Panama News Briefs

No deal on water system
An eight-day special Legislative Assembly has ended with acrimonious press conferences and no agreement between the Moscoso administration and the opposition-controlled legislature. The president wanted to take $150 million from the Fiduciary Fund created with the proceeds of privatizations during the Pérez Balladares presidency, while the legislature wanted to take $178 million from the fund and in the process make certain changes in the way that the IDAAN water and sewer utility is run. The possibility of a compromise between the two positions was not often mentioned in the debate, and after the failed session the president threatened to fund the needed repairs and improvements largely from the legislature's operating budget.

Doberman finds the disappeared
Eagle, a doberman trained to sniff out buried human remains, has thwarted Attorney General José Antonio Sossa's attempts to block the Truth Commission's efforts to find the bodies of political dissidents who disappeared during the days of the military dictatorship. With his American handlers, the dog identified eight burial sites in Panama, Cocle, Veraguas and Chiriqui provinces, from which human skeletons, some bearing the marks of torture, were recovered. Especially embarrassing for Sossa and the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) were the dog's discoveries at David's airport. There, a witness had identified a spot where bodies were buried more than 30 years ago, but the PTJ had dug elsewhere at the airport, found nothing and police and prosecutors had used the incident to argue that the Truth Commission investigation was a waste of time and money. The dog confirmed the witness's account. Now, however, Sossa says that his ministry does not have the budget to perform the DNA tests to positively identify the remains that have been recovered. Families of the disappeared angrily denounced this as the latest of several attempts by Sossa to block the Truth Commission's investigation, but despite the Attorney General's reluctance to investigate old murder cases it seems that aid may be forthcoming from foreign sources to do the job.

Hunger emergency declared in Ngobe-Bugle Comarca
On August 4 the Cabinet Council declared a state of emergency throughout the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, a semi-autonomous indigenous region that encompasses parts of Veraguas, Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui provinces - about nine percent of the national land mass - and is home to more than 111,000 people. President Moscoso said that the action was taken because some 95 percent of the children in the comarca are malnourished. Among the president's emergency aims are improved transportation and communications infrastructures in the area, devolution of part of the national budget to be handled by comarca authorities, construction of buildings to house indigenous institutions and training for the bodogais, the Ngobe and Bugle local police force.

Hospital director stays, some employees don't
The board of directors of the foundation that runs the Instituto Oncologico Nacional, which operates out of the old Gorgas Hospital, has turned down hospital director Juan Pablo Barés Weeden's offer to resign in the wake of a scandal over radiation overdoses that affected at least 28 patients, killing some of them. Eighteen doctors and technicians at the institute have received penalties imposed by the Ministry of Health, which range in severity from written reprimands to lifetime bans from practicing their professions. The radiation levels on the cobalt machine that caused the overdoses were never regularly checked and maintenance was not performed "by the book," in large part because the hospital didn't even have a copy of the manual. Prosecutors are still investigating the case and may file charges of criminal negligence. Some of the people who were disciplined are appealing to the courts, and on August 3 several dozen of their colleagues and patients staged a peaceful street protest against the sanctions.

RP receives Plan Colombia aid
The United States has paid Panama $4 million from the Plan Colombia funds approved by the US Congress last year. The money comes with few publicized strings attached, but theoretically it is for anti-drug programs, security costs to deal with the spillover from increased fighting in Colombia, and economic development in the eastern parts of Darien and Kuna Yala. In announcing the disbursement of the funds, US chargé d'affaires Frederick Becker called upon Panama to be more energetic in its prosecution of drug offenders.

Christian Dems become Partido Popular
The Christian Democratic Party, whose historical high point was when it briefly controlled the Legislative Assembly after the 1989 US invasion, voted to change its name to the Partido Popular at a July 28 and 29 national convention. As before, the party's president is legislator Rubén Arosemena and its political boss is former Vice-President Ricardo Arias Calderón, who used to be head of the Christian Democratic International. The party's name change in part recognizes that some of its members are Jewish or Muslim rather than Christians, and follows the international trend in which most Christian Democratic parties, many of them plagued with scandalous reputations like that of the most successful of their genre, the Italian party, have changed their names. In his address to the party convention, Rubén Arosemena promoted the Partido Popular as the third party alternative to the Arnulfistas and the PRD. The party is presently a junior partner with the PRD in the META alliance that controls the Legislative Assembly.

Spadafora asks for funds to feed prisoners
Government and Justice Minister Winston Spadafora has asked the Legislative Assembly for a special appropriation to feed prisoners at the country's 32 penal institutions, warning that funds for food in this year's budget have almost run out. Usually much of the burden of feeding inmates is borne by relatives of the incarcerated, who bring food to the jails and prisons. The fare provided for those who don't have outside sources of food is meager in the best of times, and in the current economic crisis many families have become unable to feed their jailed relatives, which has increased pressures on the system's food budget. In many countries minimum security inmates are put to work on farms growing food for the prison system, but that practice is limited in Panama.

Moscoso vetoes textbook law
President Moscoso has vetoed legislation that would have required public and private schools to use textbooks by Panamanian authors in most instances. She called the law "inconvenient" and said that it would tend to isolate Panama from the world economy.

IDAAN director fired for report
One of the first casualties of the acrimonious debate over how to fix the ailing IDAAN water and sewer utility was Carlos Sánchez, who was removed as the semi-autonomous institution's director by President Moscoso. The action came after Sánchez submitted a report to the Legislative Assembly alleging that IDAAN is "presenting the bill for obsolescence, slowness, inefficiency and a business crisis," and that "financial weakness has caused a business crisis" for the institution. IDAAN's new director is Laurencio García, a member of the MOLIRENA party. During the tenure of Sánchez, a member of Canal Affairs Minister Ricardo Martinelli's Cambio Democratico party, dozens of Martinelli loyalists, including one of Martinelli's sons, were put on the IDAAN payroll and a system to deduct Cambio Democratico dues from IDAAN workers was imposed. Though complaints to the Electoral Tribunal ended the partisan dues checkoff system, neither Sánchez nor Martinelli lost their jobs over the scandal.

Endara sues Moscoso
Former President Guillermo Endara has sued President Mireya Moscoso before the Electoral Tribunal, accusing her of using government resources against him in their contest for the presidency of the Arnulfista Party, which will be decided at a September 29 party congress. Endara's campaign has also delved into substantive issues, most prominently his criticism of Moscoso's foreign policy. For example, the ex-president accused the present administration of militarizing Panama's coast guard, the National Maritime Service, by allowing it to participate in war games with the navies of the United States and several Latin American countries. Moscoso is heavily favored to win the intra-party contest.

Legislators accuse lawyers
Arnulfista legislators José Luis Fábrega and Marcos González, after a series of visits with inmates at El Renacer prison in Gamboa, have filed ethics charges against 15 lawyers with the Colegio Nacional de Abogados. The attorneys are charged with taking retainers from prisoners, then doing nothing, causing delays in their clients' cases that have lengthened time spent behind bars awaiting trial, or failing to communicate with clients or their families about the status of their legal proceedings. Several of the lawyers have made public denials of wrongdoing. It is very rare for a Panamanian lawyer to suffer any consequences for negligence, cheating a client or other unethical practices.

Navarro accused by ex-mayor's kin
Attorney Olmedo Arrocha, former mayor Mayín Correa's suplente, has charged Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro with a crime for the firing of Arrocha's wife, Gina Correa de Arrocha, who worked in the office that oversees permits for the city's street vendors. Gina Correa de Arrocha was one of many of Mayín Correa's relatives who was on the city payroll, and the mayor's spokesman says that she was fired for not doing her job. Olmedo Arrocha said that his wife was on maternity leave, and has asked the courts to remove Navarro from office for official misconduct.

Copyright complaint against La Prensa publisher, editor and reporter
On July 31 Eric Jackson, the editor of The Panama News and author of 90N: dispatches from Panama 1994-2000, filed criminal charges of copyright violation against La Prensa publisher Ricardo Alberto Arias and the daily's review section editor Daniel Domínguez and reporter Erroll Caballero. La Prensa took three of Jackson's photos from 90N and published them without permission on June 15, which Domingéz admitted in a letter on behalf of La Prensa to Jackson. The daily has steadfastly refused to talk about any settlement for the copyright violation and only admits error in not informing Jackson of the piracy. To file the complaint, Jackson was sent to four different offices by prosecutors. Ulimately the Ninth Fiscalia took his complaint, but said that it would likely be transferred to the Tenth Fiscalia. Despite the admission in Domínguez's letter, which is a part of the complaint, it appears that no action has been taken by prosecutors, who routinely move the same day a complaint is filed when the victim of copyright piracy is a US-based computer or recording company. The reluctance to act may have something to do with the political alliance between Attorney General José Antonio Sossa's Christian Democratic Party (recently renamed Partido Popular) and Ricardo Alberto Arias's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).

October trial in piracy case
Photographer Carlos Guardia, one of whose photos was pirated by La Prensa last December, has an October 1 trial date for his civil suit against the daily. A criminal complaint has also been filed, but no trial date has been set for that.

Banco Hipotecario employees fired for erasing relatives' debts
The new director of the state-owned Banco Hipotecario Nacional, Ernesto Fernández, has fired seven employees who have been accused of erasing records of debts owed to the bank by their relatives. The deletions were discovered during an audit conducted in the wake of former director Waldo Arrocha's removal amidst allegations of corruption.

Air patrol's fuel missing
According to a report by the nation's Comptroller General, some 300,000 gallons of fuel have gone missing from the National Air Service's tanks over the past five years. The service, which is the aerial wing of the National Police, has long been a source of free aviation fuel for the private planes and helicopters of the rich and well connected. Presidential aircraft also fill up at the SAN's tanks.

UNESCO blasts government secrecy
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's regional director, Alejandro Alfonzo, has criticized directives by Panama's Comptroller General and Ministry of Economy and Finance that restrict most information about the national economy and government spending. Alfonzo said that the policies impede democracy, and called for more transparency with regard to the uses of public funds.

Toxic water deliveries?
As the controversy over how to fix the Chilibre water treatment plant and metropolitan water delivery systems remains front and center in the nation's political discourse, the IDAAN water and sewer utility has become embroiled in another major argument. One Armando Campos, an engineer who owns Master Services, a company hired to clean the cistern trucks used by IDAAN to provide fresh water to neighborhoods that are not served by the main system, complains that the utility has been using tankers that also haul leaded gasoline, and that though his company may do a thorough job of washing them out with soap and water and venting the fumes, the water that is then hauled in the tanks becomes contaminated with lead residues from the gasoline. Campos filed his complaint with the nation's ombudsman, and the matter is now under investigation by the Public Services Regulating Entity.

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©2001 The Panama News