Page 45 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

“I have before me the embezzlement complaint filed
with the district Attorney for the Fourth Judicial District
by Mr. Virgilio Aragón Escalona, former head of the
Fuel Department of the Chiriquí Provincial Office of the
Ministry of Public Works.

I shall transcribe its most salient aspects: ‘On March 15,
1985, they submitted to me invoices covering the
shipment of 5,000 gallons of high-octane fuel, earmarked

for the Ministry Public Works-David. This fuel was not
deposited in the tanks the ministry has in the local depot
but was rather taken to the Via Aeropuerto service
station, a private business establishment belonging to

Mr. Eliseo Villarreal. Naturally, I refused to sign the
invoices. When I told Mr. Gonzalo Garcés and engineer
Rolando Achurra what had happened, they said it was all
right and that I should leave it like that. “The complaint

list other fuel shipments that met with the same fate, one
for 4,800 gallons and the other for 5,000 gallons of
diesel fuel”.

Eliseo Villarreal, the apparent beneficiary of the government’s munificence,
is a prominent PALA member in David.

The three electoral crimes previously mentioned continued to be investigated
by the authorities. It is unlikely that the criminals will ever be punished. Indeed, for
some UNADE leaders they are not criminals but heroes.

And Barletta would later say that he won fair and square!