Bananama Republic (https://www.bananamarepublic.com/tag/corruption/page/5/)
The Russian State Duma (parliament) issued a report last year in which Monte Friesner (Монте Морис Фризнер), Lawrence B. Heath (Лоренс Хиз) and their company Carlyle-Coutts Capital Corporation S.A. are accused of laundering massive amounts of stolen funds from the former Soviet Union. In Panama, the political and legal protection of Friesner's scams continues.
While the pressure on Panama to clean up its legal system and corruption is mounting, a prominent legislator's law firm is in bed with a convicted serial fraud artist from Canada.
Alemán's defense of Martinelli is right out of the Goebbels propaganda textbook, along the lines of "Hitler built highways and the trains left on time".
The conviction of Ana Matilde Gomez, attorney general of Panama and prosecuted by Martinelli's yes-men because she tapped the phone of a victim (at the victim's request) of extortion by a corrupt prosecutor,is yet another act of political self-immolation by Martinelli and his clique of mobsters.
The Panama government is using spying equipment for political espionage and to stay informed about legal cases against (affiliated) drug traffickers.
Oscar Ceville, in charge of the prosecution of Ana Matilde Gomez, illegally ordered phones to be tapped and computers to be broken into, his former security chief has stated.
The picture of Salomon Shamah, who was born Colombian and naturalized Panamanian and is now minister of tourism and a key figure in Panama's relations with Israel, is part of documentation revealed by Colombian sources in which also other members of Martinelli's government are exposed. It is not clear when Colombia's security service DAS pinpointed Shamah as part of the trafficking network that supplied Colombia's various armed groups with weapons.
The arrest and detention of 70 year old journalist Carlos Núñez López is related to a story he wrote about plans by Chiriqui businessman Enrique Luis Morales de Icaza to build a hotel in the midst of the Volcán Baru National Park; a plan that Martinelli's ANAM has since approved.
The only ones who are totally unaffected by the law are the criminals. They never cared for licenses and other gun-rules anyway, so the new measures won't change that much for them. Well done, Mulino!
We're getting instant updates from environmental activists who have made their way into the National Assembly in an attempt to put an end to the "sausage law" that eliminates the need for environmental impact studies for Martinelli-approved projects; violates the workers' right to strike and gives the police total impunity for whatever crimes they commit.