Our cover story this time is to be found on the Arts page, though it might have easily been on travel or review. The New Year's muñeco, a tradition from the interior, made a big comeback this year. The originals have been burned, but we took some pictures for you.

From time to time we hear pleas for more news about Colon. The Atlantic side is much more English speaking than the more populous Pacific side, and it's never our intention to ignore Colon. I am, after all, a Colon Buay. This issue, check out Emily's Zhukov's Community page article on a Colon women's center, my Business page photos about part of Gatun being dismantled, and my Travel page photo story about the Gatun Yacht Club as cruise ship destination.

This is, of course, the time of the year when we get the most visitors. We hope that some of you who are planning to visit will find our calendar useful for making your plans. But in addition to that, on this issue's travel page we point out some of this month's main attractions. Plus we review Café Scoozi, this nice little restaurant a block away from El Cangrejo's main drag.

Over on the Review page, Roxana Cain and I look at a couple of recent books this time, and we take our usual look at worthy Internet offerings. A couple of other cultural bases are touched herein on the Science page, which tells of an herbal practitioner, and the Community page, which reports on the International School of Panama.

There is much serious news this time. Out in Tocumen, activists who disappeared during the early 70s are now coming to light. Willy Carrera covers the story on our News page, and it is also the subject of this issue's Editorial.

Also on the News page, at the top of our news briefs, we pass on word from the Colombian press about a story that has not received attention in the Panamanian or US press - Colombian police think that they have captured the intellectual author of the 1993 kidnappings of American missionaries Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff from the Darien village of Pucuro.

In both of these cases there are arguments made for playing the stories down. Why, when the era of dictatorship is more than a decade behind us, should Panama pay attention to ghosts from the past? Why, after so many more recent massacres in Colombia's marathon nightmare, should we bring up the case of three kidnap victims who probably died years ago? I say that it's a matter of common decency for the families of the victims, and a matter of justice to expose the truth to public scrutiny and to compel those who are responsible for crimes to answer for their actions.

Also on our opinion pages, Earl Watson looks at the canal one year after the turnover, and I consider this big airstrip that they're building near a little village in the Darien.

This is a time of many disappointments in the Panamanian economy, despite some signs of an upturn. Among the disappointed ones are the authors' and composers' syndicate, who seem to have shot for the moon, all for naught. Read Willy Carrera's interview with their leader on the Business page.

However, not all news on the economic front is grim. For example, it looks like the trains will be running again earlier than anticipated. So says the railroad's Bob Emerick, whose discourse to the Panama Historical Society is reported on the Business page.

And on this front, too, The Panama News and its parent Sun Publishing Corporation are struggling through hard times. If you like this newspaper, the way to help us survive is by patronizing our advertisers; by becoming an advertiser yourself, in either or print or electronic versions; or by ordering your illustrated copy of 9°N, which includes the better stuff from six years of covering the Panama beat.

Eric Jackson

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