Panama not amused by cross-dressing diplomat

A Panamanian diplomat who donned a lace dress and with a banana in his bustline for carnival in Spain has offered to resign amid outrage at home over the gender bending display.

Italo Afu, Panama’s consul in the Spanish Canary Islands, on Monday apologized profusely.

“Given the distaste in Panama over my behavior, I have decided to offer the foreign ministry my resignation and they can make the decision they see as appropriate,” Afu told Telemetro.

“I do not want to harm anyone, much less my country,” he said.

Officials in Panama, where the celebration is decidedly tamer than in the Canaries, were not amused.

“He should not have done it,” President Ricardo Martinelli said.

“Couldn’t he have dressed up like a pirate — or a sailor — or even Donald Duck?” asked a cross Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Varela.