Panama News Briefs

Assembly rejects the president's budget
On November 14 the Legislative Assembly's Budget Committee rejected the Moscoso administration's 2002 budget, arguing that if realistic revenue assumptions are used, it is some $500 million out of balance. Economy and Finance Minister Norberto Delgado said that the president won't submit a new budget, but will insist that the legislature back down. The Panamanian Constitution provides that if the executive and legislative branches can't agree on a national budget, the previous year's budget will apply. In the 2001 budget, money was appropriated for legislators' circuit funds, to be spent on projects in the deputies' districts. Mireya had attempted to cut these out of the 2002 budget, but a continued impasse would theoretically restore the item. However, the 2001 budget has not been carried out in large part because the government collected far less than the revenues that it had projected.

Spadafora ratification uncertain
President Moscoso's nomination of her former government and justice minister, Winston Spadafora, to a post on the Supreme Court is now the object of much behind-the-scenes political maneuvering whose outcome is yet uncertain. Originally the PRD and Partido Popular, which along with two allies from the Solidaridad party maintain control over the Legislative Assembly, declared their opposition to the nomination. However, one of the two Solidaridad deputies, Alberto Magno Castillero, has said that he will vote to confirm Spadafora's nomination and the Partido Popular has declared that the vote will not be a matter of party discipline. Various published reports have it that Partido Popular deputy Ruben Arosemena and Solidaridad's Laurentino Cortizo will also vote for Spadafora, giving him a majority for confirmation. However, Arosemena says he's leaning against voting for Spadafora, Cortizo won't say how he'll vote and the PRD caucus isn't saying what the political payback will be for coalition junior partners who vote for Mireya's nominee.

Mireya slightly more popular
According a Dichter & Neira poll commissioned by La Prensa and published on November 12, 43.7 percent of Panamanians polled gave President Moscoso "good" or "excellent" job performance ratings, while 53.1 percent said that her work was "poor" or "very poor." These poll ratings, while negative, represent an improvement in public perceptions about the president's performance. In general, people fault Moscoso's handling of the economy and consider her administration to be seriously corrupt, but they like the emphasis of her social programs.

War of words impresses few
President Moscoso's allegation that there is a coup plot against her and Legislative Assembly president Ruben Arosemena's allegation that there was an assassination attempt against him have failed to mobilize much public sympathy. Those media aligned with Arosemena's Partido Popular (former Christian Democrats) played the supposed assassination attempt up as a lead story for several days and Attorney General Jose Antonio Sossa (a former member of the Christian Democrat's national executive committee) vowed a complete "investigation," but most citizens with whom The Panama News spoke either had no opinion or believed that the attack was a hoax. Mireya's coup plot allegation was similarly treated seriously by media aligned with the Arnulfistas and played up as an example of the president's mental instability by pro-opposition media. There was no panic buying nor the mass exodus for abroad that one would expect if a lot of people actually believed that a coup d'etat was imminent. Ivan Cohen, the president of Panama's Chamber of Commerce, best summarized the public mood when he accused politicians of creating unreasonable fears that can do further harm to an already prostrate economy.

Conflicting stories about the Darien
Recent reports in several of Panama's news media have it that Colombian irregular forces are camped out in the Darien jungle, and that Panama's police are looking for drug labs and opium poppy plantations associated with the presence of armed Colombian groups. On RPC-TV and in El Panama America, there were interviews with an alleged FARC guerrilla, who said that he had come across the border into Panama to shop for groceries in an Embera village. The initial response from the National Police was to deny the presence of Colombian guerrillas or paramilitaries in Panama, and to deny that police are looking for drug labs or plantations in the Darien. Later, however, National Police Chief Carlos Bares rhetorically asked "When have the guerrillas not been in Panama?", and Government and Justice Minister called upon the FARC rebels (but not the AUC paramilitaries, who also come into Panama) to "leave Panama for good."

Moscoso vetoes paternity testing law
Calling it unenforceable and unconstitutional, President Moscoso has vetoed a law that would have provided for DNA tests to determine disputed paternity cases. As passed by the Legislative Assembly, the law would have required the tests to be performed at the nation's Legal Medicine Institute or at a clinic designated by the institute's director. The director, Dr. Humberto Mas, is the brother-in-law of Attorney General Jose Antonio Sossa. (For more on the DNA controversy and the way it was reported in the Panamanian press, see the article on "DNA testing and a muzzled press" in this issue's Review section.)

Seguro Social adopts freedom of information policy
Social Security director Juan Jovane has directed all of his subordinates to provide any information in the agency's possession when asked for it by members of the public, with the exceptions of individuals' medical records and other information that is required by law to be kept confidential. The policy is unprecedented in the Panamanian government and stands in sharp contrast to the practices of most ministries. The new policy is likely to have a major impact on business and economic reporting, because the Comptroller General and Ministry of Economy and Finance treat most of their economic data as state secrets to be released or distorted according to political convenience, and thus Social Security figures are likely to become the most reliable source of national economic information.

December 16 Christmas Parade
Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro has announced that this year's Christmas Parade will take place on the afternoon of December 16, starting at 3:30 p.m. in front of Parque Urraca and proceeding along Avenida Balboa, Calle Aquilino de la Guardia, Calle 50 and Via Porras. There will be 24 floats and 28 bands, and toys will be distributed to thousands of needy children from around the country.

Legislature modifying proposed information law
The Legislative Assembly is working to combine various proposals for a freedom of information law, but doing so in a way that would allow it to effectively license journalists. Jerry Wilson, the head of the assembly's Governance Committee, said that the proposed law would create two categories of information that would be available to journalists - but not necessarily to the general public. Documents on hand, and documents that could easily be retrieved, would be available to reporters if they did not fall within a long list of broad exceptions. However, it would seem that public officials would be able to deny information to journalists from the smaller media by using the argument that they're not "legitimate journalists" because they don't work for the partisan corporate mainstream new apparatuses. Wilson said that the changes were added to accomodate suggestions from the administration and business groups.

Sossa celebrates exoneration
The Supreme Court has thrown out charges brought by the Legislative Assembly's Drugs Committee against Attorney General Jose Antonio Sossa for turning down foreign requests for money laundering investigations against ex-American offshore financial services operator Marc Harris and former presidential candidate Alfredo Oranges. It's generally not a crime for a prosecutor to decline to undertake an investigation. In the course of the dispute, Sossa fired the former PTJ chief and the former head of Panama's INTERPOL office and filed criminal charges against several journalists for reporting that he had declined the foreign requests. The criminal charges against the journalists have been dismissed because it's not a crime to report truthfully about the Attorney General's decisions. The firings, however, were upheld by a Supreme Court decision that declared it improper for law enforcement authorities to comment on a case under investigation --- although that practice continues, with suspects and seized contraband regularly paraded before television cameras.

Briceño trial set for December 28
Partido Popular party boss Ricardo Arias Calderon's attempt to imprison La Prensa cartoonist Julio Briceño for an unflattering cartoon about his alliance with the PRD has been set for a December 28 trial. The prosecution has gained Panama widespread condemnation by international journalism and human rights groups.

Running for - the Costa Rican border?
Canal Affairs Minister Ricardo Martinelli, whose Cambio Democratic splinter party is bogged down in a scandal arising from a party dues paycheck deduction scheme it imposed on IDAAN public water and sewer utility workers, says he'll be running for something in the 2004 elections. He doesn't say what.

Venezuela doesn't want Singares
Eric Singares, who was recently replaced as head of Immigration after a scandal-tainted two years, has been appointed as Panama's new ambassador to Venezuela. However, Hugo Chavez's government has not responded to the appointment with a welcoming letter, which according to diplomatic protocol means that the man who summarily deported his undocumented Nicaraguan maid over a pay dispute is considered undesirable and will not be allowed to assume the post in Caracas.

Weeden hasn't delivered helicopter documents to prosecutor
It seems that the Moscoso administration is trying to end the HP-1430 helicopter insurance fraud scandal by holding onto information until time runs out for the investigation. Anti-corruption prosecutor Cecilia Lopez asked months ago for National Air Service finacial records related to the helicopter, which ran out of gas while part of Mireya's entourage and was then sunk by the National Maritime Service pursuant to orders from on high. However, Comptroller General Alvin Weeden has not turned over the records, and now Lopez is in the position of asking a judge for more time to finish her investigation.

Cuba and Panama spar in the UN
Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations, Ramon Morales Quijano, got into an unusually acrimonious argument with Panamanian Minister of External Relations Jose Miguel Aleman on November 16. The Cubans accused the United States of pressuring Panama not to extradite four anti-Castro activists charged with plotting to kill Castro when he visited here last year and for a number of other crimes, including a charge against one of the accused that he played a part in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger airliner that killed all 73 people on board. Aleman categorically denied that Panama's decision not to extradite was due to US pressure. The Moscoso administration's position is that it won't turn the suspects over to Cuba because they would face the death penalty in that country.

Prisoner gets out for a few hours, rapes his ex-wife
Several guards at La Joyita Penitentiary are under investigation for bribery and dereliction of duty after an inmate got out for several hours, went to his ex-wife's house and raped her, then returned to the institution without any record of his departure or return. The guards' initial story was that the prisoner escaped without being noticed, but it would be most unusual for a prisoner to escape and then return, also without being noticed. The payment of bribes for temporary releases from jails and prisons is a long-standing racket in Panama.

Recriminations over city treasurer vote
A number of prominent PRD members are agitating for the expulsion or suspension of Ancon's representante Joaquin Vasquez from the party, because he voted against the party's candidate for city treasurer. Vasquez said he voted that way to protest PRD mayor Juan Carlos Navarro's use of city funds, and to represent the interests of his constituents. The mayor has fired Vasquez's suplente from his full-time city job, Pablo Salamanca Ardines, apparently in retaliation for Vasquez's vote.

Dengue outbreak in La Palma
Health officials report that there have been 79 confirmed cases of dengue fever in the Darien provincial capital of La Palma over the past three months. The flu-like misery is spread by mosquitos that breed in small pools of water like those that accumulate in discarded bottles, cans and tires. The public health responses have been increased inspections around the homes of those affected and appeals for the public to clean up their surroundings.

also in this section AMCHAM hosts forum on post-September 11 policies George W. Bush's order for military trials
©2001 The Panama News