Olga de Obaldía , executive director of the Panamanian chapter of Transparency International  provided a primer on corruption  in Panama on  July 12 in the weekly Knockout interview  in which she described Panama as “ethically sick.”

Asked if she could see a difference beyond style between Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, both accused of Money Laundering she said: “No. Both must respond equally before the law. Here we are ethically so sick, that when the amount is small we think that it is not so serious.

“In the Martinelli government, we saw the institutionalization of great corruption. With Varela, the pact of incoming and outgoing presidents was broken for the first time, but there were many setbacks.”

Responding to the suggestion that there are those who, who, cling to the possibility that President Cortizo is not just another corrupt person, but a prisoner of corrupt people. She said: “You must put your speech into action to make your leadership feel real. The key is how you handle people and possible acts of corruption. Evading, applying makeup and thinking that with public relations it is fixed, does not work.”

Recovery Plan
The government’s recovery plan lacks structure, goals, budget and courses of action. It seemed more like an aspirational letter said de Obaldía.

She sees the move of former president Ernesto Pérez to seize assets of La Prensa in an 8-years-old case that has not yet been decided as: “ Judicial harassment, which always has the objective of preventing the company or the person from carrying out its work. If you don't close it, it distracts you …It is premeditated and an attack on freedom of expression and the right to information. Without them, we cannot defend any other freedom. And in the face of the state of emergency, where there are suspended freedoms, there are others that take on an even more important role… freedom of expression has never been more important.”

The justice system is so fragile that it allows abuses like the seizure of property without evidentiary standard.

The seizure  of property of former Attorney General Kenia Porcell was another judicial harassment which breaks an individual, and a person who sees it from the outside becomes afraid

Martinelli sons
Referring to the  arrest of the Martinelli Brothers in Guatemala de Obaldía said

“Where is the coherence? How does an official entity deliver documents to represent the country to people required by law? How could they post bonds in cases where they had not been charged? How and why did they remove the international alert that required them? Who authorized the entry of the humanitarian flight? It gives the impression of influence peddling at the highest level.

“Corruption, like organized crime, crosses borders, and the arms that persecute it must also cross them. We already know that here they do not come to face anything if they could pay a deposit in advance without having been charged. They came by private plane. Nor were they going to have to appear in court.

Lawyers
“In Panama, the profession has a serious ethical problem, and  the system does not punish the lawyer who abuses it. Elsewhere they are sanctioned and may even  lose their license.