CORRUPTION FALL OUT

Murcia protected by moonlighters

03-20-2009 | STAFF

periodistas@laestrella.com.pa

SPI agents continue their murky record as proof surfaces of involvement with man who claims pay off to PRD election campaigns

Panama Star PANAMA. The image of the Institutional Protection Service (SPI) has been tarnished yet again with accusations of SPI agents who protected Colombian businessman David Murcia Guzman in their spare time, in violation of SPI code.

They have previously gained notoriety for beating protesting victims and family members involved in the diethylene glycol poisoning case outside the Presidential Palace in 2007. When figures from the “Juegos de Antaño” statues in Parque Omar went missing, numerous charges were laid against SPI agents.

In the latest scandal three agents have been dismissed and two are still under investigation.

Two of the fired men had been assigned to work under former President Mireya Moscoso, who alerted the government about her guards’ sideline activities after phone calls from journalists prompted her to question her SPI agents.

Despite denials by the government, including President Martin Torrijos, who at one point told journalists that he “in no way would accept (media) saying that the State had given protection to him (Murcia) or any other,” the Minister of the Presidency, Rafael Mezquita admitted that three SPI agents confessed to having served as Murcia’s personal bodyguards.

He said that at no point was there any indication for the government to think the SPI was involved in criminal activity.

The government has created an investigative commission led by Dilio Garcia, Minister of Government and Justice.

The institution’s law prohibits members from holding outside security jobs without the explicit authorization of the President.

Ironically, it is these same officers working outside their line of duty who could now serve as witnesses of a possible meeting between Panama City’s mayoral candidate, Bobby Velazquez, and Murcia, as the saga continues over Murcia’s claims that both Velazquez’s and presidential candidate Balbina Herrera’s campaign had contact with him.

According to Fernando Aguilar, one of Moscoso’s guards who was paid $200 a day to protect Murcia, he recognized two of the people who entered Murcia’s presidential suite at the Sheraton Hotel on October 27, 2008: “Bobby” Velazquez and his father Roberto. Both were allegedly greeted by Murcia as one greets old acquaintances.

Management at the Sheraton Hotel deny that Murcia stayed there.

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POLLS FAVOR MURCIA'S CLAIMS

A week after Murcia's declarations saying that he contributed $6 million to political campaigns in Panama, a Dichter & Neira survey showed that 35.8 percent of those surveyed thought Murcia’s declarations were false, while 41.5 percent believed he did indeed give money to the PRD presidential and Panama City’s mayoral campaigns. Of the 41.5 percent, 31.2 percent believed both Balbina Herrera’s and Bobby Velazquez’s campaigns received money, while 6.2 percent believe Murcia donated only to Balbina, and 4.1 think he contributed only to Velazquez’s campaign. Recent discoveries that Murcia’s claims of receiving protection by the SPI were true might turn public opinion more in his favor. Murcia’s declarations have also already started to influence voting intentions. During the first two weeks of March, polls showed that preference for Bobby for Panama City’s next mayor decreased nine percent, while preference for Herrera’s presidential bid declined by one percent.

STAFF

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SPI AGENTS

The Institutional Protection Service consists of 1,000 agents.

Their main task is to provide the necessary security to safeguard the life of Panama’s president as well as his family. They also serve former presidents, presidential candidates, ministers, former members of Security Councils, and anyone the President in charge deems necessary.