President Martinelli may be violating Canal Treaties

The time bomb I wrote about for Narco News nine years ago is about to go off.

Attentive observers could already see it coming when Panama announced it would build 11 "counter narcotics bases" and supposedly staff them all by itself: The government of supermarket baron Ricardo Martinelli is on a steady course of dragging the country into the armed conflict between the Colombian government and its allies on one side and the FARC guerrilla group on the other.The pretext is not just the usual counter narcotics spin, but the Panamanians are openly saying they want to fight Colombian insurgents in the border area.

Dutch publication Elsevier reported that the Dutch vice-consul in Tegucigalpa and family of the Honorary Consul, Ms. C.M. Klück-Baas, has been reprimanded by the Dutch Foreign Ministry for signing a letter by Dutch citizens to the Foreign Minister in support of the military coup.

This is how we know Panama's indigenous Kuna tribe from the tourist brochures: Peaceful people who make nice "molas". In reality their leaders are committing massive environmental crimes outside Kuna Yala and destroying property that is not theirs. This story is about the other side of the Kunas, their alliance with the Colombian FARC, their kidnappings of innocent campesinos, the rise of warlordism on the Caribbean coast, and the local authorities proposing "killing five or six of them" as a plausible solution.

Full story in The Isthmian

The future doesn't look very bright for the Petaquilla open pit gold and copper mine projects in Panama. Even though the company issued a press release stating they would go in production this month, Latin American mining and commodity expert Otto Rock of Inca Kola News says that "full commission date is likely to be 'never'".

Environmental groups have long protested the destruction caused by the company that is led by Richard Fifer, an ex-governor under indictment for corruption. Indigenous people were chased off their land and explosions set off next to their homes without any kind of warning. MiningWatch Canada recently published a warning to shareholders, holding no punches denouncing Petaquilla's actions:

Friday, Nov. 7 2008

The trial against three high placed government officials of the Mireya Moscoso administration for abuse of power in the release of terrorist Luís Posada Carriles has been postponed until November 24, La Prensa reports.

According to the newspaper, one of the accused was on a business trip outside Panama today.

Ex-minister of Government & Justice Arnulfo Escalona, the former director of the National Police Carlos Barés and the former sub-director of Immigration Javier Tapia are facing charges of abuse of authority. They are accused of releasing convicted terrorist Luís Posada Carriles and his accomplices hours before then President Mireya Moscoso pardoned them on the last day of her administration.

Read the story in The Isthmian.

Monday's foiled assassination plot against Barack Obama and more than a hundred others shows that racially motivated terrorism by white supremacists is no imaginary threat. In that light, it is all the more surprising that former Canadian Ku Klux Klan "Grand Wizard" and convicted coup plotter James Alexander McQuirter, while not allowed to enter the United States, is freely entering the strategic Republic of Panama where he supposedly hosts seminars for a shadowy multi-level marketing scheme "Emerald Passport" - right next to the Canal.

Read the full story here.

Panama City, Panama - Many will remember the controversy about John McCain's citizenship as opponents of his candidacy alleged that since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, he would not be eligible to run for the US presidency. Eventually the issue was settled, but one related truth fell through the cracks: Under Panamanian law, McCain is a naturally born Panamanian citizen. Panama never recognized the Canal Zone as part of a foreign nation but regards it as having always been part of Panama, but under foreign occupation. As such, McCain is fully entitled to run for President of the Republic of Panama during the upcoming May 2009 elections. Instead of returning to Arizona, as the candidate recently stated he would do after losing in November, he should consider putting his country first and move his campaign down south. Here's why:

A Panama City judge today dismissed a case of criminal defamation brought against Eric Jackson, publisher of The Panama News and based on a complaint filed by one Mark Boswell.

Boswell, who is also known as "Rex Freeman" filed his complaint for "crimes against the honor" after Jackson had published an article about him calling him an "offshore hustler" and a "scammer" who was running unlicensed and probably fraudulent banking and High Yield Investment schemes in Panama after having fled creditors in Costa Rica.

Things haven't been going very well for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) over the last year. Missile attacks, bombardments, killing of several leaders, the death of Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda Vélez, desertions, that Dutch girl who left her diaries lying around and of course the sneaky plot to free Ingrid Betancourt and a couple of US mercenaries.

Opinions differ on what plans the US-Colombia axis may have with the rebel force. Raúl Zibechi writes on the website of the Center for International Policy:

Panama's Supreme Court took a decision the 17th of this month in a libel case brought by HSBC bank USA/Panama against a Canadian expatriate that has far reaching consequences for the country's (in)famous banking and corporate secrecy which has made it a money laundering and tax dodging haven over the years.

The decision will hit hard in that - substantial - part of the offshore finance business where secrecy is essential for survival: (drug) money laundering and (corporate) tax evasion. Investigations and arrests of narco kingpins invariably lead to Panama where drug trade profits are laundered and then hidden in numerous corporate structures. The real estate construction boom thrives on dirty money, and the DEA described the industry as follows: