Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli on Saturday denied information from a leaked US diplomatic cable suggesting he asked the US to help install phone taps on his political opponents, but he acknowledged a request for help against criminals and organized crime figures.
A US diplomatic cable dated Aug. 22 last year released on -WikiLeaks quotes then-US ambassador Barbara Stephenson as saying the newly elected conservative president asked for help with wiretaps soon after he took office on July 1.
“He clearly made no distinction between legitimate security targets and political enemies,” the cable states, adding that Stephenson said “we will not be party to any effort to expand wiretaps to domestic political targets.”
In a statement, Martinelli’s office said “help in tapping the telephones of politicians was never requested,” adding that “any such interpretation of that request is completely mistaken.”
The government called it “a mistaken interpretation by US authorities of the request made for assistance in combating drug trafficking, crime and organized crime.”
One of Martinelli’s top officials, Jimmy Papadimitriu, purportedly told a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official at the time that the taps would be aimed at possible attempts by leftist governments in the region to interfere in Panamanian politics, and people targeted by anti-corruption or anti-drug campaigns.
Papadimitriu “laughed and said that Panama’s security problems were far too serious to waste limited investigative capacity on political enemies,” according to a copy of the cable published by several media outlets.
According to the cable, Stephenson thought Martinelli was making an implicit threat to cut back on anti-drug cooperation if he didn’t get US help with the wiretaps.
“The Ambassador promptly countered that she would readily inform Washington and we would all see Panama’s reputation as a reliable partner plummet dramatically,” according to the cable. “Martinelli immediately backed off, and said he did not want to endanger cooperation.”
The statement released on Saturday by Martinelli’s office said his administration “maintains excellent relations with the United States” and would continue to explore areas of cooperation in the fight against organized crime.
DEA spokesman Lawrence Payne said on Saturday that the agency cannot comment about the WikiLeaks cable, because such cables are considered classified.
Panama’s opposition reacted harshly to the leaked cable.
“This affair leaves the president looking very bad,” said Francisco Sanchez Cardenas, the leader of the main opposition group, the Democratic Revolutionary Party.
“This goes outside the bounds of democratic practices,” he said.
Sanchez Cardenas said Martinelli, a businessman who owns a supermarket chain, “has not understood that democracy is something quite different from the way he is used to managing his supermarkets.”
The leaked cable quotes Stephenson as making a similar assessment, saying “his penchant for bullying and blackmail may have led him to supermarket stardom but is hardly statesmanlike.”
She wrote that Martinelli assumed the US was indebted to him for acting as a counterweight in the region to leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
She wrote: “Our challenge is to convince him [Martinelli] and others in his government that the 1980s are over in Central America,” referring to the decade when the US actively supported conservative governments against leftist insurgencies.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese