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Shown above is one of painter Fernando Toledo's acrylics now on display at the Galeria Arteconsult, entitled "¡Otro que no levantó sospechas!"
Ah, but suspicions are an epidemic in Panama these days, and it shouldn't be chalked up to paranoia. The repression against journalists and cartoonists who criticize politicians is increasing, and given President Moscoso's brazen defense of nepotism, the ridiculous lengths to which political patronage is being taken, and the open corruption that's clearly harming this country at a time when a bad economy doesn't allow us to put up with it, it's natural that the first question when anything out of the ordinary happens is "What are they hiding?"
This issue's Editorial is about corruption, as is my Opinion section column about laws with names and surnames. The Panama News Briefs are full of tales of politicians trying to have satirists, cartoonists, reporters and editors thrown in jail. In the latest developments, a court has more or less declared satire a crime in Panama, Attorney General Sossa is prosecuting La Prensa editor Winston Robles because his paper reported a defense witness's testimony in another criminal defamation case that Sossa brought against a local attorney, and the AG's four-year vendetta against Miguel Antonio Bernal is being renewed. In our Spanish-language Opinion section, Journalists Against Corruption takes aim at the recent journalism law passed by the Legislative Assembly but not (yet) signed by the President, which is insulting but could have been worse. Among the English-language opinions Willy Gutman looks at what it means to have a muzzled press from a Honduran perspective. Among our letters, Bernal explains what Sossa's appeal of his recent acquittal on charges of defaming the National Police means.
We have more in the Science section than usual --- part three of Willy Gutman's three-part series on emerging biological threats and my coverage on a recent Smithsonian lecture on Panama's geological history.
The Business section took me to the Chinese commercial expo (and if you want to get paranoid about the Chinese taking over, note the photo of the flags in front of ATLAPA, but then also note that the green building in the background is the local headquarters of Taiwan's Evergreen shipping company), and also gets into Marc Harris's flight from Panama. (I have received a bunch of emails from folks who have lost the money they invested with Harris, asking for information or help. Quite frankly, I don't intend to get back into lawyering, and it's a total waste of time to ask for my help in pursuing Harris.) For some reason most of the news is economic in nature this time, so you will find that the Business & Economy Briefs cover more things than the News section does this time.
The biggest story summarized in the Panama News Briefs is ominous, however. The head of Customs in Colon was assassinated, and though arrests have been made and the police and prosecutors are, as is the unfortunate norm, trying their case by press release, I suspect that there's a lot more to the story than is being acknowledged. Rude questions are in order, just at a time when the powers that be are out to criminalize rude questions.
The Panama News has never been too preoccupied with violent crime. Yes, it exists and is growing in these hard times, but no, it's not nearly as prevalent as the more sensationalist media would have you believe. However, recently we have had a spate of shootings affecting prominent public figures, mostly in the course of garden variety crimes that could affect anybody.
And the there's an admission of an old murder at the Clayton horse stables, wherein the Colombian AUC paramilitary's leader admits to the killing of a man who was suspected of running guns to the FARC guerrillas. It's very easy to say that getting blown away comes with the dirty business of arms smuggling, but that shouldn't make Colombian terrorism of any variety acceptable on Panamanian soil, and our government's silence in the face of Carlos Castaño's recent admissions of murder and air piracy committed in Panama is completely irresponsible and outrageous. Which leads me to suspect that Mireya's not bothered by any of this, which in turn leads me to suspect that her administration actually was involved in the huge arms shipments that were made to the AUC death squads, allegedly through the Panamanian National Police. I can't say that I KNOW the truth of the matter in this scandal, but I have my suspicions and I think that the facts will come to light with time.
Eric Jackson
the editor
