• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Latin America

Panama Papers Protests Break Out in Panama and Mexico

  • Mossack Fonseca law firm sign is pictured in Panama City, April 4, 2016.

    Mossack Fonseca law firm sign is pictured in Panama City, April 4, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 6 April 2016
Opinion

Members of civil society raised their voices against the massive corruption scandal that has implicated business and political elites across the globe. 

Social movements in Panama and Mexico raised their voices against the massive Panama Papers corruption scandal, which details the offshore concealing of wealth by politicians and public figures across the globe through the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca.

IN DEPTH:
The Panama Papers

The high-profile firm based in Panama specialized in establishing shell companies in that country and helped its clients to launder money and evade taxes.

The National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights in Panama, or Frenadeso, demanded that the international community to investigate their nationals involved in the corruption scandal and urged national authorities to clarify the origin of all foreign capitals.

“We reject what is happening in our country and we demand authorities to take action and don’t let Panama to become a haven for white collar thieves,” said Rolando Ortiz, head of Frenadeso, during a press conference in Panama City. 

RELATED: Panama Papers Show Peña Nieto's 'Favorite Contractor' Hid $100M

Meanwhile in Mexico City, a group of campesinos from the El Barzon movement gathered outside the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit to demand the resignation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who according to them has served the country's business elites by allowing them to evade taxes, thus harming small producers and workers. 

The scandal has implicated high-level politicians, including president Peña Nieto, while Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign after growing protests and public outrage over his secret offshore wealth.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.