Panama News Briefs

Zapatista infiltration alleged
President Moscoso has ordered an investigation of alleged infiltration of northern Cocle province by Mexican Zapatista guerrillas. The startling charge, for which no proofs have been offered, was made at a meeting in Coclesito that was organized by local politicians who support the creation of a new lake to serve the Panama Canal. The opposition to the canal's expansion is home grown by farmers who don't want to be displaced, but the Panamanian left has seized upon the issue as one more rallying cry and painted anti-expansion slogans all over Colon. The president said that if any foreigners are involved in the opposition to canal expansion, she'll take legal action against them.

Cuba protests extradition denial
The Cuban government has formally objected to Panama's rejection of its request to extradite alleged bomber Luis Posada Carriles. Posada remains in jail here, charged with plotting to kill Castro during his visit here earlier this year. Cuba calls him a "notorious international terrorist," most notably because he is accused of participation in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner, which blew up over Barbadian airspace and killed all aboard.

Jarvis new security chief
President Moscoso has replaced Pablo Quintero Luna, who was shifted from National Security Director to the top post in the Transit Authority, with Ramiro Jarvis , a career detective. Jarvis, who was the deputy chief of the Judicial Technical Police before this promotion, was educated at Chile's police academy during the Pinochet dictatorship and later at the FBI's school in Quantico, Virginia.

Cops nabbed for child snatching
Three PTJ officers were fired and arrested, and an American man is being sought, after the four men abducted two children from the Colegio El Real in San Francisco. The American suspect, Charles Gallo, is the children's father. The mother had legal custody. It is suspected that a Panamanian private security agency organized the abduction.

Presidency admits tie to helicopter
After weeks of categorical denials, and threats of a legislative investigation for misappropriation of public funds, President Moscoso's office has issued a statement that helicopter HP 1430, which was never registered with civil aviation authorities and whose purchase or rental does not show up in the government's budget, was officially being used by the president's office. That much is already known, as the chopper fell from the sky, possibly after running out of gas, into the Pacific Ocean off of Rio Hato with several presidential aides aboard in February. After multiple denials that the aircraft had any tie with the government, El Panama America obtained documents indicating that it had been refueled by the National Air Service, something that would be illegal were it private. The president's secretary then issued a statement that the chopper had been incorporated into the presidential fleet, and President Moscoso declared that she would have nothing more to say about the subject. The Hanta Corporation is owned by a Colombian businessman and has as its legal representative in Panama attorney César Guevara.

César Guevara new anti-corruption czar
After nearly two years, President Moscoso has found her anti-corruption czar. Colegio de Periodistas president César Guevara has accepted the president's appointment that many other lawyers had avoided, mainly out of fear that they would be expected to prosecute PRD members of the previous administration and cover up the flagrant corruption in the Moscoso administration, then face prosecution for such persecution under the next government. The appointment has drawn criticism from PRD leader Martín Torrijos, who notes that Guevara was the legal representative for the Hanta Corporation, which appears to be the owner of a helicopter that fell into the sea from the president's airborne entourage, which has been the subject of conflicting stories from the government.

Fast track for newspaper's prosecution
Attorney General José Antonio Sossa's minions have speeded up the prosecution of three journalists accused of reporting on a road project that serves farms belonging to Comptroller Alvin Weeden and Government and Justice Minister Winston Spadafora. Prosecutors swooped down on El Panama America's offices at 4:55 p.m. on March 20 to inform them of a visual inspection of the "scene of the crime" to take place at 8 a.m. the following morning, thus effectively denying the defendants their right to have their own lawyers and investigators present and prepared.

Journalist gets year for report on homeless man's death
Journalist Vladimir Rodríguez, recently laid off by RCM television news, has been handed a one-year prison term, which cannot be avoided by payment of a fine as is the case with most convictions against journalists, for a story that he wrote in 1998 when he was a reporter for La Critica. The story was about a homeless man who died just outside Santo Tomas Hospital, and Rodríguez reported, on the word of several doctors at the hospital he claims, that the cause of death was starvation. The autopsy revealed that the actual cause of death was pneumonia, and the homeless man's relatives, who were not mentioned in the story, brought charges of criminal defamation on the dead man's behalf. Rodríguez is the fifth Panamanian journalist sentenced to prison this year.

Journalists protest repression
On March 19 some 200 journalists and supporters gathered on the steps of Panama's Supreme Court to protest 18-month criminal defamation sentences imposed upon El Panama America reporter Juan Manuel Díaz and El Universal journalist Rainer Tuñón. Along with La Prensa's José Otero, the journalist were charged with calumnia e injuria for publishing a list of doctors with fake degrees that was provided to them by the Public Ministry, which then turned around and prosecuted them after on doctor who was mistakenly included on the list complained. The case has drawn international protests and renewed demands for the removal of Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, whose Public Ministry set this trap.

International Indigenous summit here in May
With financing from the Netherlands, Panama City will be hosting the Indigenous People's Millennium Conference from May 7 through 11. At the conference representatives from indigenous nations around the world will learn about each other's ongoing struggles and historical experiences, and try to establish unified positions on various issues that will be discussed at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which will take place in South Africa in August.

Panama may get more US anti-drug aid
The Bush administration, responding to the fear of all of Colombia's neighbors that the Plan Colombia military offensive will drive drug production from zones held by leftist Colombian rebels into neighboring countries, is proposing a $731 million "Andean Plan" to beef up border defenses and anti-drug police in those nations, including Panama. The details of how much will go to which countries are still to be worked out in the US Congress, but it appears that most of the aid will go to Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, and that Panama will get a relatively small share, probably between $10 and $20 million.

Big ecstasy bust
On March 14 Customs officials seized 18,000 pills of the hallucinogen ecstasy and arrested three individuals in whose luggage the drugs were found. As in other parts of the world, the drug has become popular at Panama's discos and rave parties. This is Panama's biggest ecstasy seizure so far.

Weeden's infectious finger?
In his ongoing campaign to vilify Social Security director Juan Jované, Comptroller General Alvin Weeden told El Panama America that, in dealing with the Social Security system, "every time it comes up I put the finger on it and pus comes out."

Transito director replaced
Transit Authority director Carlos Harris, compromised when he fired employees who blew the whistle on an international stolen car racket that operated in the auto registry offices under his administration and the subject of a March 10 police raid and ongoing investigation about irregularities in the authority's issuance of taxi permits, has resigned at President Moscoso's request. Harris denies any wrongdoing and claims that he was the victim of a vendetta by Comptroller General Alvin Weeden. President Moscoso has replaced Harris with Dr. Pablo Quintero Luna, a dentist who was serving as the National Security Director.

RP consul in Antwerp fired
Mario Mastellari, Panama's consul general in Antwerp, Belgium, has been fired on suspicion of being a member of a money laundering ring that moved large amounts of ill-gotten cash among banks, companies and individuals in the United States, Argentina and Belgium and eventually placing the funds in secret accounts in Panama. One of the accounts through which the money passed was Mastellari's. The scam had been under investigation since 1999, and prosecutors here and in Belgium claim that Mastellari's part in it pre-dates his appointment as consul.

 

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