Page 50 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

has been sentenced to five months in jail for allegedly defaming President Royo; its
most widely read columnist has been beaten by unknown thugs. At the last meeting of
its General Board of Stockholders, the current editor stated that the only thing the
government has not yet done to La Prensa is to kill one of its staff.
During the campaign, La Prensa accepted political announcements from any party,
even for Barletta, if payment was made in advance. Its editorial line, however, was
obviously opposed to the regime.

+ La Estrella de Panamá, founded 131 years ago, is the oldest newspaper in
the country. It is closely tied to the Defense Forces. It frequently publishes photographs
of military activities, of officers being transferred or celebrating a birthday. Its editorial
line clearly supports the regime. In fact, the paper’s current vice president has been a
member of the cabinet on several occasions and now holds the vice presidency of the
republic. In addition, he has been one of the staunchest supporters of Law 20, which
gives the Defense Forces certain rights at loggerheads with fundamental principles of
the National Constitution.

Its current editor, Tomás Gabriel Altamirano Duque, has also sat in the cabinet
and is one of the most influential figures in the PRD.

A political agreement was reached between the management of this important
newspaper and Arias. Under its terms, the Authentic Panameñista Party (PPA)
nominated La Estrella’s editor for legislator from the Chepo District. In return, the
newspaper agreed to report on Arias’s political activities. Duque was also nominated
by the UNADE and won his seat with no opposition to speak of.

La Estrella did accept ADO paid political announcements. However, it
generally refrained from informing its readers of the constant violations of the National
Constitution and the Electoral Code by the regime. Moreover, it published nothing –or
extraordinarily little– about the different electoral frauds that were discovered after the
elections. In other words, La Estrella agreement with the PPA was limited to
mentioning ADO political activities up to election day. Once the election was over, the
newspaper went back to business as usual.

+ Crítica, Matutino and La República are “official” organs or, better yet,
tools used by the General Staff to manipulate public opinion. As a matter of fact, while
the then Colonel Noriega was head of the Intelligence Section (G-2), he held the office
of vice president of Editora Renovación, S.A. (ERSA), the publisher of all three dailies.
From a business standpoint, they have been a failure and have had to be subsidized by
the government to the tune of up to one million dollars a year. This subsidy is, of course,
wholly illegal, because the Tax Code and “other laws of our country do not envisage