Cabal was the only one who responded from the Harris camp, saying that he believed that the document published by Marchant was a draft, which has been superceded. "Project Joshua," which is dated August 7 of this year, mandates as follows:

"Offices…. 30 June 2002. The new office should clearly display a sign indicating 'Estudio Juridico.'

"The seal of the Consul of S.A. should also be displayed.

"NO other signs should be displayed."

The signs on the offices where the remaining Harris operations in Panama are conducted, on the second floor of the Aquarius Building in Bella Vista, behind the Contraloria General, are precisely as instructed.

Among the diplomats or former diplomats who answered our questions with the understanding that they would not be identified, all pointed out that it is normal for countries to maintain part-time consuls in Panama who service the nationals of the countries they represent out of premises where they conduct private business as well. Most often, such consulates are located in shipping agencies, banks or insurance companies. The link between South Africa's consulate and the notoriously Marc Harris network, however, was generally seen as politically inept on the part of President Thabo Mbeki's administration, though it was noted that Kenneth Darlington inherited the post from his father, who represented South African interests here for many years.

"Whether to locate a consulate in a business is a decision for a consul to make," one European representative explained, "but when the business starts to give orders to the consulate, it's time to move out.... It's a betrayal of the consul's duty to the country he represents to let private interests interfere with diplomatic functions."

Panamanian consular standards are substantially lower than world norms. Bribery and theft in relation to the sale of passports or maritime certifications happens at Panamanian consulates and goes unpunished when exposed. Under the Pérez Balladares administration, the Panamanian consulate in New York was used as an illegal gallery to show looted Peruvian antiquities to potential buyers, and former consul Francisco Iglesias, whose son is married to one of Toro's daughters, is wanted by the FBI in relation to that scandal. The Vietnamese government recently complained about Panama's ambassador and consul in the Philippines, Juan Carlos Escalona, making an excursion into Vietnam for the purpose of selling maritime certificates. The Panamanian mission in Manila achieved notoriety and set off some serious worldwide consequences for Panamanian-registry ships when a British maritime union official without the proper qualifications went there and bought a Panamanian first mate's certificate for $4,000. Part of the problem with this country's consular system is that consuls get a percentage from the sailor's certificates, ship registries and other official documents they sell, and many of our consuls are unpaid except for the income that they derive from such business.

South Africa, whose government changed from white domination when the black-led multiracial African National Congress assumed power in 1994, has seen its share of problems with corruption as well. To the extent that the change in power was not accompanied by wholesale purges in the civil service and diplomatic corps, the ANC government inherited the remnants of a notoriously corrupt apartheid regime, including good public servants and bad ones. With black people being allowed into official positions from which they had been excluded since the European conquest of southern Africa, inexperienced people were appointed to posts requiring responsibility and discretion and a certain portion of the new black governing class proved to be corrupt or incompetent.

Meanwhile, OffshoreAlert's recent revelations about Marc Harris's operation have been met with a disinformation campaign in Panama's tabloid press. Along with the Project Joshua memo, Marchant has published copies of documents he obtained from the US government, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Through INTERPOL, in 1998 and 1999 Panama's Public Ministry requested an investigation of Marchant and his finances. The US Secret Service (which is the police force for the US Treasury as well as the presidential bodyguard) conducted a brief investigation and found no evidence of criminal activity, and forwarded their findings to Attorney General José Antonio Sossa via INTERPOL. In La Critica and El Siglo, it was reported that there is an ongoing US investigation of Marchant for financial crimes, with the published stories insinuating that it's part of the probe into stock manipulations by various journalists who cover Wall Street for major US media. In fact the documents about the Secret Service and INTERPOL probe of Marchant would not have been released under the Freedom of Information Act had an investigation been ongoing.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa's use of INTERPOL to harass Marc Harris's critic had repercussions when the former head of Panama's INTERPOL office, Jorge Mottley, was fired by Sossa for revealing to reporters for La Prensa that Sossa had denied US and German requests for money laundering investigations against Marc Harris and his network of companies. Mottley's allegation was backed by his boss, former PTJ chief Alejandro Moncada, who also ran afoul of Sossa when he tried to stop the Attorney General from intervening on behalf of a friend's son who had been arrested by the PTJ for drugs. In Panama the PTJ (Judicial Technical Police) is part of the Public Ministry and INTERPOL part of the PTJ. In a controversial decision the Supreme Court ruled that, although PTJ chiefs are hired by the Supreme Court, they can be fired by the Attorney General and that revelations of the sort that Mottley and Moncada made are offenses for which officials can be dismissed.

Both Sossa and Marc Harris brought criminal defamation charges against several reporters for La Prensa, based on the reports of Mottley's revelations. Earlier this year a trial court dismissed Sossa's complaint, holding that the reports were true and therefore legal. Despite his flight to Nicaragua, prosecutors are continuing to support Marc Harris's case against the journalists.

The Sossa-Harris connection also has an interesting tie to the South African consul. Former Harris attorney Gilberto Boutin, claiming that he was owed more than $1 million in attorney's fees, obtained a court order freezing many of Harris's assets. Harris charged that his erstwhile lawyer had falsified documents to get that court order, and a criminal case has proceeded. During the course of that document falsification case (which is still pending), Sossa obtained arrest orders against Boutin and several lawyers in his firm. The orders were promptly quashed by the Supreme Court, but late on a Friday afternoon Sossa obtained new orders from the trial court and set out to arrest the attorneys. Among those who were deputized by Sossa to make arrests was South African consul and Marc Harris spokesman Kenneth Darlington, who, along with a group of bounty hunters hired by Harris, arrested one of the lawyers, Ariel Corbetti, at a Panama City gas station. The Supreme Court again quashed the arrests, and condemned Sossa for the procedures that he used.

© 2002 by The Panama News All Rights Reserved. Individual contributors retain the rights to their articles or photos. For information or problems with this page contact: editor@ThePanamaNews.com
News Business Editorial Opinion Letters Arts Reviews Community Fun Travel Galleries Calendar Outdoors Dining Science Sports Español Front Page Archive also in this section: Business & Economy Briefs Proposed US-RP tax information sharing treaty AMCHAM forum: Panama as Tourist Destination