Ex-Panama leader's visa revocation raises new questions
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
PANAMA -- A U.S. government decision to revoke the visa
of former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares has raised
fresh questions about allegations that he allowed Chinese
migrants to use Panama as a springboard for sneaking into
the United States.
Was the sanction imposed only because of his
acknowledged role in a 1999 scandal over 137 Chinese
migrants? Or do U.S. authorities suspect he was involved in
a separate scheme that smuggled ``thousands'' of other
Chinese to the United States? Were the 137 crime bosses,
maybe communist spies?
Pérez Balladares' visa revocation was certainly a harsh blow
to the man who revived the political wing of Gen. Manuel
Noriega's military regime, the Revolutionary Democratic
Party, and served as president from 1994 to 1999.
Documents released recently by Pérez Balladares, who has
denied any wrongdoing, show that the Consul General at the
U.S. Embassy in Panama, Robert J. Blohm, notified him in
a Sept. 27 letter that his visa had been revoked.
OFFICIALS KEEP QUIET
U.S. officials have confirmed only the visa was yanked under
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization laws that sanction
foreigners who aid others to enter the United States illegally,
but declined further comment.
Privately, officials in Washington say the sanction was the
result of allegations that he knowingly allowed mainland
Chinese to use Panama as a way station for entering the
United States illegally.
But U.S. officials have steadfastly refused to comment on
the evidence against Pérez Balladares, triggering much
speculation about the scope of his alleged involvement in the
Chinese-smuggling scandal.
U.S. Ambassador Simon Ferro, a Miami lawyer and former
Florida Democratic Party chairman, said U.S. privacy
regulations barred him from commenting on the evidence
behind the visa revocation.
``The sensitivity of his position was well considered, and the
conclusions are the conclusions,'' Ferro said.
Pérez Balladares, a powerfully built man nicknamed Toro, or
Bull, declined several Herald interview requests.
But he has repeatedly claimed that Washington is punishing
him for spurning U.S. attempts to leave behind a regional
anti-narcotics center as the U.S. military prepared to close
the last of its Canal Zone bases in 1999.
He has blamed U.S. congressional conservatives critical of
his government's decision to hire a Hong Kong firm with
Beijing connections, Hutchison Whampoa, to administer and
help develop Panamanian ports.
Washington's refusal to provide any proof of the allegations
against him ``corroborates, beyond any doubt, that there
were hidden motives behind the decision,'' Pérez Balladares
told reporters. He also has received a letter from the U.S.
Department of Justice notifying him that no criminal charges
will be filed in the case.
Pérez Balladares has acknowledged that he pressured his
intelligence service chief, Samantha Smith, to expedite her
review of visa applications by 137 Chinese who wanted to
visit relatives in Panama in 1998 and 1999.
`SENSITIVE' VISITORS
Smith had to sign off on visas for visitors from ``sensitive''
nations -- China, Arab countries, Cuba, North Korea and
India -- because of a previous scandal with Chinese migrants
under former President Guillermo Endara.
Pérez Balladares has claimed that he pressured Smith only
because leaders of Panama's 250,000-member Chinese
community had complained about the slow pace of
approvals for family reunification visas.
He never had any hint the 137 Chinese intended to go on to
the United States, and in fact has evidence that all but one
are still living in Panama, the former president told a news
conference last month.
Smith told The Herald in 1999, however, that she had warned
Pérez Balladares that the 137 Chinese ``obviously'' planned
to slip into the United States. But he replied that he had
already been paid for them. ``I have obligations . . .
creditors,'' she quoted the former president as saying.
Pérez Balladares told the news conference that he was
referring to political debts with the Chinese community
leaders, and denied having received any money for the visas.
Smith and a half-dozen other top government officials,
including the former president's personal secretary, also lost
their visas over the scandal. Pérez Balladares fired Smith,
but she has cooperated with U.S. investigators.
Fueling the speculation about the reasons behind the harsh
sanction on Pérez Balladares are allegations that the 137
Chinese whose cases he pushed were not just poor people
hoping to land a job in the United States.
``Pérez Balladares gave them preference, first-class
treatment, so these were more than just people looking for
work in a noodle shop in New York somewhere,'' said Al
Santoli, a senior aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., a
longtime critic of the U.S. military withdrawal from Panama.
``Alien smuggling is just the tip of the iceberg. There are
national security concerns at stake here, whether these
people are high rollers or intelligence agents,'' Santoli said.