Sparks fly at debate on corruption

On March 16 all four presidential candidates again got together for a televised debate. This time the panelists --- journalists Alvaro Alvarado, Mayella Lloyd, Fernando Fernández and moderator Manolo Blanquer, who is a Catholic priest --- grilled each would-be chief executive about scandals in which they had been involved or allegedly involved, and the answers in many cases had the nominees casting aspersions at one another.

Guillermo Endara maintained that his 1989-1994 administration was unblemished by scandal and pointed out that after his term was over he did not occupy the post reserved for him in the Central American Parliament because he didn’t need the immunity that went with it. But of course, his administration was the target of allegations that foreign aid for the relief of an earthquake in Bocas del Toro was mismanaged, and there were also questions raised about the role that members of his administration may have played in a scam by which arms were smuggled from Argentina to the former Yugoslavia, with paperwork indicating that the Panamanian government of that time was the intermediary.

The signature on the arms transfer documents purported to be that of one José Miguel Alemán, now the Mireyista presidential candidate, then vice-minister of government and justice in the Endara administration. As he has done since the gun-running affair became public years ago, Alemán insisted that the documents were forged and that he had nothing to do with the arms shipments, which violated a United Nations embargo.

On the earthquake relief question, Endara noted that a special commission --- which happened to have been headed by José Miguel Alemán --- had looked into the matter and found no wrongdoing on Endara’s part.

All this may have been music to the ears of Martín Torrijos supporters, as it emphasized the historic ties between Endara and the unpopular Mireyistas and their presidential candidate, and also could be interpreted as something like an admission that Endara wasn’t in control of his own subordinates when he was president.

However, Torrijos was questioned about his role in the alleged payment of bribes to legislators for the approval of the CEMIS project to expand France Field airport and build a multimodal freight handling interface connecting the Colon Free Zone, Atlantic side ports, France Field and the Panama Canal Railroad.

Torrijos denied any involvement in any bribery and maintained that he had cooperated fully with the investigation. That the investigation was never completed, and that such “exonerations” as there have been in the affair have come in controversial decisions by Attorney General José Antonio Sossa and the Supreme Court --- both highly discredited in the minds of many a Panamanian --- may have rendered the PRD candidate’s reply less than fully convincing to a lot of voters.

Torrijos was accused by Ricardo Martinelli of promising government jobs to the thousands of losing PRD primary candidates, but did not answer the charge. Alemán joined in the attack on the front-runner, noting that in his brief tenure as vice-minister of government and justice in the Pérez Balladares administration Torrijos signed about 200 pardons for people accused or convicted of various illegal acts during the Noriega era. To that Torrijos responded by pointing out the Moscoso administration’s pardons of some politically connected big-time drug dealers. Alemán also produced purported copies of three checks that he said showed that the PRD government of the early 80s had stolen some $150,000 from the Social Security Fund, but Torrijos noted that he was 18 years old and held no government position when those transactions were said to have taken place, and denied any knowledge of or connection with the checks.

Martinelli was questioned about the illegal Cambio Democratico party dues checkoff system imposed on workers at the IDAAN water and sewer utility at the beginning of the Moscoso administration. He said that he had nothing to do with it and noted that the erstwhile Cambio Democratico member responsible for it is now an Arnulfista. Whether or not that washes as a legal or moral defense, it surely must not have helped Martinelli’s promotion of himself as an able administrator to claim that he knew nothing about the fundraising of the party that he created, led at the time of the IDAAN affair and still runs.

All the candidates said that they are against corruption, which they all recognized as a problem. They all offered various measures that they have put forward earlier in the campaign.

In comparison to the previous debate, Torrijos came across as more relaxed and thoughtful. Endara seemed like a man without a script speaking from his heart to many observers, but as a bumbler to those who wish to interpret his occasional stammering that way. Martinelli and Alemán both came across as aggressive underdogs, the main difference between them being that with his checks ploy the latter seemed to be grasping at straws while the former at least seemed to have his facts straight and his presentation polished.

In the post-debate “instant polls” the debate viewers and listeners generally opined that the candidates whom they intend to support won the debate. The exception to that trend was a substantially higher estimation of Martinelli’s performance than his poll numbers would have predicted.

Also in this section:
Panama News Briefs
Unsigned campaign sleaze
Ombudsman wants to close La Chorrera jail
Reporter's journal: Honduras
Second presidential debate
PRD stronghold
Anderson pleads guilty to falsifying evidence
Toro discloses secret fund expenses

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Sparks fly at presidential debate