Panama's new Attorney General

Ana Matilde Gómez Ruiloba, a political independent, old classmate of Martín Torrijos and former prosecutor who was forced to quit the Public Ministry by her predecessor, has become the nation’s Procurador General (which The Panama News translates as "Attorney General"). Once in office Gómez immediately started to make changes.

“I am sure that this Panamanian will act with independence and moral solvency to guarantee an efficient system of justice,” President Torrijos said on December 20 while announcing the appointment. Gómez, who attended the Instituto Pedagogico with Torrijos years ago, had served as an attorney with the Truth Commission that looked into disappearances and other abuses during the dictatorship that was for most of its duration headed by the president’s father, for the Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and, until her recent appointment, for the Banco Continental.

Earlier in her legal career Gómez had been a quickly rising star prosecutor during the Endara and Pérez Balladares administrations, but soon after José Antonio Sossa took over as Attorney General she was forced to resign after being blamed for negligence in the escape of a prisoner to whom she had issued a permit to visit Santa Fe Hospital. Gómez was never charged, must less convicted, for complicity in that incident and a legislative investigation cleared her of wrongdoing. In the wake of her appointment Sossa supporters revived the old accusation, while lawyers close to Gómez retorted that she was forced out because she wasn’t amenable to the highly politicized and flagrantly pro-corruption methods of her predecessor’s administration.

As a law student at the University of Panama, Gómez studied under professor Miguel Antonio Bernal and wrote a thesis on this country’s human rights obligations under international law.

In a ratification hearing before the National Assembly’s Credentials Committee, Gómez said that under her administration the Public Ministry would investigate and prosecute corruption. The committee gave her near-unanimous approval, the only exception being an abstention by Arraijan Arnulfista Argentina Arias.

Once approved by the assembly as a whole, Gómez announced that she would be taking steps to deal with corruption within the Public Ministry itself, and upon her assumption of office on January 3 a series of resignations and transfers began to unfold. The new attorney general said that she would respect the civil service protections of career prosecutors, but asked all the superior prosecutors to resign so that she could reorganize the ministry.

One prominent prosecutor whose resignation was not requested was anti-corruption prosecutor Cecilia López.

Gómez promised that within 40 days she would issue a report on high-profile scandals such as the CEMIS, PECC and HP-1430 helicopter affairs that were not fully investigated during Sossa’s tenure.

The new attorney general eliminated certain privileges that prosecutors had enjoyed, such as the exoneration of duty on their new car purchases and their ability to fill their gas tanks without charge at government pumps.

Gómez created a new Secretariat of Institutional Responsibility and Human Rights and appointed investigative journalist and human rights activist Rafael Pérez Jaramillo to direct it. Within a few days at least seven complaints about alleged wrongdoing during Sossa’s tenure were submitted to the secretariat, and it is known that more will be forthcoming.

Gómez made a public point about changing the decor of her office as well. Three artifacts of pre-Columbian pottery that Sossa had displayed on the premises were turned over the the National Institute of Culture (INAC), where Gómez said they belong.

(That move may be taken as an oblique comment about Sossa’s announced aspiration to be appointed as Panama’s consul in New York. During Sossa’s time one occupant of that post, Francisco Iglesias, used the diplomatic pouch, the consulate on New York City’s Avenue of the Americas and a car with diplomatic plates to smuggle and exhibit a stolen piece of pre-Incan Peruvian golden armor, in violation of both US and Panamanian laws. Unfortunately for Iglesias, his “buyers” turned out to be FBI agents. But this was during the Pérez Balladares administration and Iglesias’s son is married to Toro’s daughter, and once Iglesias fled back here to avoid prosecution in the United States Sossa declined to look into the violations of Panamanian law. Iglesias is still wanted by US authorities.)

What may be a far more serious investigation of her predecessor’s performance was pointedly handed over to Comptroller General Dani Kuzniecky. It appears that millions of dollars worth of assets seized from drug traffickers have gone missing, and an audit by the new comptroller will be the first step of looking into the matter.

The really big questions to be answered rather early in her 10-year term of office are to what extent Gómez will investigate and prosecute high officials of the Moscoso and Pérez Balladares administrations --- including the former presidents themselves --- for acts of corruption. Look for some indications about these matters in about a month’s time, when the report on the high profile scandals is released.

There is, however, at least one early sign. On his last day of office, before he went out to pick a fight with anti-corruption activist Enrique Montenegro and get his nose bloodied, former Comptroller General Alvin Weeden officially quashed an investigation of former Minister of Economy and Finance Norberto Delgado for tax evasion and inexplicable accumulation of wealth while in public office. Gómez has vowed to appeal that decision in court.

Also in this section:
Looking back at 2004
Gómez replaces Sossa, promises cleanup
Special legislative session on taxes, Seguro
Noriega wins in court, but torture victim vows to continue the battle
Panama News Briefs

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Ana Matilde Gómez takes over as Panama's new Attorney General