(SydneyMorningHerald
) Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli has denied he asked the US to help install phone taps on his political opponents, but acknowledged a request for help against criminals and organised crime figures.
A leaked US diplomatic cable from August 22, 2009 quotes then US ambassador Barbara Stephenson as saying the newly elected conservative president asked for help with wiretaps soon after he took office on July 1.
One of Martinelli’s top officials later told a US Drug Enforcement Administration official on Saturday the taps would be aimed at possible attempts by leftist governments in the region to interfere in Panamanian politics, and people targeted by anti-corruption or anti-drug campaigns.
The memo leaked to WikiLeaks and published by the Spanish newspaper El Pais said Stephenson thought Martinelli was not making a distinction between legitimate security targets and political opponents.
In a statement, Martinelli’s office said “help in tapping the telephones of politicians was never requested,” adding “any such interpretation of that request is completely mistaken.”
The government called it “a mistaken interpretation by US authorities of the request made for assistance in combat ing drug trafficking, crime and organised crime”.
According to the cable, Stephenson thought Martinelli was making an implicit threat to cut back on anti-drug co-operation if he didn’t get US help with the wiretaps.
The statement by Martinelli’s office said his administration “maintains excellent relations with the United States” and would continue to explore areas of co-operation in the fight against organised crime.
DEA spokesman Lawrence Payne said on Saturday the agency cannot comment about the WikiLeaks cable, because such cables are considered classified.
Panama’s opposition reacted harshly to the leaked cable.
“This affair leaves the president looking very bad,” said Francisco Sanchez Cardenas, the leader of the main opposition group, the Democratic Revolutionary Party. “This goes outside the bounds of democratic practices.”
Sanchez Cardenas said Martinelli, a businessman who owns a supermarket chain, “has not understood that democracy is something quite different from the way he is used to managing his supermarkets”.