Panama’s ex-president’s hunger for gossip at center of wiretap probe

[Judi Lynn]

Panama’s ex-president’s hunger for gossip at center of wiretap probe

By Tim Johnson

McClatchy Foreign Staff
January 28, 2015

PANAMA CITY — When the United States rejected former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli’s request for spying equipment to eavesdrop, U.S. diplomats feared, on his political enemies, the former supermarket baron turned to another source: Israel.

Now scores of Panama’s political and social elite are learning that the eavesdropping program that Martinelli’s security team set in place sprawled into the most private aspects of their lives – including their bedrooms. Rather than national security, what appears to have driven the wiretapping was a surfeit of the seven deadly sins, particularly greed, pride, lust and envy.

Nearly every day, targets of the wiretapping march to the prosecutors’ office to see what their dossiers contain, often emerging in distress. Martinelli, who left office in July, is facing a rising tide of outrage not only over the wiretapping, but also over reports of vast corruption. His personal secretary has left the country. The eavesdropping equipment has vanished.

“Martinelli was obsessed with knowing what everybody was gossiping or saying about him,” said Álvaro Alemán Healy, the Cabinet chief for the current president, Juan Carlos Varela. “He used to brag that he had a file or dossier on everybody who is important here in Panama.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/01/28/254716/panamas-ex-presidents-hunger-for.html#storylink=cpy

[forest444]

1. Sounds like our Argentine friend, the late Alberto Nisman

If he had spent even a tenth as much time investigating the AMIA bombing (his real job) as he did digging up petty dirt on the administration with the connivance of fascist elements, we wouldn't still be at square one after 21 years.

As for Señor Martinelli, many suspect the real source of his overnight fortune wasn't his grocery stores, but a laundromat. Something tells me his workdays as President often sounded like this:

[Judi Lynn]

2. No doubt! He doesn't seem like someone who was born to greatness, clearly.

He had to buy his way to office.

If he had bothered to do his job, he wouldn't have had so much time on his hands, like Nisman.

He's probably completely accustomed to having everyone do all of his work for him.

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