Lavitolagate
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

The fraudulent, byzantine and malicious Lavitola case has turned into such a scandal that the suffix "-gate" can't be left off of it.

This suffix connotes a scandal that's the product of criminal acts that have taken on connotations of larceny, embezzlement of public funds and governmental corruption at the highest levels of power and has caught on in many places around the world, frequently in the headlines of newspapers written in the most diverse languages.

It was in the early 1970s that, in the United States of America, in Richard Nixon's second term, that what started as an eavesdropping scandal turned into a labyrinth of many issues that became known as Watergate. Thanks to the efforts of reporters Woodward and Bernstein, the press of their country in general and the irritation of public opinion, the matter was not laid to rest until proofs of crimes led to Nixon's resignation from the presidency.

Nearly a year ago, there appeared in our country the tip of an iceberg composed of a serise of illegal acts against the public trust, by those at the highest levels of power. Valter Lavitola appeared early on as the "conductor" of a whole series of "deals" with the Pananamanian government, which included helicopters, hospitals, radars, prisons, patrol boats, digital maps --- and now even diamonds are mentioned!

Protected by his very close ties to then Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, who brought him to Panama and put him into the hands of President Martinelli, Lavitola left out nothing in his execution of a series of acts cloaked in illegality, impunity and overprotection of the state security services.

Despite the null actions of the Public Ministry and other Panamanian authorities, the prosecutors' office in Naples and the Italian press have been unraveling this fabric of corruption. Lavitolagate has just begun. We, as citizens, are now called upon to act.