Martinelli’s new broom campaign

PANAMA. President Martinelli’s new broom campaign seems to be moving on unabated, and for those hoping that it may be running out of energy before it has reached into many more corruption filled corners, take heed of the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Every time the broom was cut in half, it re-emerged as two brooms doing double the work. So for some time to come, holders of those expiring consulate sinecures, where for “serving” their country they got hefty commissions on trade deals, which they did little or nothing to arrange, will not sleep easy.

At best they will have to repay the cost of unexplained luxury parties, yacht cruises and other la dolce vita lifestyles, at worst, for some there could be criminal investigations, and dreams of happy retirement to lush corners of El Valle and beyond, could be overtaken by thoughts of sharing twilight years with other malefactors that the system is finally cornering.

HEALTH SYNDROME

While I has not spread into the general populace there has been a strong growth among the more well heeled of those facing justice for their crimes, of a health problem, the major causes of which are the possibility of actually serving jail time for crimes committed against their fellow countryman. Suddenly, those who have lived in good health for years, while spending their ill gotten gains, show symptoms of everything from heart problems to structural breakdowns requiring neck braces. Backed by evidence from well paid medical advisors they seek house arrest, and the continuance of their high living lifestyle in the bosoms of family and friends.

All too often they have prevailed, while lower down the scale, someone who has stolen a few hundred dollars, as opposed to many millions, heads for the overcrowded hell of La Joya.

But last week, the courts ruled that one high living thief Rafael Arosemena, who, after the 1989 US invasion fled the country with $14 million, courtesy of the Nacional Bank he headed, will in fact spend his declining years behind bars. Not quite La Joya, but the rather more comfortable lodgings of ?? along with other “white collar” criminals. But it’s a start.

Keep that broom moving Mr President and, at the risk of mixing metaphors, Like Joshua, keep the walls a tumbling down where our land and water has been illegally ravished.