Eduardo Morgan is a well known and respected attorney in Panama and he is also a fellow blogger. He posts some interesting story's about Panama from the viewpoint of a patriot and conservative. In the excerpt below, he argues against the statements made by U.S. ambassador to Panama, Barbara Stephenson, that came out in Wikileaks regarding the Tocumen airport being a hub for money laundering. He makes some valid points and also a brief defense of the tourism authority manager Salo Shama. I am meeting with Shama next week and will post regard his side of those allegations. You can view Eduardo Morgans blog here.
Excerpt: I allude to this experience in light of the assertions by the U.S. Embassy regarding the laundering of drug money in Panama’s Tocumen Airport. It is absurd to think that travelers coming from, mainly, the Caribbean, and South and Central America, are full of drug money, since the $600 billion generated by the drug trade is produced at the sites of consumption, i.e., in the United States. Drug money flows from north to south: from the U.S. to Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc. Drug dealers are not so dumb as to move large amounts of cash by plane from a U.S. airport (with strict controls). Narco-dollars are used for imports and exports, for example, the so-called black market for Colombian pesos and the cash purchases of mobile goods like cars and helicopters. This is documented by FinCEN, a U.S. government agency, on its website. Our hub is no different from London’s or Amsterdam’s, and neither are the duty-free shops managed by successful entrepreneurs who have long been engaged in this business.
Be sure to read the entire post here.
