On July 8 the head of Customs in Colon, Aquiles García, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on Colon's Avenida Santa Isabel, between Calle 10 and Calle 11. Shortly thereafter a 17-year-old youth whom police suspect was the gunman was himself shot and wounded, and placed under arrest when he went to a hospital to be treated for his wounds. Five suspects, including a former police sergeant, have been arrested and more are being sought. The theory that police and prosecutors are publicizing is that García was murdered in a contract killing ordered because Customs agents seized a shipment of 10 kilos of heroin passing through Colon en route from Colombia to the United States. García and other top Customs officials had a week before his murder complained of death threats from drug dealers. It is extremely unusual for traffickers to kill a law enforcement official who is not working undercover or trying to make an arrest, unless that official has taken bribes from the traffickers and then betrayed them. The discussion in Panama's news media has not raised the question of whether García had been criminally involved with the heroin smugglers, but has included much commentary about the "Colombianization" of Panama. The suspects in custody in connection with García's murder are Panamanians.

On July 10 intruders shot former national transit director Juan Benigno Peña in the chest in his home. Peña underwent surgery and as this issue was in production was said to be in stable condition. Police think that the crime was a robbery attempt, but have not made any arrest or released the identity of any suspects.

Fresh on the heels of an admission that the right-wing AUC paramilitary stole helicopters in Panama, the group's leader Carlos Castaño told the Bogota daily El Tiempo that his men gunned down Colombian businessman Sofronio Hernández on April 21, 1995 at the Clayton riding stables. At the time many suspected that Hernández was murdered by Castaño's paramilitary because he was smuggling arms to the left-wing FARC guerrillas.

Banking Superintendent Delia Cárdenas says that there evidently was money laundering to the tune of about $3 million by former Nicaraguan tax director Byron Jérez. Former Panama City mayor and legislator Guillermo Cochez, an attorney, is facing tough questions for his alleged role in the transactions. He denies any wrongdoing. Cárdenas says that the matter is now in the hands of Attorney General José Antonio Sossa --- an old political ally of Cochez.

Ubaldo Davis, the editor and publisher of the La Cascara News comic tabloid, has been convicted of criminal defamation and sentenced to 14 months in prison, commutable by payment of a $1,500 fine, for a 2001 photo montage that alleged a romantic liaison between President Moscoso and Supreme Court magistrate (then Minister of Government and Justice) Winston Spadafora. Davis's defense was that it was satire, but the court ruled that any critical cartoon about a political figure that can not be proven to be literally true is a crime. Two other cartoonists, La Prensa's Julio Briceño and Víctor Ramos, face similar criminal charges brought by ex-Vice-President Ricardo Arias Calderón and ex-President Ernesto Pérez Balladares respectively.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, appointed in 1994 by then-President Ernesto Pérez Balladares with a mandate to "end judicial terrorism," has charged La Prensa editor Winston Robles with criminal defamation (calumnia e injuria) because that daily reported the testimony of a defense witness in another defamation case that Sossa had brought, against attorney Santander Tristán. Tristán was on trial for alleging that he was the subject of electronic surveillance ordered by Sossa. The witness, businessman Walid Zeyed, who spent two years in jail awaiting trial on money laundering charges that were found to be baseless, testified that Sossa visited him in jail to interview him for a book that Sossa intends to publish after his term as attorney general ends, and that another visitor had relayed a demand for a $600,000 bribe in exchange for Zeyed's release. Sossa called La Prensa's report about Zeyed's testimony "cowardly" and part of a "seven-year campaign against my honor," but he didn't specifically deny that Zeyed testified as reported.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa has appealed a trial court judge's acquittal of law professor, activist and radio show host Miguel Antonio Bernal on charges that he criminally defamed the National Police. The case arises from the 1998 beheadings of four inmates at the Coiba Island penal colony, by other inmates using prison-issue machetes. One of the four victims had finished serving his sentence several months earlier, but apparently because he had not paid a bribe for his release in keeping with a common practice in Panamanian prisons, was still being held. At the time Coiba was being guarded by the National Police and Bernal said in a television interview that it was the police's fault that such a thing happened under their supervision. The former police chief charged Bernal with calumnia e injuria, but after many delays a trial was held on May 14, and the judge returned a not guilty verdict. In Sossa's appeal, he asked the Superior Tribunal to vacate the acquittal and convict Bernal instead. Sossa's action has prompted protests from international human rights groups. Earlier this year, a dozen inmates were tried for the murders, with several convictions and several acquittals. Sossa never bothered to investigate why an inmate who had finished serving his sentence was not released.

On July 8 Colon's elected mayor, Matilde Rosales de Ardines, returned to office for the fourth time after having been removed for several weeks in connection with a courts case arising from the city's attempt to sell municipal bonds and then reinstated by a higher court's order. However, during the time that the mayor was removed from office her suplente and erstwhile replacement, Jorge Bordanea, fired many of Rosales de Ardines's appointees and replaced them with his own entourage. When the mayor made her return to city hall she found the offices barricaded by Bordanea hacks who were about to lose their jobs. After a confrontation of several hours, the Bordanea forces surrendered and unlocked the doors.

Presidential advisor Mario Galindo has resigned. In a television interview Galindo said it was because the Moscoso administration has pretty much determined what its policies are and thus there isn't much for a presidential advisor to do.

Raymundo Hurtado Lay, a former legislator who was elected on the MOLIRENA ticket and unsuccessfully sought re-election as a member of supermarket baron and Canal Affairs Minister Ricardo Martinelli's Cambio Democratico party, has been fired as Panama's ambassador to Paraguay for returning to the MOLIRENA fold. Under President Moscoso's division of the nepotism and political patronage spoils among the Arnulfistas and their splinter party allies, that ambassadorship was reserved for Martinelli's party. Now that he's a member of another faction in Mireya's orbit, Hurtado may get a post in the Education Ministry, which under the present government is a MOLIRENA fiefdom.

The nation's principal center for the care and treatment of patients with mental disorders, the Hospital Siquiatrico, is being phased out and turned into a mental health research facility. Most of its nearly 300 patients are being transferred to nursing homes or psychiatric wards in other hospitals. When it was founded, the hospital was something of a prison, and something of a refuge, for people with a wide variety of mental disorders that prevented them from functioning well in society. However, over the decades medications have been developed to control many of the illnesses that used to get people locked into mental institutions, and the incarceration of people with illnesses that cause them to act strangely but harmlessly has come to be seen as inhumane and unjust. In recent years the Hospital Siquiatrico's patient mix steadily shifted away from those living on the wards to people living in their communities and visiting the facility as outpatients.

The strain of streptococcus often killed "flesh-eating bacteria" or "killer bacteria" claimed the life of a 47-year-old man from Chilibre on July 5. The patient died an isolation ward at Seguro Social's Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital Complex in Panama City, after having been transferred there from the Policlinica Nuevo San Juan in Colon province. The latter facility was ordered closed for disinfecting after the infection was diagnosed. It appears that the patient came to the clinic in Colon with the infection rather than catching it at the facility. The hemolytic streptococcus beta strain that caused the problem is highly contagious and resistant to antibiotics, and in this case quickly spread from what appeared to be a minor skin infection to attack the patient's lungs, kidneys and liver, causing him to die within a few days of contracting the ailment.

Mireya Moscoso's high-speed auto trips through Panama City, which have twice in her administration caused accidents that have required her to undergo medical treatment for injuries, claimed another victim on July 9 when one of the motorcycle cops clearing the way for the presidential car was hit by a car at the intersection of Calle 50 and Via Brasil. The bodyguard's injuries were not life-threatening. Mireya's traffic mishaps have been the subject of various jokes, and in the war of words between former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares and President Moscoso, the former responded to remarks about how his US visa was revoked due to his involvement in illegal migration to the United States by predicting that when her term is over, Moscoso's driving license will be revoked.

© 2002 by The Panama News All Rights Reserved For information or problems with this page contact: editor@ThePanamaNews.com
News Business Editorial Opinion Letters Arts Reviews Community Fun Travel Galleries Calendar Outdoors Dining Science Sports Español Front Page