What Happened
Panama’s comptroller, Anel Flores, did not appear at a press conference he had called on Wednesday. Instead, his private attorneys, Carlos Herrera and Juan Antonio Kant, took his place and confirmed that he is facing a complaint filed by the Public Ministry.
The complaint is tied to an alleged intrusion during a judicial proceeding involving three comptroller’s office auditors. The defense rejected that version of events and said Flores did not interfere in any proceeding.
The Dispute Over the Audit Session
According to the defense, Flores was notified of the process after he had already been cited for a hearing held last week. He did not attend in person, and only his legal representatives were present. During that hearing, judges validated videos posted on social media and recordings from the Public Ministry’s camera system.
Herrera and Kant said the comptroller entered the elevator and then waited in the hallway to be attended to. They insisted that there was never an intrusion in any form.
How the Case Reached This Point
Prosecutor Luis Carlos Gómez Rudy requested the hearing on April 27, 18 days after the Prosecutor’s Office announced a criminal investigation. That investigation began after anticorruption prosecutor Adela Cedeño told senior officials that comptroller’s office staff had entered in the middle of an interview with three auditors and prevented it from being completed.
The auditors were being interviewed in connection with the case against former vice president José Gabriel Carrizo for alleged unjustified enrichment. The session was suspended after Flores and several officials appeared.
Contraloría’s Earlier Defense
On April 10, the Comptroller’s Office issued a statement rejecting any interference in the Public Ministry’s proceedings. It said Flores went to the anticorruption prosecutor’s office only to understand the situation involving the auditors, after the interview had lasted more than eight hours.
The case places Panama’s comptroller at the center of a sensitive institutional dispute involving the oversight body and the Public Ministry. It also highlights the scrutiny surrounding the Carrizo investigation, one of the country’s most closely watched corruption-related cases.