Panamanian Ex-president Spurns Charges of
Corruption
By Steven Dudley, Miami Herald
PANAMA CITY, Panama - The rumors started soon after Mireya Moscoso, the
former Miami resident who became president of Panama, left office in
August: Government computer files and documents were missing.
Some Panamanians had expected her to abscond, and for awhile she was
back in Miami, seemingly trying to duck the allegations of corruption
and mismanagement of public money that dogged her four years in the
presidency.
But now Moscoso, the widow of three-time President Arnulfo Arias, is
back in Panama, dismissing the allegations against her as politically
inspired and all but daring her accusers to send her to trial. Some of
them seem to be taking up that challenge.
The attorney general's office is investigating her use of some $70
million in charitable donations from Taiwan, a $23 million presidential
discretionary fund and dozens of suspicious loans from a state-run bank
to government officials and their relatives.
Accusations of presidential corruption are not new in Panama, or in
Central America. Moscoso's predecessor, Ernesto Pérez Balladares, had
his U.S. visa canceled on allegations he helped a Chinese
people-smuggling ring. A former president of Nicaragua is serving a
20-year sentence, while two former presidents of Costa Rica and one from
Guatemala are under investigation in corruption cases.
Moscoso herself raised eyebrows soon after her election in 1999, when
she gave all 72 Panamanian legislators Cartier watches and earrings
worth an estimated $146,000 just before they voted on a
government-proposed budget package. She claimed the gifts were for
Christmas and that she paid for them, and no investigation followed.
The complaints now raising the most questions involve her use of the
presidential discretionary fund, even though that may be the hardest to
prosecute since the regulations specifically give the president broad
authority to spend the money. Many Latin American governments have
similar funds.
Panama's discretionary fund was traditionally used for government trips
and emergency relief. But some of the charges on the Moscoso account --
made public on a government website -- included a $4,787 wheelchair for
a relative, an $871 fee to a hair stylist in preparation for a news
program, more than $110,000 in jewelry, and a nose job for the wife of a
former cabinet member.
Moscoso is also alleged to have used government funds to refurbish a
government-owned weekend house without authorization, and some of her
colleagues have been connected to an alleged insurance fraud related to
a helicopter crash.
Moscoso government officials are also alleged to have destroyed
documents and computer files as they walked out the door, although there
is no formal investigation underway against the former president in
those cases.
Moscoso declined to meet with The Herald, but in an interview with
Miami's Channel 41 Spanish-language TV in January she blamed Cuban
President Fidel Castro for the allegations. Havana broke diplomatic
relations with her government after she, in her last week in office,
pardoned four Cuban exiles convicted in connection with an alleged plot
to kill Castro. The relations were re-established under her successor,
President Martín Torrijos.
''They have tentacles that reach outside [Cuba], that have influenced
the press and [institutions] of justice in my country,'' she was quoted
as saying in the TV interview.
Former Moscoso aide Mario Rognoni told The Herald, however, that the
investigations against Moscoso were the work of political rivals and
businessmen angry because they didn't win bids for projects connected to
Taiwan government donations.
Panama is one of the few countries that recognizes the Taiwanese
government. Taipei regularly donates large amounts of aid to such
countries, hoping to keep their support in international forums for its
struggle against mainland China.
The attorney general's office has said its investigators are looking
into the possibility of kickbacks -- including $1 million to Moscoso
herself -- from the parts of the $70 million in donations from Taiwan
that went to build a hospital and an addition to a museum.
Rognoni said such allegations are not unusual in Panama. ''When there's
a bidding war, whoever doesn't win . . . tries to discredit the
winner,'' he said.
Moscoso isn't the only one under investigation. The attorney general's
office said it was also examining as many as a dozen ''high-level''
officials of her administration.
Up until recently, Moscoso enjoyed legal immunity from prosecution as a
Panamanian envoy to the Central American Congress and the head of her
political party. But recent changes in the constitution, promoted by the
Torrijos government, stripped her of her legal umbrella.
Still, it's not clear how far the Torrijos government will push the
investigations. Given Panama's past incidents of political chicanerie,
it's not surprising that there are also rumors of a no-prosecution
''Ma-Mi Agreement'' between Martín Torrijos and Mireya Moscoso.
Meanwhile, Moscoso is putting up a strong front, denying allegations and
heading the Arnulfista Party, named for her late husband.
She is beginning to appear in the news again, now for regular political
reasons rather than to fend off corruption allegations.
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