guillermo Ford Sosa who are directly incriminated is going on 12 years and the victims of the “Tony Soprano Gang” have not been able to remedy a simple and elementary “snatch and catch” crime.

    Guillermo Ford Sosa is a cousin of Raul ” Tony Soprano” Hernandez´s wife and in laws. Yes! Guillermo Ford Sosa, who spoke so eloquently about democracy and social justice recently at his fathers funeral services.

    I am sick of phonies who talk democracy and live and apply clout and and political power to exercise a criminal enterprise in governement!

    Without Justice there is no democracy, there is only tyranny!

    Both Ford and Asvat set up a parallel company to the U.S investors company which they assaulted, and which in its statutes has the the exclusive purposes of developing the beach front properties which are owned by the company which was subjected to the securities fraud in which they are irremediably incriminated.

    These gems pretend to leave out entirely, its shareholders of the lucrative potential, in the development of their own properties with the use of aid from Panamas Government!

    Hello, RIcardo!

    Ridiculous!

    The content of the assaulted companies Book of Registry of Shareholders is being totally ignored by the 15th and 3rd Criminal Courts, in which these two financial giants are permitted to utilize documents by which the securities fraud was perpetrated as well as forged documents attributed to Directors of the affected company, to politically persecute and extort these United States investors and submit them to their criminal acts.

    Enough!

  5. Hope you have a wonderful sabbatical…Hopefully, NOT in Panamá.

    It is obvious that Organized Crime rules Panamá. These criminals, most of whom have never been arrested nor seen the inside of a jail (though some have) are friends with each other, and even when they are business enemies they tend to have some relation with each other through a family/blood connection of some type or other. Almost every single millionaire/businessman who is Panamanian either became rich by appropriating someone else’s land/property/money, or by outright stealing, or by laundering drug money. It is basically IMPOSSIBLE to see Justice done in Panamá. It’s all about who you are, who you know, and how much money you have to pay for whatever it is you want done.
    The Supreme Court won’t investigate any Legislator (unless they are turncoats and don’t play the ‘game’), and the National Assembly won’t investigate any Member of the Supreme Court for the same reasons as mentioned above either…They protect each other and keep things exactly as they are.

    Everytime a new President comes into office there is a ‘purge’, everywhere, and the ones in important positions put their own people in. This happens in the Police Department too. It is EVERYWHERE. People that swore to be loyal to one particular political party jump ship, and go to the Party in power…They are shameless and brazenly opportunistic at every chance they get.

    Considering this, and the fact that Panamá IS a seismic zone (a fact that is NEVER discussed), Panamá is not the ‘heavenly’ place that many think it is. In Panamá there always is SOMEBODY that wants what is yours. There is ALWAYS somebody willing to steal, cheat, lie or even kill you to get something from you that they want. Good luck to all of you who live there and feel that Panamá is a great, wonderful country. True, the campesinos are wonderful, and completely different to most of the other creeps and thiefs that are abundant in the City. And yes, there are SOME nice people too, but these are not the majority. Nice, honest, ethical people are rare in Panamá, and considered FOOLS by most Panamanians. I don’t see how things are ever going to get ‘better’ in Panamá. It’s a hellhole, in my opinion. And I was born there, have family there. I wouldn’t go back to live in Panamá if I was offered a million dollars. No money in the world can compensate for the disgusting and disgraceful mentality that is the norm there. There is no ‘quality’ of life living somewhere where the prevailing behavior is booze, gluttony, drugs and RAMPANT corruption.

    As a suggestion to your request from us readers for ideas perhaps it would be nice to cover other facts about Panamá, such as the the new Tax Accord between the U.S. and Panama, whereby any U.S. Citizens living in Panamá can be investigated by the IRS; And what the Panamanian Government had to give into in order for the much-trumpeted Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. to be included in the U.S. Agenda for this year (which is why Capo Martinelli will go to the White House on April 28 2011 to meet with President Obama); Or how about installments regarding the construction of huge towers and skyscrapers in land-fills? That alone should keep you guys very busy….

    And if that seems to be kind of boring, well, you could always get a Cartoon (Marvel-style) going on this site, with all the things that happen in Panamá! The characters, storyline and locations are already in place…The cartoon characters just need names, costumes and dialogue (the good, the bad, the ugly, the corrupt, the idealist, and the hammer)…That would at least bring laughter and some much needed comic relief to the ridiculousness of Panamá living.

    Come back soon!

    • Some words on some of the comments above:

      – Investigations are necessary and great fun, but they require a fair bit of resources. I don’t see that happen in the near future. The media don’t do any investigations any more, and I don’t see any potential sponsors for it anywhere.

      – We’re at a point in time now in Panama that corruption and bad governance is more open and blatant than before, and Martinelli knows he can safely ignore most resistance and bad publicity because it’s ineffective. I feel something else is necessary, but I’m not really sure what.

    • Monte is broke. He can’t pay his rent and he’s trying to get rid of the Panama Saling Scam School. He has only three or so employees left, all of them are looking for other jobs, and nobody wants to do business with him any more. He’s over. Stick a fork in him and his wife.

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