Judicial reforms approved
The Supreme Court won't get a week off for Easter anymore, or at least not
as a matter of law. On April 31 the Legislative Assembly passed on third and
final reading a set of reforms to the Judicial Code, including the repeal
of the judicial system's week off before Easter. The reforms also speed up
notification requirements for hearings, expand the corregidores' jurisdiction
to include civil cases in which up to $5,000 is at stake (previously, it was
$250) and open the way for the courts to allow notifications and pleadings
by email. The legislation, which President Moscoso is expected to sign, aims
primarily to ease the severe congestion in the nation's legal system.
Spadafora alleges foreign embassy behind riots
Government and Justice Minister Winston Spadafora claims that he has proof
that agents of a foreign embassy in Panama City paid for the recent violent
protests against an increase in bus fares. However, he claims that Panama's
national security laws prevent him from naming the country whose embassy is
allegedly fomenting disorder on our streets. Spadafora's revelation has been
greeted with near-unanimous derision from opposition politicians and the nation's
news media.
Tocumen body identified?
El Panama America reports that one of the skeletons disinterred from beneath
the old Puma infantry company's motor pool in Tocumen is that of Alcibíades
Bethancourt, an activist who was arrested by the former Guardia Nacional in
Chame on February 16, 1971. The Public Ministry says it's waiting for DNA
tests to be confirmed before making any announcements on the matter.
Police charged in shooting
Three police officers have been charged with violating the rights of César
Gálvez, a worker who was shot to death near his home in Felipillo on
the night of March 14. The officers, who reported to their superiors that
they had received a report of a robbery in progress and thought that Gálvez
was armed, are accused by some purported witnesses of washing down the shooting
scene with water in order to destroy evidence.
Groups take sides on canal expansion
As the a consortium of the University of Panama, the Smithsonian Institution
and the Louis Berger Group begin their studies of the canal's proposed western
watershed, an increasing number of groups and individuals are taking positions
on the planned canal expansion. One of the more noteworthy developments is
an increasing split in the Catholic Church, with Pastoral Caritas and its
leader Héctor Endara among the project's most vocal foes, while Caritas
Arquidiocesana's leader, Monsignor Crestar Durán, is a member of the
official study commission and a supporter of the project. While a majority
of farmers who are likely to be flooded off of their lands appear to be against
the project and sympathetic with the Coordinadora Campesina Contra los Embalses
(CCCE), those who support the project but want to ensure that they receive
proper compensation have formed the Comision para la Defensa de los Derechos
de los Campesinos de la Cuenca Occidental de Panama (CDDC-COP). Meanwhile,
in the business community one increasingly hears economic arguments for and
against the project, with those in favor saying that Panama needs a modern
canal and the economic stimulus that the project will entail, and those opposed
saying that the cost of building and running a third set of locks can not
be paid off by the extra ship tolls that it would generate, even if the income
from the sale of electricity generated at the new dams that would be needed
for the expansion is factored in.
Civic groups don't like Government City idea
The legislature has passed a law authorizing the construction of a new "Government
City" near the back entrance of the former Fort Clayton on first reading,
but a coalition of non-governmental organizations is asking the solons to
change their mind. The problem, according to the United Civic Associations
(AUC), is that the project would swallow up some 185 hectares of the Las Cruces
Trail National Park as well as the old Clayton Antenna Field, all in the area
known as Chivo-Chivo. The coalition, which includes Libertad Ciudadana and
many of the other groups opposing the Punta Pacifica development and the lagoon
created by the Corredor Sur, also argues that the encroachment of urban sprawl
will cause silting problems for the canal.
OAS blasts RP on press freedoms
The OAS special rapporteur for freedom of the press, Santiago Canton, has
expressed his concern about some 70 criminal charges pending against about
40 Panamanian journalists and alleged that disrespect and criminal defamation
laws are being used by public officials to stifle criticism of their performance.
The report drew a sharp rebuke from one of the most prolific of journalism's
accusers, Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, who argued in a note
to the OAS that freedom of the press does not include the right to publish
lies or disrespect authority.
Mireya says she may pardon journalists
With about one-third of Panama's journalists facing prison terms for criminal
defamation, many of them brought by top officials in her administration, President
Moscoso announced on May 3 that she is considering a mass pardon in these
cases. She did not specify which cases might be affected. In the past the
administration has argued that it cannot issue a pardon until a criminal proceeding
has run its course. Many of the cases that the Moscoso administration has
brought against journalists, for example the one that her advisor Alvaro Antadillas
has brought against the editor of The Panama News, lack any basis in law or
fact and appear designed to punish journalists and the media for which they
work by requiring them to spend the time and money to defend against frivolous
cases that take years to make their way through the legal system.
Mireya's administration proposes new anti-press law
Government and Justice Minister Winston Spadafora, who has brought criminal
charges against El Panama America journalists for their accurate report about
a new road that goes by farms owned by Spadafora and Comptroller General Alvin
Weeden, announced on May 5 that the government will send a law that requires
the licensing of journalists and makes it a crime for journalists to accept
bribes to the Legislative Assembly. Spadafora did not mention whether the
law would make it a crime for politicians, business owners or other private
interests to pay bribes to journalists. The Colegio de Periodistas, which
support a return to the Noriega era's journalist licensing scheme, expressed
tentative approval for the licensing provisions, but opposition to the criminalization
of corruption within the news media.
Consul fired
Winston St. Clair, who was Panama's consul in Port-au-Prince, has been fired
for alleged irregularities in the issuance of visas to enter Panama. Haiti
is on the list of countries from which immigration to Panama is restricted,
and Foreign Minister José Miguel Alemán alleges that St. Clair
issued visas without clearing them with his superiors as he was supposed to
do.
Two die, 60 hurt in bus collision
On May 2 three buses and a pickup truck collided on the Arraijan-La Chorrera
autopista, injuring 62 people, two of whom later died. Police say that their
initial investigation indicates that speeding contributed to the mishap.
Indigenous summit here
Delegates from indigenous tribes and nations from at least 50 countries gathered
in Panama on May 9 to consider unified positions for a United Nations anti-racist
conference to be held in South Africa later this year. At the top of their
list of concerns is the UN's inability to pass a global convention on the
rights of indigenous peoples, which has been stalled in the world body for
15 years. Beyond the usual racism and indifference that most indigenous peoples
confront in societies around the world, the delegates also noted a reluctance
by most governments to accept the concept that indigenous groups have collective
rights as distinct societies as well as individual rights as citizens.
One less necro-porn source
El Siglo and La Critica will have to go farther afield to satiate their readers'
appetite for photos of corpses. Attorney General José Antonio Sossa
has barred photojournalists and videographers from the Public Mnistry's morgue,
which has moved into the old military mortuary at the Gorgas Hospital complex.
It had long been the practice of officials at the ministry to allow photographs
of the cadavers of many victims of violence or traffic accidence, but not
the corpses of those from wealthy or influential families.
Vallarino reportedly running again
El Panama America reports that banker Alberto Vallarino is off and running
for president in the 2004 election. In 1999, at the head of a "third force"
coalition of small parties, Vallarino garnered some 17 percent of the vote.
An Arnulfista before the 1999 campaign began and a nephew of the late Dr.
Arnulfo Arias, Vallarino lost the nomination to the caudillo's widow, President
Mireya Moscoso. Vallarino himself is putting off any formal announcement of
his candidacy.
