Panama envoy resigns after drag escapade

Panama's consul to the Canary Islands resigned late Tuesday following the uproar ignited when photographs of him dressed in drag during Tenerife's Carnival appeared on the internet.

Ítalo Giovanni Afú presented his resignation to Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli effective April 30, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

"Underscoring the work to date performed by Consul Afú, the Foreign Ministry recognizes that he has had the gallantry to put the government's interests and the country's image before his personal mistake by offering a public apology and resigning his post," the statement said.

Usually no one blinks an eye when it comes to Carnival and dressing in drag unless, of course, it happens to be a member of the diplomatic corps. Photographs of Afú, partying it up on the streets of Tenerife - dolled up in a pink and white dress, make-up and earrings and with a banana sticking out of his false cleavage - began circulating on the internet late last week. The festive photos have drawn outrage in Afú's home country. On Sunday listeners to a call-in radio show demanded his resignation for "disrespecting national dignity."

"I totally regret this," Afú told a Panamanian television station on Monday. "Everything happened at the last minute. That's why I decided to dress up as a woman. So what happened? Some friends took a photograph of me and tagged me in Facebook without thinking that it could cause such a stir in Panama. Representing my country is far more important than the social customs of Canarian society. It was a mistake, it won't happen again."

The scandal has grown to such a proportion in the isthmus nation that reporters asked President Ricardo Martinelli on Sunday what he thought about his dress-up envoy. Saying that he didn't approve of Afú's behavior, Martinelli said that he would excuse it because it was during Carnival.

Mitchell Doens Ambrosio, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), also demanded Afú's resignation. "It looks as if we are not only the opposition of a government full of crazies but one that is also full of fairies."

Even Panama City's oldest daily "La Estrella de Panamá" tried to scratched beneath the surface by asking a psychologist, Geraldine Emiliani, what she though of the matter. "A man who is a man and feels and thinks like a man never dresses as a woman, not even for a silly party," she said.