Page 51 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

the contribution of taxpayer’s funds to a corporation registered as a business concern,
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unless a law be previously passed approving these payments.
Respect for the law, however, has not been one of the most conspicuous
virtues of this government or –even less– of ERSA. Indeed, ERSA is the result of an
unlawful conversion the Torrijos regime began to carry out on the very morning of its
1968 coup.

Editora Panamá América, S.A., was publishing three national newspapers at
the time: El Panamá América, Crítica and Expresso. No sooner had Torrijos come
to power than he ordered all three dailies closed, although he later allowed them to
resume publication under strict censorship. But censorship, however harsh, proved
insufficient. The regime then decided to take over Editora Panamá América, which
belonged to the Arias Guardia family, the nephews and nieces of the deposed president,
Arnulfo Arias.

To accomplish their objective, the government used a minority stockholder,
an in-law of the owners, who bent his knee before Torrijos’s dictatorial will. A judge,
invoking legal technicalities and obviously following instructions from above, ordered
the liquidation of the company even though no creditor had filed any claims. This legal
monstrosity did not stand in the judge’s path to a Supreme Court bench and, indeed,
proved a boom to his judicial career.

ERSA was then created and took over not only these three dailies but also
appropriated the machinery, real estate and stocks of other Panamanian companies
belonging to Editora Panamá América, S.A.

The newspaper published by ERSA have scant informative value. They are
basically an instrument of disinformation and manipulation of public opinion. But there
can be no doubt that they are fully under the General Staff’s thumb. The editor of
Matutino, for instance, is an NCO with the Defense Forces Intelligence Section. The
appointment of the other editors and managers is subject to the approval of the
Commander in Chief. When Paredes –to give an example of the absolute control the
military exercise over these papers– was still in command of the Guard and his plans
to be president were at their high point, he ordered some ERSA journalists he did not
think loyal enough transferred to other posts and created a censorship board to “keep
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news potentially damaging to him from being published”.

In due course Noriega also modified the ERSA staff to make it more pliable
to his personal preferences. There is no doubt, therefore, that ERSA toes the line drawn
by the General Staff.

15
La Prensa, August 11, 1983, page 1A.
16
Mario Martínez Puente, President of the Panamá Journalist Union, in an open letter to Rubén D.
Paredes. La Estrella de Panamá, May 4, 1984.