Panama's Supreme Court has freed suspected FARC operative Jesús Giraldo, whom prosecutors jailed for money laundering and supposed ties with former Jaque representante Mariela Mendoza, who is in jail for smuggling cocaine on a police flight from her Darien community to Panama City. The magistrates, with Supreme Court President Adán Arnulfo Arjona abstaining, held that it was not proven that the money seized from Giraldo had anything to do with drug trafficking, and thus that the assignment of his case to the drug prosecutor was inappropriate. It is the position of the US government that Colombia's civil war, which antedates the rise of that country's drug export industry, is a drug conspiracy and that the leftist FARC rebels and right-wing AUC militia are by definition drug traffickers. Panama, following that American forumulation, has assigned cases involving FARC and AUC operatives here to the drug prosecutor's office, which has generally dropped charges against AUC members and turned FARC members over the the AUC's allies, the Colombian military and police forces. This decision is likely to affect the investigation into the Panamanian National Police's and Moscoso administration's alleged role in the transfer of thousands of assault rifles from Nicaraguan police arsenals to the AUC, as that case had also been assigned to the drug prosecutor.

As this issue was being uploaded, a standoff at the health center in the Ngobe community of Kankintu was in its fifth day. The Health Ministry had ordered the town's only doctor withdrawn from the community and much of the health center's equipment transferred to San Felix, and when word got out most of the town's residents surrounded the clinic and forbade the doctor and nine other ministry employees to leave. The nation's social security system has virtually no presence in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, where only a few people have jobs that pay social security, and such scant public health services as the Health Ministry provides would be a political scandal in any other part of Panama. The confrontation, which involves the men, women and children of the community, has remained up to the time this was published non-violent, with representatives of the comarca negotiating with provincial health authorities in David to keep the health clinic open and staffed and the riot police out of town.

On October 24 Monsignior Juan Sebastián Laboa died at the age of 79 in San Sebastian, the capital of his native Basque country. Laboa is best known in Panama as the Papal nuncio with whom former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega took refuge before surrendering to US troops in the wake of the 1989 invasion. Laboa had previously given sanctuary to a number of persons fleeing from Noriega's repression and played a role in fomenting the civilista movement that opposed the dictatorship, but when a hotly pursued Noriega called the nunciatura from a Dairy Queen restaurant the monsignior sent a church limousine to pick him up and whisk him away to safety and temporary refuge with at the Vatican's embassy. Laboa granted refuge in order to prevent further violence after a US attack that killed hundreds and widespread looting that ensued. There ensued a psychological campaign both inside and outside the nunciatura to convince Noriega to surrender to the Americans. The identification of the Panamanian Catholic heirarchy with the US invasion and the unpopular government that followed effectively froze the church careers of Laboa and the late Archbishop Marco McGrath.

Panama's national ID card, the cedula, is issued by the Electoral Tribunal and included holograms and other anti-counterfeiting features. Recently a Colombian citizen was arrested with 35,000 cedula forms, apparently "genuine" ones obtained from Unysis World Trade, Inc, the company that makes them. So who might need a supply like that? Maybe somebody who's into immigration fraud on a large scale. Maybe a Colombian paramilitary or guerrilla group planning a large-scale sneak attack in Panama. Maybe somebody who wants to steal the next election by way of mobilizing the cemetery vote. The Electoral Tribunal says that the forms were defective ones that the company meant to mutilate and discard, but which were instead diverted by two corrupt employees, and were not part of any electoral fraud scheme.

For a few days Panama had no chief executive within the country. Ordinarily, when a president is out of Panama, one of the two vice-presidents takes over executive functions during the absense. Often these are times for pardons and other special interest measures to be granted. However, when President Moscoso went to Miami for surgery to remove ovarian cysts, First Vice-President Arturo Vallarino was abroad on vacation and Second Vice-President Dominador Kaiser Bazán was in Germany on official business. The pro-PRD media jumped on the situation, accusing the Moscoso administration of leaving the country "headless." That's a bit of an exaggeration, as there is nothing to prevent a president or vice-president from performing his or her functions from abroad, except that an absence that lasts more than 10 days would legally create a vacancy in office. Gadfly law professor, journalist and activist Miguel Antonio Bernal, however, had a much different take on the situation. He claimed that the country ran much better with all three top executives somewhere else instead of causing trouble here, and suggested that they do this more often.

Like last year, there will be two parades each in Panama City on November 3 and November 4, Independence Day and Flag Day respectively. One route goes along Via España from below La Cresta to the Caja de Ahorros, while the other goes through the Casco Viejo to Plaza Cinco de Mayo. There will be marching bands or other contingents representing 59 public and private schools; the bomberos, police and 16 other public institutions; and 11 community or independent bands. The most popular contingents, the bomberos, will as usual march on the route past the presidential palace to the firefighters' memorial in Plaza Cinco de Mayo.

It's still very early and all of the choices are not known, but a recent Dichter & Neira poll commissioned by La Prensa said that if the election were held now, Martín Torrijos would be the choice of 42.2 percent of the electorate, as opposed to 35.5 percent for Alberto Vallarino. Though La Prensa, whose editorial slant is toward the PRD-Partido Popular alliance, did not get into those details, the key factor would be whether there's a two-candidate Torrijos-Vallarino race with the latter garnering the Arnulfista nomination or a contest among three or more candidates. It appears that President Moscoso, the widow of party namesake Arnulfo Arias, would like to keep Vallarino, who is the nephew of Arnulfo Arias, off the Arnulfo ticket. In that case Vallarino would run as the nominee of one or more small parties, the president's choice would inherit all of her administration's unpopularity and TorrijosÕs chances would be greatly enhanced.

Mireya Moscoso, who as party leader wields nearly dictatorial powers with the Arnulfista Party, says people will be able to join sometime at the end of the 2002-2003 dry season, when membership applications will be accepted. Alberto Vallarino, who wants the 2004 Arnulfista presidential nomination, is likely to be one of those applicants, but members of her inner circle are urging Mireya to keep him out of the party.

Dr. José Terán, who was health minister until the scandal about radiation overdoses at the Instituto Oncologico Nacional posed some difficult administrative decisions for him to make, prompting him to resign before the news media found out what happened, has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2004 Arnulfista presidential nomination. Never having garnered more than two percent public support for his presidential aspirations in the opinion polls, Terán has begun airing television commercials. The former health minister's announcement has elicited mostly snide remarks from prominent Arnulfistas. Former President Guillermo Endara, who lives surrounded by animals in a house that includes a large aviary, said he could never support a candidate who as health minister decreed a limit on the number of pets in a household. President Moscoso, who was often escorted to social events by Terán early in her administration, said that she will announce her preference for the Arnulfista nomination when sheÕs ready, but it won't be Terán.

On October 18 Bocas del Toro Governor Edgar Benavides had regional Ministry of Economy and Finance director Francisco Orocú arrested after Orocú and five representantes heckled Benavides and called him a liar at a provincial assembly meeting. Orocú was summarily punished under the disrespect for authority law.

Vice-Minister of the Presidency Jaime Jácome has resigned as an alternate magistrate (suplente) on the Supreme Court. His acceptance of a post in the executive branch while still keeping his judicial position raised a storm of protest from lawyers and elicited opposition claims that it was proof that President Moscoso has compromised the principle of an independent judiciary. Jácome said that it's legal to hold both positions at once, but because it looks improper he'll just keep his executive branch job.

Panama City's demolition of a house that was built on a public right-of-way in Juan Diaz has sparked administrative sanctions, lawsuits, criminal charges and heated public debate. The corregidor in Juan Diaz, brushing off pleas that the matter was pending before a higher court, ordered the demolition of the house where 79-year-old Ulpiana Caceres had lived for more than 20 years. The house was promptly razed by a municipal crew using a backhoe, and the day after that the court ruled in Mrs. Caceres's favor. Saying that his administration will enforce the law against encroachments onto public lands and right-of-ways but that this case was handled in an improper and "inhuman" way, Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro sacked the corregidor and reprimanded the head of the legal department. Meanwhile Caceres's attorney, Silvio Guerra, filed various civil suits and criminal charges against Navarro, Alcalde Diaz police commander Demóstenes Batista and several other officials. (The possibility there is that if a court can be persuaded to find Navarro, whom polls say is Panama's most popular elected official, guilty of a crime, then he might be barred from holding public office.) In the ensuing public furor other interests came into play in ways that would not be expected just by looking at partisan motives. A lot of very wealthy and influential people who never go to Juan Diaz and would never concern themselves with any injustices to that neighborhood's working class residents were upset about the demolition because over the years they have used their influence to usurp public beaches, parks and right-of-ways for their homes or commercial developments, and they are alarmed that the city would demolish such an encroachment. The city council, on the other hand, including representantes who oppose Navarro on most other contentious issues, passed a resolution supporting the demolition because they claimed that the house that was raised was being used for unlicensed gambling operations and had a history as a drug emporium. That resolution offended a number of legal scholars and landlords, first because it purported to justify an action for reasons other than that for which it was taken and second because it could set a precedent by which the illegal actions of tenants could result in the destruction of a landlord's property.

A new sexual harassment law proposed by legislator Gloria Young (Arnulfista-San Miguelito), has passed on the first of three legislative votes after some modifications by the Legislative Assembly's Women's Affairs Committee. The proposal has been met with vitriolic opposition by El Panama America and has also been the occasion for another round in the legislature's most famous rivalry that between Young and her PRD colleague from San Miguelito, Balbina Herrera. Herrera, who has been known to slap male colleagues in the face for sexist remarks, is not joining those critics like the El Panama America management who are overtly defening sexual harassment as a management prerogative, but she does say that Young's proposal is so loosely written that it could become an instrument of petty office politics ploys.

Francisco Ameglio's proposed censorship law was unanimously approved by the Legislative Assembly's Human Rights Committee on October 17, despite President Moscoso's hint that she may veto it if it passes. Ameglio, the leader of the assembly's Arnulfista caucus, says he won't back down, even if the president or his own father order him to do so.

Panama is tied for 49th place in the Reporters Without Borders rankings of freedom of the press around the world. According to the Paris-based group, Latin America's freest press is in Costa Rica (which they say has more freedom than the United States does) and the region's least free press is Cuba's.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa is refusing to investigate disappearances during the dictatorship and the fate of people whose remains he holds in his custody because he says "the Truth Commission doesn't exist now." Since the former Christian Democrat legislator was appointed by former PRD President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, he has reliably played the role of accessory after the fact to dozens of old murders and numerous more recent cases of political corruption.

Panamanian law provides that political parties (and theoretically, independent candidates) shall receive public financing in an amount equal to one percent of the nation's public budget, divided among those political parties with ballot status on the basis of their registered memberships. The budget that the president submitted to the legislature is about $1.7 billion and looks likely to pass without any big changes, which means that public financing for the politicians will amount to about $17 million in 2003. The biggest recipient, which stands to receive nearly one-third of the total, is the PRD. Although Panama has public financing, there are no campaign contribution or spending limits, nor is there a legal requirement for the disclosure of contributions. Thus, despite public financing, the buying and selling of political influence is a salient feature of the Panamanian political system.

A couple of weeks ago it was Cambio Democratico signing up several prominent National Liberal public officials, former officeholders and party functionaries. On the weekend of October 19 and 20 it was Baby Arango's party's turn to raid Ricardo Martinelli's party for members, signing up some 500 Cambio Democratico defectors in La Chorrera. The logic of small party politics in Panama is to play balance of power games in exchange for a share of governement jobs and other political patronage plums. However, there are never enough jobs public jobs to go around, the owners of little parties are loathe to take political hacks into their private businesses and those who have been conned into supporting a minor caudillo and ended up uncompensated are notoriously prone to switching allegiances.

The Catholic bishop of Cocle, Uriah Ashley, has denounced his province's governor, Irving González, for issuing construction permits for a pushbutton in Penonome. The contemplated pushbutton is in a residential area of the corregimiento of Llanos Marin, near a school and two churches. Penonome Mayor Manuel Cárdenas had denied the permits but was overruled by González, and Ashley says it's a matter of political and commercial interests taking precedence over what's best for the community.

Partido Popular legislator Teresita de Arias and renegade PRD deputy Carlos Afú had an argument in an elevator at the Palacio Justo Arosemena on October 17, and it has been the occasion for charges, counter-charges and crude insults all around. Arias, a nationalized Panamanian of Cuban origin and the wife of former Vice-President Ricardo Arias Calderón, says that Afú cornered her and pushed her. He's fat and would really hurt her if he had struck a blow as threatened, Arias claimed. Afú denied touching or threatening Arias and said that Cubans don't belong in the Panamanian legislature and that Arias is too old and should spend her time caring for her ailing husband. There were several other people in the elevator at the time, but none of them have come forward to back either legislator's version of events. Assembly president Carlos Alvarado, like Afú a PRD renegade, called on the deputies to exercise more decorum.

The PRD's attempt to expel renegade deputy Carlos Afú and strip him of his seat in the Legislative Assembly was put on hold when one of his lawyers called in sick for an October 17 hearing before the Electoral Tribunal. Legal maneuvers to delay Afú's expulsion are one of the tactics that have given President Moscoso effective control of the legislature. However, as the PRD doesn't appear to be in a hurry to purge other wayward deputies, Afú's ouster probably won't mean a power shift in the legislative branch. However, it is likely that most of the renegade PRD legislators will not be nominated to run for re-election in 2004, despite Carlos Alvarado's warning that a split would result in the party's defeat in the next elections.

Two youths, one 11 years old and a 16-year-old, have been hospitalized for severe dengue fever cases that have caused them to hemorrhage. Hemorrhagic dengue is not a specific strain of the disease, but rather a condition that usually develops when a person has suffered from dengue before. It can be fatal, though it usually isn't. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that usually entails a week of flu-like misery. Its vector is the Aedes egypti mosquito, which breeds in small pools of water like that which accumulates in bottles and cans thrown by the side of the road or in trays beneath balcony plants. Health authorities are spraying insecticide on some of the urban neighborhoods with the worst mosquito infestations, and inspectors are ticketing people for maintaining mosquito breeding sources on their property. The most basic preventive measures that must be taken are that litter should be cleaned up and not thrown around in the first place, and containers that collect the seasonal rains should be covered or removed.

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