Mossack-Fonseca, the Iran-Contras Scandal and Noriega

I cannot think of participating in an academic discussion of whether the formation of off-shore firms and their possible objectives are legal or illegal. This does not mean that I am indifferent or their legal nature is irrelevant or academic. No way. For example, last month I found out that there was a lady who, for personal reasons, acted in vengeance and in 2008/2009 sold some of the Mossack-Fonseca documents, and that this was complemented by action of a couple from the same office and perhaps also by other persons. This is a fact that is established today.

It would be interesting to find out the answers to the following questions: first, how the Mossack – Fonseca documents fell into the hands of the U.S. law enforcement agencies, and second, if this happened before or after a lady hands them over to or sells them to the daily newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. We know that the Suddeutsche Zeitung handed them over to the Consortium of Investigative Journalists and that the latter had been supported by George Soros and those sectors of the US corporate elite opposed to Russia.

The fact is that it is possible that the US Law Enforcement Agencies, used the documents from Mossack-Fonseca to accuse (indict) and to detain drug traffickers, terrorists, arms traffickers, money launderers etc, and probably also to take action against some banks in Panama.

This question is not academic, since it implies the possible participation of the US Government in an action which violates the norms of the international order. The action against Panama’s banking and financial centre is an attack on one of the bases of our economy. Neither is it of academic importance that at least from 1986, Mossack-Fonseca was and is involved with sinister persons from almost every continent linked to intelligence services, especially from the time of the US-Contra scandal.

The firm Mossack-Fonseca was not established in 1977 as its archives record, but in 1986 in the Virgin Islands (British.). In 1977 there was only the Jürgen Mossack Law Firm. It was only in 1986 that the firm Mossack-Fonseca was born, at the height of the US-Contra scandal.

As The New York Times declares on 7 April 2016:

In 1986, while the country was still weighed down by the yoke of General Manuel Noriega, these men (Ramon Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack) merged their small law firms and thus created what would be converted into a centre for secret banking operations for the elite, a tax haven. [1]

The money coming from the sale of arms would be changed into drugs. High Officials of Washington then claiming to be “chivos locos” — enabled drugs to move from Washington into the poorer districts – the hoods - of the United States. Part of the funds were channelled to the Democracy Project to topple Noriega. In this way, on the one hand, the funds were isolated from the non-white areas from which they originated and, on the other hand, the funds allowed respectable men in smart suits to open the Mossack-Fonseca law firm in the Virgin Islands, territory that the United States is sharing with Great Britain.

Why was this not believed in Panama? Perhaps for two reasons: first because DEA’s Operation Piscis had just been brought to a successful conclusion in Panama and second, our country (under President Ricardo De la Espriella) had approved laws that are not favourable to clandestine and illegal operations such as the US-Contras.

In complicity with Washington, Mossack-Fonseca had participated in an action against Panama that violated international law: the toppling of a foreign government. For this reason, its origin is spurious; all the more since we know now that Mossack-Fonseca has used intelligence services from different countries.

The year 1986 is key for the US-Contras Scandal. It has another importance: it is exactly 30 years ago today (27 April 2016) that the US Council for National Security took the decision (April 1986) to topple Noriega. This decision was taken to promote its self-interest and not the interests of the people of Panama who were legitimately asking for a change. Each national of Panama will have “its” vision of Noriega, and this is respected. However the United States did not have any right to expel him, especially since the United States knew beforehand that they would be assassinating thousands of innocent nationals of Panama.

What we need is a “not in my name campaign” so that the world rejects the name of Panama – which is the name of all nationals of Panama – being used to baptize documents that trace the poverty and most serious degeneration of capitalism in modern history. To cut all links with this prejudice to so many countries, organizations and personalities, we need to prevent access to the brothel, or better still, to close it altogether.