Page 39 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

whose message was starkly simple: “if you don’t vote for us, they’ll fire you”. Even
more humiliating, civil servants were forced to attend by the simple expedient of roll
calling. Generally, the roll was called as employees prepared to board the buses that
would take them to the meeting place. Ministry of Public Works, Industrial
Department, John Doe: Here! Joe Blow: Here! On the following day, any employee
courageous enough not to have attended the meeting would get a threatening scowl
from his “political” boss and the message would be reiterated in body language: “vote
for us or you’ll lose your job”.

These meetings were a systematic, organized effort to get the civil service
vote, mostly through intimidation. (See exhibit 4). They were not informal meetings,
as Barletta tried to dismiss them at CADE 84. They were further complemented by a
well-orchestrated advertising campaign and the firing of several known opposition
sympathizers, as we shall see.

As regards the humiliating “roll calls”, there are innumerable witnesses who
will attest to them. Should the reader harbor any doubts, I invite him to ask any civil
servant of his acquaintance who will surely confirm what took place.

Meetings like those at “El Cosita Buena” also took place in the provinces.
Finally, on April 9, a massive rally of civil servants was held at the Nuevo Panama
Gymnasium. Participants were assigned numbered seats, the better to control their
attendance. On this occasion, Barletta himself delivered the humiliating threat although
perhaps in a somewhat subtler fashion than some of his subordinates.

Meanwhile, in the different ministries and public agencies, PRD committees
were being set up, offices were being decorated with party banners, flies were being
distributed (See exhibit 5) and people whose opposition sympathies were intolerable
were being fired, all of it, of course, in flagrant violation of the Electoral Code. For
instance:

--Eladio Pérez Venero, a top executive in the National
Bank, was dismissed for running for alternate legislator
from Panama on the Authentic Panameñista Party (PPA)
ticket.
--Armando Canales, National Casinos, was dismissed

for running for representative from the Juan Diaz on the
PPA ticket.
--Sixto Moreno Campos, Chiriquí citrus, was dismissed
for being a member of the opposition.
--Francisco Moreno, South Soná Project,

DIGEDECOM, was fired for running for alternate

representative for the Río Grande, in Soná District, as a
write-in candidate.
--Francisco Hernández, ENDEMA, coworker of
Francisco Moreno.