After a loss of private sector support, an ephemeral cancellation
by IPAT and protests within the government, President Moscoso
stepped in with a decree that put Bella Vista representante Julio
Crespo in charge of Panama City’s Carnivals for the next three
years. Also named to the capital’s Carnival Commission are Commerce
and Industry Minister Joaquín Jácome, Andrés Jaén and Jaime Campuzano.
While Carnival celebrations across the country are in financial
trouble due to the past year’s troubled economy, the events in
Panama City lost even more private sector support because many
business owners are unhappy about the lack of promotional efforts
to bring tourists in for the occasion. One frequently heard complaint
is that private airlines and government tourism bureaus in places
like New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro put ads on television and
organize special travel packages to bring in Carnival revelers,
while Panama does not.
Crespo, who led the calls to reverse IPAT’s decision to cancel
Carnival in Panama City, said that the government tourism institute
"didn’t make decisions in time, and then impeded opportunities
to present any kind of alternative." Since the president’s decree, however, he said that IPAT is now
disposed to cooperate.
Mireya’s decree shifts the principal government role in organizing
Carnival from the municipal to the national level, after the city
had earlier decided that it couldn’t afford to take up the slack
left by diminished private support. Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro
was out of town and unavailable for comment when The Panama News
attempted to contact him and discuss the Carnival situation.
