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Correction

In the last issue, we identified Lord Michael Ashcroft as Panama's honorary consul in Belize City. This was incorrect.

Lord Ashcroft, the former employer of, and according to records on file in Panama, a current business partner of Canal Affairs Minister Ricaurte Vásquez, is Michael Anthony Ashcroft. The honorary consul is Anthony Michael Ashcroft.

A source close to Panamanian diplomatic circles had identified Lord Ashcroft as this country's honorary consul in Belize City, and upon investigation the address given for Andrew Michael Ashcroft is the headquarters of the Belize Bank, of which Lord Ashcroft owns a controlling interest. That source was wrong about the honorary consul's identity, and The Panama News was wrong not to check further.

Lord Ashcroft has a son Andrew who was born in 1978, and recent press reports from the Turks and Caicos Islands identify the manager of the Belize Bank's operations as Andrew Ashcroft. A photo published with one of these reports makes this man appear to be about the right age to be Lord Ashcroft's son. Journalists we contacted in Belize said that they presume that the Belize Bank's Andrew Michael Ashcroft is a relative of Lord Michael Anthony Ashcroft, but told us that they could not definitively confirm this.

In an email forwarded to The Panama News by a Janine Smithers over the signature of Lord Michael Ashcroft, several other objections were made to the story in the last issue, but The Panama News stands by those disputed aspects of the story.

Lord Ashcroft, the former treasurer of the British Conservative Party, has been interviewed by police investigators in a wide-ranging probe of the campaign fundraising practices of both major British parties. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing and the precise subject matter of his questioning by police has not been revealed.

The entire political controversy in which this questioning took place is dubbed in the British press the "cash for peerages" affair, and in December Tony Blair became the first serving prime minister of the United Kingdom to be questioned by police in a criminal matter. Blair has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

So far three members of the Labor Party, of which Lord Ashcroft is one of the staunchest opponents, have been arrested on suspicion of offering knighthoods or peerages in the House of Lords in exchange for large campaign contributions. But they protest their innocence and as yet no formal charges have been filed by prosecutors. Although some top Conservatives have been question, no member of that party has been arrested.

Ashcroft is the Conservative Party's largest contributor, with much of his support for that party coming in the form of loans, a practice that is controversial in the UK because it tends to give the campaign funding source more political control than an outright donation as the loans might be extended or might be called in. Ashcroft is also the largest campaign contributor in Belizean and Australian politics. Whether and to what extent he may have contributed to Panamanian candidates or referendum campaigns is unknown because contributions to political campaigns are kept secret in Panama.

Also in this section:
Correction about Lord Ashcroft
Power struggle over courts and PTJ fought on several fronts
Legislative session ends in controversy, special session coming
Electoral Tribunal, election laws changed for 2009
Gringo community's right wing wages Christmas mudslinging offensive
Panama News Briefs