PANAMA PAPERS Por: Víctor Ramón Herrera Guzmán1 Through the whole century, the most remarking experience we may find is WikiLeaks. This whole publication of espionage and “Dark Diplomacy” gave to the whole world a new perspective of the World Order and how dirty the main powers were playing their cards. The main actor, Julian Assange looked for refugee since he alleged, that the USA was trying to catch him for publishing these papers. Now, “whistleblowing” isn’t that trendy or new. The XXI century and the technology development helped to communicate this information to the whole world in a fraction of a time that it would have cost 20 years later and without any filter. Remember Watergate scandal? This is one of the worst publication ever made that even made the President of the United States to resign his position due to the awareness of people of how illicit his government was. This year, 2016, a whole new leak has become available around the world: Panama Papers. These documents with over a 2 TB size, had provided with evidence on how political figures, entrepreneurs and celebrities have abused of all the holes in the law and have taken advantage of the “Tax havens”. The whole scandal starts with Mossack Fonseca & Co. lawyers firm. It’s a worldwide firm with over 44 representations around the world and is specialized in Commercial Law and Fiduciary services; the main focus of Mossack Fonseca firm is international matters (no surprise, since they have a huge representation around the globe and are big part of Panama’s main enterprises). Since 2014, Mossack Fonseca was accused of helping the main contributors from Kirchner family to Lázaro Baez through non-existent companies.2 MF Nevada was alleged to not be part of the MF & Co. The whole investigation by the anonymous researcher started with documents from 40 years ago: he handed all the information to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. This German newspaper decided to 1 2
Licenciado en Relaciones Internacionales por el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1886196-mossack-oculto-papeles-para-no-informar-sobre-lazaro-baez-en-nevada
pass the investigation to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) who was in charge of making public the files that exposed MF after a hard investigation from 400 journalists.3 So, if WikiLeaks was about exposing the dark side of policy; what was about Panama Papers? Panama Papers is focused on how a Law firm has helped main figures around the world to take advantage of this Tax havens and hide trough off shores. Only in Latin America you may find people as Macri (current president of Argentina), Lionel Messi, the Chavez – Maduro government in Venezuela, the famous “Mexican White House” that was property of Enrique Peña Nieto wife, Angelica Rivera, or some of the main entrepreneurs in Mexico as Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Hank Ron or Oceanografía company. You can find around the world, people close to Vladimir Putin, Bashar Al Assad, Muammar Gaddafi, Xi Xinping or the Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson (he has already quitted due to the pressure from the people).4 Panama Papers is involving everyone around the world and so far has been partial to everyone: they’re not going against a government, but instead, they are looking for justice and a more transparent way to make business. Even Facebook, Google or Amazon have been placed under pressure mainly in the European Union. Panama Papers is in the controversy of transparency within journalism. Since MF has a clause of privacy, the leak is supposed to not come from someone in the inside of the firm. The ICIJ has obeyed the principle of Kant by publishing those documents that were supposed to be hidden forever; how many documents aren’t we ignoring from other Law firms that haven’t been on the bullseye yet? So far, there aren’t any political motivations expressed and the changes have started to appear within the international community: the destitution of Iceland Prime Minister. This is only the tip of the iceberg which will become to show off after more document are read and people become more aware. 3 4
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/04/04/america/1459721171_145498.html http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1886362-primer-ministro-islandia-renuncia-offshore-panama-papers
Without a doubt, Communication 2.0 is becoming a trend in this century. Do you remember French Revolution or the Enlightenment? Well, we’re living a new era with a movement similar that change the world. And last but not least; did you know that WikiLeaks is putting pressure to Panama Papers to make the documents public? Well, they’re arguing that transparency is the last thing this leak wanted to do.