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Although it's not an issue that's bringing enraged mobs onto the streets --- a leftist march to the US Embassy drew all of 30 participants --- it appears that the US-British war against Iraq is unpopular with Panamanians. When President Moscoso, along with her counterparts in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua issued a March 17 declaration demanding that Iraq comply with UN-imposed disarmament requirements, it was taken by some US State Department spokespeople and many Panamanian observers as this country's adhesion to the pro-war coalition assembled by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. However, a March 20 list of coalition members issued by the White House did not include Panama. In the face of complaints by former presidents, diplomats, academics, clergy, newspaper editors and activists that the declaration compromised Panama's neutrality, Mireya said that she mainly hopes that the war ends quickly with as little suffering as possible. Meanwhile Canal Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta said that regardless of how anyone wants to interpret the presidents' declaration, the canal remains neutral and open to Iraqi ships. Probably the most succinct statement of Panamanian anti-war sentiment came on the RPC-TV "Debate Abierto" show, where Latin American Journalism Center (CELAP) director Maribel Cuervo de Paredes found herself in a minority of one among a hawkish panel. "How can this country go to war," the journalist wondered, "when we can't even defend a museum?"

It took a couple of days for the media and public to realize what had happened, but it turns out that one of four American soldiers captured in an Iraqi ambush and then paraded before Iraqi and al-Jazeerah television cameras is Panamanian. Shashana Johnson was born and partly educated in Panama, and has relatives in Pedro Miguel. Since her televised appearance, which was repeated by TV networks around the world and in still photos taken from the Iraqi video in Panama's daily newspapers, Johnson's fate and whereabouts have been unknown other than to her captors. Her treatment by the Iraquis, a violation of the Geneva Convention prohibition against making prisoners of war the objects of public curiosity, has prompted protests by the US government and international human rights groups. The Moscoso administration, however, has not seen fit to comment.

The Solidaridad party, following the advice of founder Samuel Lewis Galindo and ignoring the warnings of its legislators, voted at its March 16 congress to nominate former President Guillermo Endara, a member of the Arnulfista Party, as its presidential candidate for 2004. It is likely that some or all of the Solidaridad legislators will seek re-election on other party tickets, some favoring the Arnulfista-MOLIRENA alliance and others the PRD-Partido Popular coalition.

Martín Torrijos became the second nominee on the 2004 presidential ballot on March 30, when according to preliminary reports based upon more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, he won more than 96 percent of the PRD primary vote. The smattering of dissent was scattered among three challengers and some blank ballots cast. The party chooses it candidates for all other elected posts in another primary at the end of June, in which some races are likely to be hotly contested. Given the legislature's unpopularity, it would probably help Torrijos if most of the incumbents were not on the ballot with him in the May 2004 general elections, and early indications are that party activists are turning their backs on most current PRD legislators. In Panama City both the mayoral and city council primaries are expected to be hard-fought confrontations between supporters and detractors of Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro.

The Arnulfista presidential candidate will be chosen at a convention yet to be scheduled, by delegates who will almost certainly ratify the candidate whom President Moscoso endorses. Still, with all three hopefuls running in single digits in public opinion polls, there are energetic campaigns underway. Former Foreign Minister José Miguel Alemán, whom a Dichter & Neira poll commissioned by La Prensa suggests leads the Arnulfista pack with the support of 7.2 percent of the voting public, is staging motorcades and running TV commercials with a "jump on the bandwagon" theme. Legislator Marco Ameglio, having failed to move up in the polls after a series of TV ads that misrepresented his years of service and accomplishments in the Legislative Assembly, now has a huge mural at his office on Via España, which declares that "Your hopes are my promises." Former Public Works Minister Víctor Juliao, for his part, is taking the Arnulfistas' main weak point, a reputation for corruption, head-on in his TV ads. Juliao, claiming that on his shift the public works minstry was run honestly and transparently, says that corruption must be punished but that the real solution to this problem will be a good example set by the nation's chief executive.

Israeli arms dealer Shimon Yelinek, who has been held without bail for several months for his alleged role in the transfer of a large cargo of AK-47 assault rifles from the Nicaraguan Police to the Colombian AUC paramilitary, has been granted bail in the amount of $750,000. As this issue was uploaded he had not posted that bail. The Nicaraguan government, which has not pressed criminal charges against anyone in connection with the incident, still maintains that the arms shipment was to the Panamanian Police and diverted to the right-wing Colombian group by officials here. The Nicaraguans further assert that the transaction was approved by the US ambassador in that country, Oliver Garza. Garza has admitted this, but says that he thought the arms were going to Panama rather than Colombia. The Colombian government, whose Customs officials disappeared from the port of Turbo to allow the AUC to unload the weapons, has also not charged anyone with a crime in the case.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa has switched prosecutors in the case of the theft of 292 pre-Columbian gold works from the Reina Torres de Arauz Anthropology Museum. Taking over for the regular prosecutor for the beat in which the museum is located is Arquímedes Sáez. The switch was made, it seems, because on Saéz's staff there are people who specialize in the theft of public property by public officials. So far none of the stolen artifacts have been located and nine people, including six employees of the National Institute of Culture (INAC), have been jailed. The INAC functionaries were said to include everyone who had access to the keys to the display cases from which the huacas were removed and everyone who knew the combinations to unlock the doors to the Gold Room. Now it is claimed by defense attorneys, however, that several current or former INAC people, including former director Rafael Ruiloba, also had access to the combinations or keys.

DNA tests commissioned by the Truth Commission have shown that remains uncovered from an unmarked grave in Boquete's cemetery are those of Alfredo Serracín, the caretaker of a local physician's farm and a member of an underground resistance group who disappeared in 1976. It seems that Serracín was arrested by the Guardia Nacional, escaped but was shot and wounded while doing so, then died of his wounds and was secretly buried by neighbors. The commission has asked Attorney General Sossa to open a murder investigation, but if past practices are any indication this will not be done.

The Legislative Assembly has approved on first debate a plan to shift the Transito Police from the National Police, which is part of the Ministry of Government and Justice, to the Land Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT), a semi-autonomous political plum created at the end of the Pérez Balladares administration. The move would further fragment Panama's law enforcement forces, which are currently divided among the Ministry of Government and Justice (the National Police, which includes the National Maritime Service and National Air Service), the Public Ministry (the Judicial Technical Police, who are answerable to the Attorney General on a day-to-day basis but whose director and sub-director are appointed by the Supreme Court), the Ministry of the Presidency (Institutional Protection Service), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Anti-Corruption Directorate, Customs, etc.) and other government departments. In the Moscoso administration's scheme of things, government bailiwicks are doled out among political factions in her coalition and when control of one of these changes from one individual to another there are mass firings, followed by hiring of the new boss's friends and relatives. However, the legislation before the assembly on its face would protect the transferred cops' seniority, pension benefits and civil service protections.

A belated recusal probably means more delays in the construction of the CEMIS multi-modal cargo container system and delays in legislative corruption investigations that will last through the end of the Moscoso administration. Magistrates Winston Spadafora and Alberto Cigarruista were approved for their posts on the high court when PRD deputies Carlos Afú and Carlos Alvarado, and PRD suplente Tomás Gabriel Altamirano Duque, broke ranks with their party caucus and voted to ratify their nominations. Legislator Balbina Herrera and others alleged bribery and other undue influences were used to secure these defections, whereupon Afú claimed that bribes were passed out in the legislature to secure approval of the CEMIS contract. An "investigation" ensued, with Attorney General José Antonio Sossa maintaining that no progress could be made when the assembly is in session and legislators enjoy legal immunity. Whereupon President Moscoso has called a series of special legislative sessions whose only significant accomplishment has been the extension of the deputies' immunity between regular assembly sessions. Early this year Attorney General José Antonio Sossa proposed to cut short his "investigation" and only charge Afú, CEMIS promoter Martin Rodin and former CEMIS exec Stephen Jones with bribery. He passed that decision on to the Supreme Court to ponder, which assigned the matter to Spadafora, who owes his position on the court to Afú. Now, after months of delay, Spadafora has decided to step down because of the apparent conflict of interest. He is to be replaced by his suplente, Jacinto Cárdenas, who was approved in the same vote with Spadafora and also owes his position to Afú's break with PRD party discipline.

The Ministry of Health has begun a campaign to vaccinate every child under the age of six in Panama against measles. The greatest challenge, as in previous vaccination drives, will be in remote indigenous communities where the national government has little or no presence. This year's effort, which comes at the usual time right after the start of the public school year, is a bit more urgent because of measles outbreaks in several South American countries. Due to genetic differences, different people can be more or less vulnerable to measles. To those of European heritage, it is only rarely fatal, but whole indigenous societies of people without natural resistance to the disease have been killed off in the five centuries since the conquest of the Americas. The problem with a lax attitude toward the childhood ailment is that when it is allowed to exist among those who do not tend to be seriously affected, it spreads to more vulnerable children.

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