In view of a legal impediment placed on his travel, government security units are looking into how retired Colonel Pedro Julio (Pepe) Goico was allowed to board an Air France plane that would take him to France last Sunday. Vinicio Castillo Seman, a member of the defense team of Ramon Baez Figueroa (former president of the collapsed Baninter bank), remarked on the coincidence that Goico had left the country just as it was announced that investigations would be resumed into Goico’s use of the credit card issued by Baninter for President Hipolito Mejia’s international expenses. Hoy newspaper reports that the security forces are scrutinizing migration department personnel who made his departure possible.
Eligio Jaquez, the former minister of agriculture during the Mejia administration and one of Mejia’s most vociferous political supporters, defended the Goico’s departure. As reported in the Diario Libre, Jaquez justified Goico’s actions, saying he needed to travel to carry out two-year studies in a Madrid university. Jaquez denied there was any legal impediment that prohibited Goico from leaving the country.