Panama, the secret garden of the Colombian oligarchy
This guest blog is written by a political news writer in Colombia, who wishes to remain anonymous.
As everywhere else in the world, the disclosure of the Mossack
Fonseca documents has been on the front page of all major Colombian
papers. However, the close historical links between Colombia and
neighbouring Panama, as well as the deeply unequal social structure of
the country, make the case of Colombia particularly interesting. Given
the unusually close historical, economic and political links between the
two countries, it is remarkable that almost nothing of substance has
emerged from the Panama papers, from a Colombian perspective.
Strong economic growth over the last 15 years, combined with the
status of a middle-income emerging country and a likely peace agreement
with the Marxist guerrilla of the FARC (and possibly later with the
other remaining guerrilla of the ELN (National Liberation Army) have
turned Colombia into a new “El Dorado” for some foreign investors.
Though very dependent on commodities exports, the country has managed to
resist the global downturn in commodities and oil prices. It remains an
island of relative prosperity in an economically downbeat Latin
America.
Panama hosts an estimated 50,000 Colombian shell companies. In the
first days of the scandal, the media announced a small number of
Colombian accounts among the data leak: 850. Publicly, however, the
names of only 12 people were given – and then nothing more happened.
Colombia has always been a deeply unequal country with weak state
control in broad parts of its territory and a violent history of civil
wars and guerrillas. Yet it has always been formally a democracy. Its
50-year-long and very complex internal armed conflict, born in the
context of the Cold War, was triggered by land and social inequality,
and was later fuelled by drug trafficking. According to a 2015 UN Development Programme report, the country ranks 12th worst in the world in terms of income distribution, and second in this regard (after South Africa) among countries with a significant population.
