President Moscoso has vetoed legislation to stiffen penalties for embezzlement, bankruptcy fraud, the destruction of certain business records and a host of other financial crimes, calling the proposal "inconvenient" and "discriminatory." The discrimination of which the president complained was a section that provided that there would be no statute of limitations to protect public officials from financial crimes they commit against the government.

Legislative Assembly president Carlos Alvarado, a PRD member who votes with President Moscoso's faction and obtained his position with Arnulfista votes, has proposed a package of constitutional changes that would give former presidents five years of immunity after leaving office, eliminate the positions of second vice-president and second legislative suplente and remove the Comptroller General's powers to void contracts and block public expenditures. The proposals would either have to be passed by the legislature and president and then approved by the voters in a referendum, or passed by this legislature and then the one that takes office after the 2004 elections to be ratified. Any referendum would become a focal point for public revulsion over the Moscoso administration's corruption and would almost surely result in the proposals' defeat, but there is a chance that the proposals could be passed by two consecutive legislatures.

A Supreme Court panel has overturned two lower court decisions awarding damages to La Prensa staff members who were thrown out of work when former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega closed the daily in 1988. The panel that issued the decision was headed by Magistrate Alberto Cigarruista, who called the judges that issued the rulings he overturned "negligent." In ruling against the newspaper workers, Cigarruista sided with arguments made on behalf of Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, who is currently trying to have La Prensa editor Winston Robles jailed for reporting court testimony that was unflattering of Sossa. Cigarruista, who despite his position on the court has attended political events and taken junkets abroad with President Moscoso, has a partisan animosity to the anti-Arnulfista La Prensa and to the lawyer for the workers, Miguel Antonio Bernal. On KW Continente radio Cigarruista challenged Bernal to a debate about the ruling in front of the Colegio de Abogados (Panama's bar association), but then said he would not debate Bernal.

The Third Tribunal of Administrative Disputes has ordered the government to pay more than $3 million to El Siglo and its former owner Jaime Padilla Beliz for the sensationalist tabloid's 1987 closure by former strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega. The dictatorship closed all media that reported on the civilista demonstrations of that time.

Supreme Court Magistrate Alberto Cigarruista has admitted on a KW Continente radio talk show that "There were a series of commitments between legislators and the president of the republic for me to get to the Supreme Court, something about which I wouldn't want to say anything to the country." Legislator Balbina Herrera has alleged that the commitments included a large cash bribe to renegade PRD legislator Carlos Afú, money for renegade PRD legislator Carlos Alvarado's Chiriqui highlands district and a promise to maintain the lucrative lottery ticket printing contract between the government and renegade PRD alternate legislator Tomás Gabriel Altamirano Duque's family business. President Moscoso and Attorney General Sossa have teamed up to stall any investigation of bribery in the approval of the president's high court nominees.

The Supreme Court has decided that its decision on what to do about the legislative bribery case that was referred to it by Attorney General José Antonio Sossa after a partial "investigation" won't be issued until next September. Very conveniently for President Moscoso, the Arnulfista-dominated high court has put off any action until after the start of the next legislative year, which probably means that the pro-administration coalition will retain control of the Legislative Assembly through the end of Moscoso's term. Sossa's decision to refer the case to the court, as well as his decision to charge only Carlos Afú, Stephen Jones and Martin Rodin for alleged bribery in the CEMIS contract and to entirely ignore allegations that bribes were paid to obtain the ratification of Supreme Court magistrates Alberto Cigarruista and Winston Spadafora, have been sternly criticized by Sossa's deputy, Mercedes Araúz de Grimaldo.

Former Foreign Minister José Miguel Alemán, now on the campaign trail in search of the Arnulfista presidential nomination, says that President Moscoso "erred" by nominating political cronies to the Supreme Court. As a member of the Cabinet Council, Alemán voted for every one of Mireya's high court appointments.

A CID/Gallup poll commissioned by El Panama America shows both incumbent Juan Carlos Navarro and legislator Sergio Gálvez tied as the mayoral choice of 33 percent of Panama City residents, with the former mayor, Mayín Correa, trailing with 21 percent. Navarro and Gálvez have formally announced their candidacies, while Correa has been acting like a candidate but has made no announcement. There is a possibility that none of them will be on ballot for the May 2004 elections: Navarro may face a PRD primary challenge, whether Gálvez gets the Arnulfista nomination he wants is up to Mireya Moscoso and Correa may be banned from running for public office if she is convicted of pending criminal defamation charges brought against her by former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares.

The man with the worst attendance record in the Legislative Assembly is running for mayor of Panama City and according to polls doing well, but political adversaries and the nation's rice farmers and wholesalers are questioning his campaign tactics. Sergio Gálvez is holding a series of campaign fairs in which bags of rice are sold at low prices to potential voters. The rice farmers and wholesalers believe that the rice was illegally imported and that the politician's fairs amounts to unfair competition. Gálvez denies any wrongdoing, claiming that he bought the rice from Ricamar, a wholesaling company owned by supermarket baron, current presidential candidate and former Canal Affairs Minister Ricardo Martinelli. Gálvez was elected on the ticket of Martinelli's Cambio Democratic party, but has switched to the Arnulfistas, whose mayoral nomination he seeks. Cambio Democratic secretary general and former Vice-Minister of Canal Affairs Leo González told La Prensa that Gálvez never bought any large quantity of rice from Martinelli's business. (Anything that González ever says should be taken with a large grain of salt --- in 1994, he produced documents that he said proved that the Cuban government supported the campaigns of Rubén Blades and the PRD, but those documents turned out to be forgeries.) Gálvez is alleging a smear campaign by Martinelli and Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro. The mayor has not made any allegations about the rice, but after Gálvez accused him of a smear campaign a mayoral spokesman called upon the legislator to reveal the source of his rice. The Navarro administration and some of the daily newspapers have criticized Gálvez's fairs because they generate a lot of litter that is left for municipal street sweepers to remove.

Former Health Minister José Terán, who at the beginning of the Moscoso administration was often the president's date for social events but has recently been scorned by the chief executive, has abandoned his bid for the Arnulfista presidential nomination. Dr. Terán has not quit the party, but has had good things to say about the probable third party candidacy of another dissident Arnulfista, former President Guillermo Endara.

With the pointed exception of Darien legislator Haydee Milanés de Lay, the membership of the Solidaridad party appears to be rallying behind a third party presidential bid by former President Guillermo Endara. The ex-president's initial backing to get his old office back came from the Liberal Party, which lost its official status due to a poor showing in 1999 and is petitioning to get back on the ballot. Endara's exploratory presidential bid is also attracting the interest of such prominent independents as law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal and disaffected MOLIRENA members like former Comptroller General Rubén Carles.

The February 7 seizure of some 2,400 kilos of cocaine from a store room in the Los Diamantes shopping center on Via Tocumen has led to more raids in the Colon Free Zone and at Tocumen Airport. Some of the drugs were concealed in crates marked as electronic appliances and others disguised as boxes of fruit preserves, and in either case packed for shipping from Panama to Mexico by way of Aero-Express Intercontinental, SA. The has offices at Tocumen, Colon and in Mexico and police believe that it is a front for the Sinaloa drug cartel. Three Panamanians and four Mexicans have been arrested in connection with the raids, and at least four other individuals are being sought by authorities.

The large Arnulfista flag at the site of the Arnulfo Arias Monument in Balboa has been replaced by the Panamanian flag. Attorney and former Christian Democratic legislator Guillermo Cochez had filed a lawsuit before the Electoral Tribunal, alleging that the appropriation of public property to display a partisan symbol was a violation of the country's election laws.

Santo Tomas Hospital, which already has a small police station due to the treatment of prison inmates there, has asked for 18 to 24 new police officers to protect hospital personnel. The most alarming of the problems leading to the request is the frequent invasion of the hospital's emergency rooms by youth gangs, sometimes with the intention of finishing off rival gang members who were wounded in confrontations, at other times to protect injured gangsters from such attempts. Hospital personnel are also frequently assaulted by relatives of people waiting to be seen who get irate when people with more serious conditions are moved to the head of the line for emergency care.

Anti-corruption activist Enrique Montenegro, whose fax and computer were seized by police after the government accused him of "ideological falsity" and attempting to destabilize the country, got his fax back on February 5. Police and prosecutors have been unable to make a case against Montenegro and after inspection determined that his was not the fax machine that sent an apparently false Ministry of the Presidency list of people whose phones were to be considered for wiretaps to various national news media.

A jury has acquitted Ismael Martínez Rengifo, who was charged with murdering former PRD legislator Rafael Clemente Abrego in 1994. Martínez Rengifo spent more than eight years in prison awaiting trial, and the jury took a little more than two hours to reach its decision. Abrego was gunned down by several hit men on July 13, 1994. Three other men and Abrego's widow were also accused of the crime but were also acquitted in an earlier proceeding.

More than 300 people were left homeless by a January 31 fire that swept through the El Aguila shantytown in Curundu. Nobody was killed or seriously injured in the blaze, but many people lost all of their material possessions. The fire apparently began as arson arising from a dispute among neighbors. The government had no emergency housing for those displaced, but is providing materials for them to rebuild their homes at the same location.