Connery loses Panamanian diplomatic passport

James Bond no longer has diplomatic status – at least not in Panama.

The government yesterday cancelled 121 diplomatic passports issued by the previous presidential administration, including one extended to actor Sean Connery.

The cancellations came as part of a massive effort to clean up and update the Foreign Relations Department’s files ordered by President Martin Torrijos, according to Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro.

Navarro said the government of former President Mireya Moscoso, who left office September 1, had extended 121 passports to “artists, businessmen, politicians and other people on account of them being international promoters of culture, health, business, tourism or athletics”.

The vice president described the Scotland-born Connery as a friend of Moscoso and said another star who had his diplomatic papers cancelled was Panamanian rapper Edgardo ”El General” Franco.

The government requested that all the cancelled passports be returned to Foreign Secretary offices in Panama City’s historic Casco Antiguo district.

In March 2003, Connery travelled to Panama, visited a coffee plantation belonging to Moscoso and received a Manuel Amador Guerrero award from the then-president.