President's popularity plunges

Recent opinion polls commissioned by La Prensa and El Universal show that a majority of Panamanians disapprove of President Moscoso's performance in office. La Prensa's poll, conducted by the Dichter & Neira firm, showed Mireya with a 49.7 percent approval rating, while El Universal's survey, done by PSM/SigmaDos, showed only 34 percent of Panamanians approving of her performance. In each instance Moscoso's popularity appears to have dropped sharply since the beginning of this year. The president blames it on a hostile press, but others in her government, including Second Vice-president Dominador Kaiser Bazan (whom the voters seem to like better than his boss) attribute Mireya's unpopularity to difficult economic times. The polls indicate that the most popular politician at the moment is Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro.

 

Mireya meets Bush at summit

At the recent Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, President Moscoso advocated a loosening of international financial institution's insistence on free markets and government austerity for Latin America, and met with US President George W. Bush along with the leaders of the Andean countries and Brazil to discuss Plan Colombia and an aid package that the United States proposes in order to prevent the Colombian conflict from spilling into neighboring countries. Though there has been much speculation in the Panamanian media about how much this country would receive ($20 million is the most-mentioned figure), the details of the offer, including what the United States would expect from Panama in return, have not been made public. In any case, the aid package would likely be changed as it wound its way through the US Congress. Also at the summit, it was announce that George W. Bush will visit Panama later this year.

 

Colombian refugees want to work

Some 350 Colombian refugees now interned in Jaque and living on assistance from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees have asked the Panamanian government to let them get jobs, or at least fish or farm on their own. The Colombians are civilians who fled when leftist FARC guerrillas re-took the Colombian border town of Jurado and the surrounding area, driving out the AUC paramilitary and taking revenge on real and supposed AUC supporters whom FARC accused of fingering their neighbors for assassination. Previous waves of refugees who fled to Panama to escape AUC persecution were summarily deported to Colombia, but the Moscoso administration has given this group refugee status while resisting moves to integrate them into the Panamanian economy. Most of the Colombians who want to work were engaged in subsistence farming or fishing back in their home country.

 

Immigration records destroyed

Immigration director Eric Singares says that the computer system that he inherited from the previous administration was inadequate and has crashed — and thus Panama has no practical access to the records of people to whom it has issued visas. Paper backup records do exist, according to Singares, and he wants $3 million to buy a new computer system and create a new archive. However, Antonio Dominguez, who was immigration director during the Endara administration, says that the records are lost forever. The immigration office, notoriously corrupt in this administration as well as under past ones, is the target of criticism from Washington for the sale of Panamanian visas to Chinese citizens planning to enter the United States illegally.

 

Taiwan's leader coming

Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian will be in Panama on or about May 28, as part of a five-country swing through Latin America. China, whose President Jiang Zemin will be visiting the region a week earlier, is expected to protest that Panama's reception of Chen is a violation of its internal affairs. Panama has economic relations with both China and Taiwan, but normal diplomatic ties with Taiwan only.

 

Japanese royalty visits

Japan's Prince Masachito Hitachi and Princess Hanako Hitachi recently came to Panama for a two-day official visit. Japanese aid supports a number of environmental and fisheries development projects in this country, and Japanese companies are interested in participating in projects to expand the canal and build a sewage treatment system for the metro Panama City area.

 

Ex-soldiers accused

Prosecutors have charged three former army captains, Rigoberto Garibaldo, Aquilino Seiro and Moisés Correa, with covering up the kidnapping and execution of activist Heliodoro Portugal, who disappeared in 1970 and whose skeleton was recovered from under the old Puma infantry company's motor pool last year. The three men were company commanders at the unit's Tocumen garrison in the early 70s.

 

David homeless to be evicted from under bridge

Local authorities in David say that they will evict more than a dozen homeless people who have taken up residence under the bridge over the Risacua River. The indigents, all of them indigenous, have been living under the bridge for several months.

 

Colon protests

In the past few weeks there have been many street blockages and occupations of government offices by unemployed Colon residents, led by the Emacipacion Colonense and Union de Trabajadores Desempleados de Colon groups. Among the offices temporarily occupied have been the National Maritime Authority's, the provincial governors, and the Social Investment Fund's. The protesters are demanding money and job training.

 

Sossa gripes about Jarvis appointment

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa has aired his objections to President Moscoso's appointment of Ramiro Jarvis, a man he fired as National Security Director. Jarvis, a career detective, was deputy chief of the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) when Sossa was authorized by the Supreme Court to fire the top people at the agency and Panama's INTERPOL liaison after those it was revealed that Sossa blocked money laundering investigations that had been requested by foreign governments.

 

Ombudsman supports disrespect laws

Panama's new ombudsman, Juan Antonio Tejada, has touched off a storm of criticism both within Panama and abroad by his insistence that the country's disrespect for authority laws are necessary to teach citizens due respect for public officials. The laws are sometimes used to punish journalists without trial, or to jail political protesters or individuals who argue with police officers.

 

Education minister hires PR firm

Education Minister Doris Rosas de Mata, under fire for steering ministry contracts to companies owned by her relatives or political allies and for the unusable condition of dozens of public schools at the start of this academic year, has hired the public relations firm of Inversiones Alina Guerrero to help improve the ministry's image.

 

Pirate Marlboros seized

Customs agents have seized more than 7,000 packs of cigarettes with allegedly illegally pirated Marlboro markings from the Colon Free Zone warehouse of Almacenajes Interoceanicos. The company is owned by Federico Ford, the smokes were apparently made in China and destined for the Colombian market, and so far nobody has been arrested.

 

Colon buildings declared historic sites

INAC has moved to preserve some of Colon's best architecture by listing more than a dozen buildings as historic sites. Added to the list, which already included such landmarks as the Christ Church by the Sea, are the Cristobal Masonic Temple, the old railroad offices on Front Street, the Port of Cristobal administration building, the YMCA, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the Mateo Iturralde Library, the fire station on Calle 11, Amador Guerrero Hospital, the Porfirio Melendez house, the Wilcox house and several public schools.

 

Whale killed in cruiser mishap

On April 22 a cruise ship making its way into the Colon 2000 port struck and killed a 35-foot whale in Manzanillo Bay. The cruiser's keel cut a deep gash in the cetacean, whose corpse was towed out to sea by a tugboat