Let all Panamanians start from one common understanding: it is not the role of the US government to resolve Panama’s corruption problem, and any expectation on the part of Panamanians that the Americans will deal with it is a demeaning example of a servile mentality.
And let all Americans understand that the United States is powerful but not invulnerable, and that obnoxious international displays of political hypocrisy weaken the US position in the world and make the American homeland more vulnerable to attack by the likes of Osama bin Laden.
From either the Panamanian or American perspective, the presence of our former President Mireya Moscoso at the recent swearing in of new US senators was an unwelcome event.
It is reported that Mireya was the guest of Senator Mel Martinez, the Cuban-American Republican from Florida.
The appearance is that it was one more celebration of her act of pardoning a group of anti-Castro activists who had intended to set off a bomb in a University of Panama auditorium, right across the street from the Seguro Social hospital complex, which would have killed not only the Cuban dictator but hundreds of innocent Panamanians as well. The leader of that group was a prison escapee from Venezuela, which sentenced him in absentia to 30 years behind bars for his role in the bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner in which 76 people were killed.
In short, despite all the American talk about a war on terrorism, it appears that Mireya Moscoso’s presence in the US Senate was an official American celebration of the most bloodthirsty sort of state-sponsored terrorism.
Here in Panama, there have been the futile motions of a criminal investigation into the release of those anti-Castro terrorists. It seems that the pardons were legal even if they were repugnant, and that the investigation has mainly been a show for the benefit of the Cuban government.
That the pardons investigation has been a farce should not end the public and judicial inquiries into the Moscoso administration’s links to terrorism and violent extra-governmental organizations. That government’s relationship with Colombia's AUC paramilitary death squads, Mireya’s promotion of an anti-environmental vigilante group in Boquete and official support for an American racketeer’s private vigilante patrol in Bocas del Toro are all matters that ought to be the subjects of criminal investigations here.
When the AUC invaded Panama and attacked Pucuro and Paya, murdering four local Kuna public officials and burning down several dwellings in the process, Mireya not only didn’t order flags flown at half staff for the slain sahilas and not only didn’t send government representatives to the funerals. She jailed the man who, although wounded, ran away from the first attack to warn people and thus prevented even greater bloodshed. There can be no more flagrant example of abuse of authority, which is a crime in this country.
The Moscoso administration’s toleration of an AUC supply infrastructure in this country may or may not amount to a crime or series of crimes, but it’s a public policy matter that ought to be examined in the spotlight of public hearings. Yes, raids were conducted and arrests were made, but then the government went into court, said that it knew that the suspects were AUC members but couldn't prove criminal activity on their part, and allowed the Colombian paramilitary members to remain in this country. It was at best just a hollow gesture, at a time when this country's government should have been defending Panama's sovereignty.
Moreover, the large shipments of arms from the Nicaraguan police to the AUC using Panamanian end user certificates should not be a closed case for this country’s authorities. The OAS investigation was conducted under the presidency of an old ally of the AUC, former Colombian President César Gaviria. The US ambassador to Nicaragua’s excuse that he signed off on the transfer because he was tricked into believing that the guns were headed for Panama is not on its face credible. Nor is it reasonable to take the word of Moscoso administration officials about this matter at face value.
Then there was the Boquete goon squad, composed in part of employees at Mireya Moscoso’s farm, which with the assistance of the National Police prevented legal public protests against her ill-fated road through the Volcan Baru National Park. Once this project was defeated, this group went on a tree cutting rampage in the park, accompanied by armed presidential guards.
On her way out of office Mireya pardoned the Boquete vigilantes, but she didn’t pardon herself. The use of the National Police and SPI in the commission of these crimes was an outrageous abuse of power, and the circumstances suggest that Mireya was the creator of the vigilante group and the intellectual author of all of their crimes.
Then there was Tom McMurrain’s Angel Patrol, a bunch of thugs purportedly recruited to protect Americans in Bocas del Toro. That goon squad, which gave the local American residents no real service, was in part organized by the regional IPAT director at the time, Mauricio López, and lauded by the now imprisoned former mayor of Bocas, Eladio Robinson. Also among McMurrain’s outspoken supporters was Mireya’s First Vice-President Arturo Vallarino.
Eventually McMurrain was arrested and extradited on US fraud charges, without any official Panamanian action against the frauds he was committing here.
But the use of public office to promote fraudulent real estate and commodities schemes, or to organize, promote or condone foreign-led vigilante groups in this country, ought to be treated as serious criminal activity against Panama.
It’s not up to the Americans to take care of these matters. It’s the Panamanian authorities’ job. Just because our Attorney General at the time was pro-corruption is no good reason to say that everything he overlooked, whitewashed or refused to investigate is a closed case into which his successor must not inquire.
Unfortunately, there is a substantial minority of Panamanians who look to the United States to solve all of our problems. Mireya Moscoso’s presence in the US Senate will inevitably be taken by such people as an American endorsement of the woman and her presidency. There can be no doubt that the Mireyistas will, whatever the Americans may or may not have intended, use such gestures as if they were a US “paz y salvo.”
That ought to be unacceptable to both Panamanians and Americans. The likes of Mireya Moscoso shouldn’t be guests of honor in Washington. Such people shouldn’t even be given visas to enter the United States. Mireya and her inner circle are a mess for the Panamanian people to clean up, and a contaminant for American people to exclude.
