News
Tuesday 27th August 2024.
August 26, 2024
Servicios Múltiples Rama, SA, the company linked to Abraham Rico Pineda , accused of the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering, is also present in the Panama Passport Authority.
There, he obtained a contract for $40,500 to clean the entity’s offices for 15 months, under an award protected by security, anti-bribery and anti-corruption regulations.
In 2023, when the entity was under the leadership of Omar Ahumada , a call for contracts was issued in August, with proposals submitted in September.
The reference price was $45,000 for general cleaning services (bathrooms, floors, glass doors, workstations, cafeteria, internal and external hallways, ramps and front area) at the offices of the Panama Passport Authority.
The institution, responsible for issuing travel documents, has highly sensitive and restricted areas that handle critical data, such as blank travel documents, robust databases, passport personalizers and cash handling areas.
For this reason, personnel in charge of entering these areas were required to meet a rigorously evaluated profile, including training or awareness of the ISO 37001 standard. This internationally recognized standard establishes an anti-bribery and anti-corruption management system in sensitive environments.
According to the Drug Prosecutor’s Office, Abraham Rico Pineda was part of a criminal organization that received money from illegal activities related to drug trafficking.
Servicios Múltiples Rama, the company that won contracts during Laurentino Cortizo’s government, is believed to be linked to this network. “It has been determined that this company had some kind of link with respect to tenders. This part is incipient,” said Attorney General Javier Caraballo.
The National Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN) canceled a contract of almost $100,000 awarded to Servicios Múltiples Rama, SA , the company linked to Abraham Rico Pineda , accused of the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering as part of the anti-drug operation Jericó .
Rico Pineda, son of PRD deputy Raúl Pineda , is being held in preventive detention in La Nueva Joya prison.
The cancellation of the contract comes after La Prensa revealed last week that Idaan, in October 2023, processed a purchase order for the maintenance and adaptation of gardens in its headquarters building, located on Vía Brasil.
The director of Idaan, Juan Antonio Ducruet , assured this newspaper at the time that no payment was made because the contract had not been endorsed.
The purchase order was signed by the head of General Services at Idaan, Nayib Nader, and Miriam Vega, an official from the same division.
Servicios Múltiples Rama obtained contracts with the National Assembly, the Ministry of the Presidency, the Agricultural Market Institute (IMA), the Passport Authority and the Municipality of San Miguelito in the five-year period 2019 to 2024, with the then ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the party in which the Pinedas are members.
According to a purchase order submitted to the Comptroller General of the Republic on April 4, 2024, Idaan contracted Servicios Múltiples Rama SA for $99,992.45 for the “maintenance and adaptation of gardens” service at the Idaan headquarters.
The service also included the “supply of plants, dianelas, singones, wandering Jew, aglaonemas, ferns, bull and synthetic grass”, among others.
The president of Servicios Múltiples Rama is Omar Alexander Ortega , another of those linked to Operation Jericho . Ortega, who was a fugitive from justice, turned himself in to the authorities on August 19.
Drug prosecutor Joseph Diaz said Rico Pineda and Omar Ortega used Servicios Múltiples Rama to allegedly launder money from illegal activities.
A criminal complaint to investigate the whereabouts of the $562.8 million paid by Minera Panamá (in taxes and royalties) to the administration of former President Laurentino Cortizo – money whose destination is currently unknown – was filed with the Public Ministry (MP) by attorney Heraclio Bustamante.
The complaint, filed on Monday, August 26, 2024, at the headquarters of the MP, located in Calidonia, highlights that at a press conference last week, President José Raúl Mulino announced that these funds do not exist, so it is necessary to investigate their destination.
Bustamante stressed that the amount was supposedly deposited in the National Treasury account and that it is imperative to know who authorized its use and determine the projects or activities for which it was allocated.
The lawyer said that the disappearance of the $562.8 million delivered by Minera Panama occurred just after the end of the electoral campaign in which the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) made a large economic investment to try to stay in power, which makes it necessary to know the whereabouts of these resources.
The complaint states that the irregular handling of these funds may constitute a crime of embezzlement and that all officials who were related to his administration should be investigated. Bustamante also indicated that it is essential to investigate the participation of former President Laurentino Cortizo, former Minister of Economy and Finance, Héctor Alexander, and other officials of the previous government.
Operation Jericho , which resulted in the dismantling of a vast criminal network dedicated to drug trafficking and money laundering, has exposed a worrying reality in the country: narcopolitics is challenging the State for control of power.
This is the unanimous conclusion of political analysts, former prosecutors and former Supreme Court justices, who warn that this dangerous intersection between organized crime and politics threatens to erode the foundations of democracy and justice in the country.
According to former prosecutor Giovanni Olmos , the President of the Republic himself, José Raúl Mulino , acknowledged that organized crime is penetrating the country’s security forces, which is why it is necessary to exercise greater control measures.
“In this latest operation [Jericó], officials were arrested. This is not something new because it has been happening for years,” said the lawyer.
In fact, several public employees were identified among those arrested, including two agents of the National Border Service, a member of the National Police , an official of the Ministry of Health and a former official of the Ministry of Government.
Also standing out is the figure of Abraham Rico Pineda, son of the Democratic Revolutionary Party deputy , Raúl Pineda, who is accused of being the person in charge of handling the money.
For Olmos, when organized crime penetrates public entities, it can be considered that “we are on the way to a narco-state.”
Faced with this reality, the lawyer states that there are deficiencies in administrative prevention controls. “There are failures in the control of donations and support to politicians. That is where we begin to have this lack of control,” he pointed out.
According to Olmos, what must be done is to apply the law, because there is a lot of complacency. “It is a manifestation of impunity, and Jericó is just the tip of the iceberg,” he warned.
Political analyst José Eugenio Stoute , for his part , considered that the penetration of drug trafficking in Panamanian politics has a long history. In fact, he recalled that it has penetrated the National Assembly, the mayoralties and the communal councils.
“The most serious thing is the contamination of security agencies, such as the National Police, the National Border Service, the Judicial Branch and the Attorney General’s Office,” said Stoute.
According to Stoute, narcopolitics is disputing power with the State, so if we do not firmly confront it, we are heading towards a narco-state.
On this subject, former judge Esmeralda de Troitiño stressed that in America the situation of organized crime has occupied many spaces and recalled what has been happening in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador or Mexico.
“Organized crime has managed to permeate institutions, and this is a situation that our country is experiencing today with very clear elements,” said the former magistrate.
From his perspective, the entire institutional framework of the State must be clear that this scourge must be addressed, and that implies strengthening the justice system and the principles of independence and transparency in investigations.
“Criminal cells must be attacked in an exemplary and comprehensive manner. This cannot be done piecemeal,” he concluded.
In Operation Jericho, carried out in the provinces of Panama, West Panama, Chiriquí, Los Santos and Darién, Panamanians, Colombians and Mexicans were captured.
How did they operate? According to investigations, this network invested large sums of money to create companies. Through these companies they received and sent money. In addition, they received drugs from Colombia at specific points in the Guna Yala region, Panama and Darien.
They then sent the illicit merchandise through jungle trails to transport it by land to the border with Costa Rica.
Financial services firm Barclays had projected a fiscal deficit of 4.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) for Panama in 2024. However, after a new revision, the company noted that “weaker-than-expected revenues in the first half of the year” suggest that this deficit will increase to 4.8%.
“We now project a deficit of 4.8% of GDP in 2024, up from 4.4% previously. This, coupled with the recognition and settlement of arrears, would raise public debt to 61.5% of GDP by year-end , from 56% last year,” the company said.
In a recent report on Panama, Barclays emphasized that “revenues were notably weaker than expected in the second quarter of the year [April, May and June] and are expected to remain depressed amid the absence of exceptional factors.”