Interesting story in El Siglo today. Written by Tomas Cabal - a journalistic gun for hire and El Siglo not being known for reliable reporting either - it should not be taken at face value, but nevertheless. Cabal alleges that the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is paying Panamanian politicians of the so-called “left wing” of the ruling PRD party.

The names of the recipients include legislator Hector Aleman, Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera and the President of the National Assembly Pedro Miguel Gonzalez - yes, that’s the guy whom the US government claims is a “terrorist” for killing an American soldier.

Cabal cites unnamed sources in the Foreign Ministry who say that $200,000 ended up in the pockets of the people mentioned above.

Well, that money he can write off immediately. If it is Hugo Chavez’ intention to support the cause of the left in Panama he couldn’t have found a worse way to spend his funds.

The so-called “left wing” of the PRD is nothing but a bunch of phonies, a remnant of the military dictatorship of Omar Torrijos who gave the left-wingers a choice: Join me or be tortured/exiled/murdered. He kept his word. The ones that didn’t join him were either killed, severely tortured or sent in exile. What joined him was, of course, the opportunists, the left-for-sale, whose only function was to provide Torrijos with a thin varnish of being “progressive.”

That group of hypocrites still exists in the PRD. They’re completely harmless where it comes to opposing the neo-liberal policies of their fellow party members in the government. The only thing that really interests them is hanging on to their jobs (also for the immunity from prosecution that provides them with), to their power and to their corruption schemes.

And this is where Chavez spends his money? It is a kind of hard to believe that the Venezuelan leader would be that dumb.

According to Cabal, the money was paid to ensure a favorable vote in the elections of the Comite Ejecutivo Nacional of the PRD, to make it more center-left. Again, this is hard to believe. Why would Chavez care? No matter who officially runs the PRD, the party has always had a profound capitalist (cheap labor!) neo-liberal agenda of privatizations and union bashing.

Is this some kind of internal PRD war being fought with mercenary services provided by Tomas Cabal? That would not surprise me. On the other hand, if the story is true I wouldn’t be surprised either; it would confirm my suspicion that Chavez, on the international front, is nothing but a Torrijista, un militar con plata.