Formally asked why the United States has cancelled former President
Pérez Balladares's visa to travel to the United States, the US
Embassy has responded that it has "credible evidence" that Toro
was involved in the smuggling of illegal immigrants into the United
States. The explanation is not accepted by the former president
and his supporters, but part of that evidence is said to be former
National Security Director Samantha Smith's statement that Toro
ordered her to issue visas to dozens of Chinese migrants.
Helicopter drops out of presidential entourage
While returning to the capital from her beach house at Punta Mala
on February 18, one of two helicopters in the presidential entourage,
which was carrying Mireya's cousin and personal secretary, had
engine trouble and dropped into the Pacific Ocean south of Rio
Hato. Three people were injured in the mishap.
Weeden thrown off plane
Presidential aide George Weeden was recently ejected from a Continental
Airlines flight to Houston, to where he planned to travel first
class on official business. The captain ordered him off the jet
for disrupting the safety intstructions, so he had to take another
flight. With the exceptions of the president, vice-presidents
and ministers, Panamanian law supposedly prohibits government
employees from flying first class while on official business.
Weeden fines INAC chief
Comptroller General Alvin Weeden has fined National Institute
of Culture (INAC) director Rafael Ruiloba $100 for disrespect.
In an article published in La Prensa, Ruiloba referred to the
"cultural illiterates in the Ministry of Economy and Finance"
and "the ignorance of functionaries in the Comptroller's office
about cultural matters."
More stolen car registration busts
Marlon Rodríguez used to work for the car registry in Los Santos
until a few days ago, earning a salary of less than $300 per month
and driving a new BMW. Last year the former head of the national
auto registry, Oris Flores, complained of widespread corruption,
naming Rodríguez among other. Flores was fired by Transito director
Carlos Harris, and prosecuted for criminal defamation by Rodríguez
and the Public Ministry. Flores still faces a four-year prison
term for his complaint, Harris still has a job, but now Roldríguez
and two others are in jail, charged with issuing false registrations
for stolen cars. Meanwhile, the person appointed to take Flores's
job, Enrique García Vega, is having difficulty assuming office,
because the Office of Patrimonial Responsibility alleges he was
tied to irregularities in the registry back in the 80s.
Woman running for General Cacique
Ngobe politics are notoriously fractious and male dominated, but
Benita Acosta hopes to change that. The Ñurum resident is running
for General Cacique of the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca in next month's
elections, with the hope of besting the several male candidates.
Lat Am cartoonists back Briceño
A group of 49 of Latin America's editorial cartoonists has issued
a statement supporting La Prensa cartoonist Julio Briceño, who
faces a possible four-year prison sentence for a cartoon that
former Vice-President Ricardo Arias Calderón alleges damages his
honor and that of his family. The cartoonists' statement said
that "it's crystal clear" that international legal norms provide
that politicians are subject to criticism by cartoonists, and
that editorial cartoons "are neither true nor false, but expressions
of opinion."
Parents nabbed
The former officers of the parents' association for the Isabel
Herrera Obaldia Professional School find themselves under arrest,
after some $60,000 was found missing and unaccounted for by auditors.
It's unclear whether the problem was theft or just bad record
keeping.
New wave of refugees
About 700 people from the Colombian border town of Jurado have
fled across the frontier to Jaque, in the wake of the assasinations
of the town’s mayor and an independent indigenous city council
member and the Colombian Army’s arrival. For months Jurado has
been the object of fighting between leftist FARC rebels on the
one side and the Colombian Army and its AUC paramilitary allies
on the other, with executions of those accused of supporting the
other side the norm each time the town changes hands.
Truth Commission starts, prosecutors stop
After a false start, the Truth Commission that President Moscoso
appointed to look into the murders and disappearances during the
military dictatorship is at work. The president initially said
that there wouldn’t be any public funding for the commission —
that way the PRD and Christian Democrats in the Legislative Assembly
wouldn’t be able to vote it down — but after pressure from human
rights groups in Panama and abroad she allocated $200,000 from
her discretionary funds to finance the inquiry. However, excavation
of alleged secret graves at the David airport have been suspended
by prosecutors, who say there's nothing there. Members of the
commission, the governor of Chiriqui and the man who says he witnessed
a burial years ago allege that the Public Ministry dug in a different
spot than the one indicated.
Pitched battles in El Chorrillo
On February 6 police and protesters fought a five-hour battle
on the streets of El Chorrillo, resulting in five officers going
to the hospital for treatment of injuries and 14 protesters spending
a week in jail. The row started with a street blockade over increases
in telephone and electricity rates, and escalated when police
used tear gas and rubber bullets, prompting residents who were
gassed out of their home to join in the battle. On the February
14 the battle resumed when police showed up to arrest protest
leader Héctor Avila, and were repulsed by a crowd that set fire
to a car, threw rocks and bottles, and fired pistols and shotguns
from the upper floors of apartment buildings. The following day
a large and heavily-armed force swept into the area, raided three
apartment buildings and took Avila into custody, leaving before
the crowds could assemble to fight with them.
Specht busted for fraud again
German businessman Friedrich Adolf Specht, who served a prison
sentence for fraud in Holland, then moved his operations to Panama
and became one of former President Pérez Balladares’s top 1994
campaign contributors, has been arrested on an Interpol warrant
in Mallorca. This time Specht is accused of bilking investors
of some $33.3 million in a pyramid scheme.
Harris named in swindle probe
Former American offshore hustler Marc Harris may have the connections
to get his henchman deputized to make arrests in Panama, but the
US Senate is calling him a crook. In a report by the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee for Investigations, Harris is accused of laundering
at least $100 million in proceeds from a Ponzi scheme.
Court uphold order against Marc Harris
The Supreme Court has upheld an order by Panama’s National Securities
Commission (CNV) that several companies belonging to former American
"asset protection" specialist Marc Harris were selling securities
without a license and must cease operations. The court had previously
suspended the commission’s order, after Harris’s lawyers claimed
that it was improper to close a business for operating without
a license without first holding a hearing.
Convictions for underage prostitution
Tonya Xiomara Hubbard, known professionally as "Madame Tonya,"
has been convicted of running an illegal prostitution ring that
used girls under the age of 18, and she has received a sentence
of three years and four months in prison. Three accomplices were
also convicted and jailed with her. In handing down his verdict,
Judge Secundino Mendieta also took the unusual step of requesting
a new investigation of former corregidor Gustavo Romero Alvarado,
who was one of many public officials to whom neighbors complained
about Madame Tonya’s operation, but who permitted the business
to continue.
