Panama news briefs

Fox urges Panama to unite with neighbors
"Those who don't row will get burned," warned Mexican President Vicente Fox during a June 15 and 16 visit to Panama, during which he urged Panamanian government and business leaders to get behind regional economic integration and development plans. For several years Panama and Mexico have been discussing a free trade pact, but talks have so far been fruitless, generally due to disagreements over agricultural issues and Panamanian groups' objections to foreign architects, accountants, and other professionals being allowed to work here. As part of the pitch for his Puebla to Panama regional development plan, Fox said that Panama could get Mexican help to expand the canal watershed and build a larger third set of locks. Fox also said that he wants to sign a Panama-Mexico free trade pact at a meeting to be held in March of 2000.

World Association of Newspapers pans Mireya's press law proposal
The World Association of Newspapers, an international industry association to which some 17,000 periodicals belong, has sent a letter to President Moscoso to express its concern about her administration's proposed new press law. The group denounced the government's intention to license journalists, restrict foreign journalists and otherwise "inhibit freedom of expression." The letter was part of a growing chorus of international protests against the proposed legislation, which include criticisms by the Inter-American Press Association and Journalists Against Corruption.

Colombian paramilitary leader arrested, deported
Colombian paramilitary leader Luis Alberto Bernal, who was reputed to be the supply chief for the right wing AUC and who was wanted for a 1991 massacre in which 21 people were killed and several other crimes, was arrested by Panamanian police and turned over to Colombian authorities. Details of the arrest and deportation are sketchy, but according to the Reuters news agency Bernal was living in Panama and smuggling guns and other war supplies through the Darien into Colombia, using a small aviation company as a front, for more than one year.

RP seeks arbitration over firing ranges
The Foreign Ministry, working through the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter, is seeking the US government's agreement to submit the dispute between Panama and the United States over hazards left behind on the Piña, Empire and Balboa West firing ranges to arbitration. The 1977 Carter-Torrijos Treaties obliged the United States to "remove all hazards," but only "insofar as is practicable." In an epoch of reduced military budgets, the Pentagon has usually argued with respect to old firing ranges both within the United States and abroad that it's too expensive to remove dangerous unexploded ordnance from old war games or to clean up old chemical weapons dumps and other such hazards. Within the United States political pressures have usually led to some sort of cleaning efforts, though often the money appropriated for the purpose has gone into relatively useless but expensive high-tech experimental gimmicks purchased from well established military contractors rather than for actual cleaning. The recent change in the US Senate may affect the outcome of the US-Panama dispute, because when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was under the leadership of Republican Jesse Helms there was no real prospect of the Congress approving funds to clean any former US military site abroad, but with the Democrats now in control of Senate committees there may be more possibility of this. However, it remains unlikely that the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, which has often been opposed to the implementation of the 1977 treaties, would approve funds to clean the ranges.

Foreign prisoners' hunger strike
More than 600 foreign inmates at La Joyita and other Panamanian correctional facilities have gone on hunger strike to demand repatriation to their countries of origin after having served half of their sentences, as is contemplated in a number of bilateral agreements to which Panama is a party. Most of the inmates in question are Colombians, most of whom are serving time for drug-related crimes. The foreign prisoners complain of discrimination and abuse by correctional authorities and Panamanian inmates, in addition to the overcrowding and onerous conditions that almost all other prisoners in this country face. Government and Justice Minister Winston Spadafora blamed the Colombian government for the problems. Legislator Felipe Cano (PRD-San Miguelito) blamed corruption on the part of prison officials, under which inmates are often required to pay bribes to be released when their sentences are finished and foreign prisoners are similarly required to pay for their repatriation, for much of the problem. National corrections director Concepción Corro denied that there is corruption in the nation's prison system.

Major's pardon upheld  sort of
The Supreme Court has upheld former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares's pardon of former Panama Defense Forces Major Gonzalo "Chalo" González, who fled to Cuba in the wake of the 1989 US invasion and was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia for his role in the October 1989 executions of Major Moisés Giroldi and eight other soldiers who staged a failed coup against former strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega. González, who commanded the Machos del Monte infantry, remains in Cuba and is used by the present Panamanian administration as an example of why Fidel Castro's government is hypocritical when it criticizes Panama for refusing to extradite alleged airliner bomber and assassination plotter Luis Posada Carriles for trial in Cuba. Shortly after taking office, President Moscoso issued a decree to revoke the pardons of González and a number of other individuals, arguing that Pérez Balladares exceeded his authority because the Panamanian constitution only provides for pardons in cases of "political crimes," which she argues do not include murder. The court warned that its decision in Major González's case is subject to a later ruling on the validity of Toro's pardons and Mireya's attempts to void them, a dispute that's still pending before the court. The latter case may also tangentially affect charges against a number of journalists, including a criminal defamation charge brought against the editor of The Panama News by Moscoso's aide Alvaro Antadillas, because in her decree to void her predecessor's pardons and subsequent legal postures the president argues that the chief executive lacks the power to pardon those who have not been tried and convicted, and thus cannot void the dozens of criminal cases that members of her government have filed against journalists.

Guerrillas' remains found?
Forensic anthropologists working for the Truth Commission have found some partial human remains in Las Huacas de Quije, in Cocle province's Nata district, and El Siglo reports that the investigators suspect that they belong to the members of an ill-fated attempt at armed resistance to the military dictatorship, which was suppressed by the Guardia Nacional in 1969. It appears from the stories of local residents that several guerrillas were executed and buried in a mass grave, and then some years later the bodies were dug up and moved elsewhere, but that clues were left behind. The bones and artifacts found with them have been taken to the capital for DNA sampling and other techniques that might make positive identification possible.

Violent protests in Colon
When President Moscoso visited Colon on June 19 for the inauguration of the new Colon Free Zone Users' Association officers, protesters from the Colon Unemployed Movement (MODESCO) staged a protest march in Cativa, which was suppressed by police firing tear gas and birdshot. The tear gas wafted into the Professional and Technical Institute of Colon (IPTC), a high school in Cativa, sending students fleeing into the streets, after which the police arrested several of the students. Meanwhile in the city of Colon, other protesters blocked streets with burning tire barricades and in Portobelo the Portobelo Women's Movement blocked the roads into and out of town. All of the protests were about Colon province's high unemployment and poverty rates, but during her discourse to the Free Zone merchants Moscoso said that the real problems are not just economic but cultural and moral.

Vendor slain in Santa Ana shootout
A man who sold cigarettes on the street was killed and five people were wounded during a half-hour shootout in Santa Ana on June 19. Police say that they were trying to break up a fight between rival drug selling gangs on Avenida Ancon when the gangsters opened fire on them, and in the crossfire one officer was wounded, street vendor Luis Rodríguez was killed and four other bystanders were wounded. As the gun battle progressed police reinforcements surrounded the entire neighborhood and arrested a number of young men, one of whom was jailed on charges of illegally possessing a 9 mm pistol. The incident, which prompted complaints of excessive police force from many of the neighbors, is under investigation by police and prosecutors.

Municipal judges fired for fraud
The president of Panama's Supreme Court, Mirtza Franchesc hi de Aguilera, has announced the firings or resignations under pressure of three municipal judges in Arraijan, Chame and San Carlos. The judges had signed orders sequestering some $81 million in assets of Panama Canal and government employees at the behest of finance companies and furniture stores, based upon fraudulent documentation. One dead giveaway was a series of documents dating from 1997 by which employees of the Panama Canal Authority granted security interests to the businesses in question. The Panama Canal Authority, which took over from the old Panama Canal Commission at the end of 1999, didn't exist back then. Franceschi de Aguilera said that the court system over which she presides won't tolerate corruption and that the ousted magistrates face possible criminal prosecution.

Former Transito chief out on bail
Carlos Harris, the former chief of the Transit Authority, has been obliged to pay a $250,000 bond to stay out of jail pending criminal procedures against him. Harris, who was the Moscoso administration's first Transtio director, is being investigated for allegedly cancelling hundreds of taxi drivers' permits, establishing or condoning a system of bribes for the issuance of new permits, and covering up the practice of issuing false registration documents for cars that were stolen in the United States or Canada and then imported into Panama.

Marc Harris associates sentenced
Aurelio Anthony Vigna and Joseph Vigna, father and son respectively and the former an ex-director of The Harris Organisation, a Panama City-based network of "asset protection" companies headed by Marc Harris, have been sent to prison for tax evasion by a federal district judge in Miami. The Vignas, both major investors in Marc Harris's ventures before they had a falling out with Harris, were expelled from Panama late last year, without extradition proceedings in this country, and handed over to FBI agents at Tocumen Airport. The father, Tony Vigna, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution, while the son, Joe Vigna, received an 18-month prison term and was ordered to pay $250,000. These sentences were relatively light according to federal sentencing guidelines, and monthly Offshore Alert reports that the leniency was in exchange for information useful to other federal investigations.

Who's corrupt?
Arnulfista Party president Germán Vergara set off an acrimonious debate when he declared that there is no corruption in the Moscoso administration, citing as his proof the allegation that Attorney General José Antonio Sossa isn't investigating any of the administration's officials for corruption. PRD president Martín Torrijos differed, arguing that there have been numerous and well founded complaints of corruption against high and low officials of the Moscoso administration, notwithstanding the existence or lack of any investigation by prosecutors. Then Labor Minister Joaquín José Vallarino III weighed in with his allegation that the PRD members are the real crooks, citing as his proof the US government's denial of a visa to ex-President Ernesto Pérez Balladares for his alleged role in the smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States. Meanwhile, Chamber of Commerce president Iván Cohen warned that corruption is one of the principal impediments to foreign investment in Panama, and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Panama, Dimas Cedeño, called in a Corpus Christi address for Panama to end corruption, arguing that it's a problem that begins with a lack of family values and filters through society into the government. Public opinion polls show that more than 80 percent of Panamanians consider the Moscoso administration corrupt, but much of this majority believes that it's no more corrupt than the previous PRD administration. Since the Moscoso administration took office in September 1999 The Panama News has heard more frequent complaints of goverment corruption from reliable sources than during the previous administration, most often about officials demanding to be paid for services, certifications or rentals by personal checks made out to said officials. The rate at which abuses are alleged to us is not necessarily a reflection of the overall incidence or scale of government corruption, but it does tend to contradict Mr. Vergara's claims.

Mireya asks Sossa to investigate corruption
President Moscoso says that from now on when news media allege acts of corruption, she will ask Attorney General Sossa to call the person or persons making the allegation and find out what proofs they have. The president criticized La Prensa in particular, complaining that the paper reported that there was corruption at the Civil Aviation Directorate, while offering no proof of this. The new policy may run into problems when sources who wish to be anonymous tell of corrupt acts, as frequently happens in the news business.

 

also in this section Inter-American Human Rights Commission hears many complaints, issues initial findings
©2001 The Panama News