Video shows alleged confession of Raul Mata regarding Juan Hombrón case

LA PRENSA/Archivo

Vista de las tierras que forman parte de las 54.3 hectáreas de Juan Hombrón, en Coclé.

05/07/2012 - I’m going to tell you something. I’m amazed this thing has grown. Why? I don’t understand, if Jimmy was the one who bough. If she works for Jimmy, Anabel is silly, because if I work for the President or for the Vice-president, or for the Minister, if they tell me to do something, well, I say, you stand up for me!” said the person who is later identified as Raul Mata.

This is one of the statements made by a person on a video uploaded in YouTube, showing who is connected to the irregular sale of 54.3 hectares of land with beach front in Juan Hombrón coasts, located in Coclé province. These lands were gratuitously transferred to 12 companies and two persons.

The case was known through an investigation from La Prensa.

The statements made in the video – which seems to be edited – were obtained during a convbersation with fishermen of trust recording Mata without his consent, according to an unidentified person appearing at the beginning of the video. The person, who appears only as a shadow, says since he wants to protect his safety and his family for the persecution in the country.

Juan Hombrón returned to the headlines last June 25. Such day, a press release from two of the companies owning the lands announced a legal battle; a group of fishermen was claiming the intervention of Attorney General José Ayú Prado.

On the other hand, flyers were been delivered over the streets of Panama City attacking Vice-president of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela implicating him with the lands from Coclé’s coast.

Last week, Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo filed an appeal against the decision of Judge Adolfo Mejía, who acquitted former Land Titling director of the National Land Authority (Anati), Anabel Villamonte, and other officials for the case of Juan Hombrón, whose sentence shows serious contradictions, omissions and deficiencies.