Bananama Republic (https://www.bananamarepublic.com/tag/dea/)
Panama may not rank that high on the list of NSA targets for mass surveillance, but we still have a FinFisher espionage command and control server being run in Panama by what appears to be the government.
Panama's intelligence gathering messed up with imaginary plots, a paranoid president, a spy chief scheming to get the Israelis on board and attempts to protect the government against investigations into drug trafficking.
Only the lamest of the Martinelli groupies are still coming out in defense of their supermarket idol, while released cables show the futility of the DEA's "war on drugs".
On August 5, we reported how the US had tried to recoup wiretapping equipment it had previously donated to the Panamanians because the equipment was being used for unlawful purposes such as political espionage. Newly released cables from WikiLeaks now reveal how Martinelli tried to blackmail the US into assisting him with an illegal espionage operation.
Canal expansion, Spadafora losing his visa, two elections, David Murcia, Traad's arrest and Gustavo Perez' controversial appointment are just some of the issues included in the timeframe covered by the WikiLeaks cables.
Infighting in the government, unions and environmentalists call for consumer boycott of Super99, daily protest marches, "sausage law" unites Chamber of Commerce and SUNTRACS in their rejection of it, new "lobster law" presented and more to come.
While Martinelli continues his Noriegaesque responses to narco-allegations, there is more and more speculation about him leaving office - voluntarily or otherwise. Varela appears to be warming up already, and clearly receives better treatment from the US than his boss. And, why isn't Martinelli making his campaign finances public if he has nothing to hide?