ANGRY PANAMANIANS DEMAND THAT RECIPIENTS OF ODEBRECHT BRIBES BE NAMED AND SHAMED, WILL PROTEST TOMORROW

The shape of things to come in Panama tomorrow ?

The citizens of Panama City are organizing a major street protest for tomorrow, Friday, to demand that the names of the former government officials, in the previous Martinelli administration, who received part of the $59m, in bribes paid by the multinational construction giant, Odebrecht, to obtain lucrative contracts, to disclosed, and that the guilty parties be prosecuted. For some reason, there has been no public release of the names of the recipients of the illicit payments, some of whom reportedly are private citizens, and were not either in the prior, or present, governments.

After an unofficial list was circulated, which asserts that it came from a US law enforcement source, the public calls for naming & shaming, directed to the Government of Panama's anti-corruption prosecutors, who are conducting the investigation, increased. This far, the only former government officials publicly named is the fugitive former leader of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, who is alleged, with his sons, to have received over $6m, from Odebrecht, some of which appears to be held in accounts, recently frozen by Swiss authorities, who are requesting information, about the account holders, from Panama.