El Pais.cr, Carlos Salazar, And Yellow Journalism in Latin American Politics

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I hope the online publication "El Pais.cr" is enjoying their moment of fame, because by the time this entire episode plays out any shred of self respect or credibility they might have had as a news organization will have evaporated completely. On Friday, 7 May 2010, the website published an article written by Carlos Salazar containing two fundamental allegations. The first allegation was that Ricardo Martinelli's cousin, Ramón Ricardo Martinelli Corro, who in fact has been arrested in Mexico and charged with money laundering, funneled laundered drug money to the political campaigns of Ricardo Martinelli as treasurer of the Cambio Democratico political party. The second fundamental allegation presented in the article is that the United States of America supposedly decided to withdraw their Ambassador to Panama Barbara J. Stephenson over their concerns with the Martinelli administration, allegations that his administration had been tainted with drug money, and worries that Martinelli was ruthlessly grabbing all of the reigns of political power in Panama.

Unfounded Allegations: To put things in a nutshell, both of those fundamental allegations are simply not true. Any capable "spin doctor" can take a couple of basic truths, tie them together with speculation, supply a couple of anonymous sources, and create a "news" story that in reality is nothing more than vicious propaganda, intended to do harm. The "El Pais.cr" website has only been in existence since 2008, so it's not what you would call a well established and recognized news source. When this thing first broke everyone had the same reaction - "who the hell are they?" Since the publication of these articles the US State Department has bent over backwards to signal their continued support for the administration of Ricardo Martinelli. They have sent every possible signal in order to send the message "the allegations published with regards to any supposed cooling of relations between the United States of America and the Republic of Panama are untrue." They have issued statements from Washington, the US Ambassador in Panama has made supportive statements in public here locally, they have sent their highest ranking Diplomat for Latin America to visit, and they warmly received Vice President Juan Carlos Varela on a recent trip. In short, they only thing left would be a sleep-over and a warm glass of milk. The US State Department can't come out in public and say "those allegations are complete and utter bullshit" but that's the message they are sending. Really - I imagine they could send a letter directly to the editor of "El Pais.cr" and directly deny the allegations contained in those articles, but that would be over the top for the State Department. In any case at this point there is no doubt, the part about a supposed cooling of relations between Panama and the United States is total crap, pure and simple.

About The Supposed Drug Money: Ricardo Martinelli is a businessman, a self-made millionaire who owns a private jet. He donates his entire Presidential salary to charities in Panama - an act unprecedented in the history of the Republic. He's still making money as the owner of the Super99 chain of supermarkets, so I guess he simply doesn't need the additional income and good for him. The allegations made in the end of 2008 and early 2009 saying PRD politicians had received political donations from David Murcia Guzman had a truer ring to them because the people who were supposedly receiving the money were not self made millionaires. With regards to Martinelli's cousin Ramón Ricardo Martinelli Corro - there are some facts there. He is Ricardo Martinelli's cousin, so that part is true. He used to be the treasurer of Martinelli's Cambio Democratico political party, ten years ago, but after a scandal he was basically thrown out of the party and he has had nothing to do with the political end of things for about a decade. And, he was arrested for money laundering in Mexico. It's a relatively easy "reach" to create allegations this man was supposedly funneling drug money to Ricardo Martinelli, however where is the evidence? Where are the official allegations, denouncements, facts, money transfers, bank accounts - in other words - proof? The "El Pais.cr" online publication pointed to nameless sources of information, supposedly from the DEA, and of course these allegations are also bullshit. In short, it never happened. And what's worse, the "journalist" at "El Pais.cr" only has one true source of information - the people in Panama who have a political agenda who wanted him to publish these articles.

The Real Source: The Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) political party is on the ropes in Panama. This is the party that was created by Omar Torrijos after he took over power in Panama in a military coup. He created the PRD political party in order to generate an aura of legitimacy for his military dictatorship. The US was pressing him to restore democracy, so he created the party, held elections, and of course the PRD candidates won. The US can't complain if there's an election, right? Manual Antonio Noriega, now in prison in France on money laundering charges, inherited the PRD after he took over as dictator after the death of Omar Torrijos. Once Noriega was removed from power after the US Just Cause invasion, the PRD managed to win two presidential elections - Ernesto Perez Balladares in 1994 and Martin Torrijos in 2004. Perez Balladares is now being investigated for corruption that occurred during his administration, and there are dozens if not hundreds of complaints of corruption that have been filed against former government officials from the PRD. The people who have lived their entire adult lives as PRD honey pot flies - people like Balbina Herrera and Pedro Miguel Gonzalez - are seeing their entire world being washed away. After complaining for the better part of a year that "Martinelli want's to destroy the PRD" they are now lashing back - using the only means available to them - a foreign publication. No Panamanian journalist in their right mind would publish anything like what the "El Pais.cr" website put out in Costa Rica for two reasons. First, if they did it in Panama they would end up in prison. Why? Because the information contained in the articles are lies, slanderous, defamatory, untrue, manufactured, and designed to do harm. The PRD found someone who was willing to publish this crap, for money no doubt, and they pulled the trigger. Look at it this way - what does the PRD have to lose?

Regaining The Initiative: This entire evolution caught the Martinelli administration flat footed. They were surprised when these articles and allegations surfaced. It took them a few days to get their act together, and now they are proceeding with legal action against the "El Pais.cr" website in Costa Rica. I know absolutely nothing about Costa Rican law regarding these kinds of things, but I'm sure Ricardo Martinelli has hired the best lawyers available in the country to manage this case for them. And, they certainly do have a case. While this works it's way through the system, the "El Pais.cr" website will continue to spout and sputter. They will point to "freedom of the press" and "freedom of speech" and they will also claim they have a right to protect their supposed anonymous sources. I could easily write and publish a (false) article with information supposedly provided by an anonymous source that is both sensational and provocative, and if I wanted to do harm to someone political figures are easy targets because they are so public. However that's not what responsible and authentic journalists and publications do. Ricardo Martinelli will eventually regain the initiative once the legal action he's taking works it's way through their system and the courts hand down decisions in his favor. I assume there will be some kind of criminal action as well as civil. And, am also assuming he will win those cases, based on the premise that the information was invented and provided to the writer by the PRD as political propaganda. It will take some time, but eventually Martinelli will be vindicated and the "El Pais.cr" and the author Carlos Salazar will be punished.

Responsible Journalism: Coming from me? Is it responsible to call a ponzi scheme artist a "scumbag?" Hey, that's just my style - if they guy really is a scumbag then I call them like I see them. However, I don't go out of my way to invent things out of thin air. I have made mistakes in the past which I have recognized and corrected. Sometimes I have come down on one side of a story before I have all of the facts and once I'm fully informed then the shoe of "righteousness" slips to the other foot. Remember the Millers and the road through the orange orchard? I thought they were in the right, but over time it turned out that they were wrong. Oh well, live and learn. What matters is that the truth eventually gets told. In this case I don't think Carlos Salazar and the "El Pais.cr" publication will ever come out and say "whoops, we were wrong - it turns out that the information we were provided was crap, and now we are going to tell the whole story and the truth about how we came to publish those articles..." If they did that, then they would be demonstrating some fundamental journalistic authenticity and integrity. But do you want to know what will really happen? Carlos Salazar and the "El Pais.cr" publication will fade away, and tomorrow "Mas Bullshit.cr" will pop up to replace them, and they will continue to do the same thing, as long as the money keeps coming from the PRD.

It's A Whole New Internet World Out There: Any dude with a keyboard and an Internet connection can throw up a blog and become a "journalist" - I'm a perfect example of that. Some flourish and become recognized and respected sources of information. Others wither on the vine and eventually are recognized as biased and seriously flawed sources of crap. The problem arises when the real bottom dwellers flat out break the law for pay in order to use their voices to cause harm. Or, in other cases they extort money from their victims - pay us or we will publish this article about you. These people are nothing more than criminals who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The criminal justice system, especially in Panama, still has not evolved to deal with these kinds of cases. I suspect this Carlos Salazar dude and the "El Pais.cr" case will go a long way towards motivating local authorities to take a hard look at existing law and similar cases here.

Expect More, Not Less: This entire story about Martinelli and his conflict with "El Pais.cr" will drag on for months at least, if not years. The larger story of responsibility in Internet journalism and reporting verses freedom of speech and expression is already a global topic of discussion which will likely take on new urgency here in Panama. In any case, we will be seeing much more about this topic in the weeks to come.

Copyright 2010 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.