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Onion farmers in Nata chose the afternoon of Easter Sunday, when many Panamanians were headed back to the capital after a long holiday weekend, to block the Pan-American Highway to protest low prices. The blockage hadn't lasted half an hour before President Moscoso contacted the farmers by cell phone and set up a meeting for the following day. The holiday traffic jam was lifted, the meeting took place, and the government agreed to a $12 per quintal minimum price for producers. The concession then drew criticism from business groups, which specifically claim that it violates Panama's commitments to the World Trade Organization and national anti-trust laws, and generally don't like the idea of economic concessions to end road blockades.

In the wake of a story published in the Washington Post, the search is on for funds belonging to Saddam Hussein and members of his family in Panama. The Post identified Montana Management Inc., a company that was set up in 1984, as one of a chain of Panamanian, Swiss and Jordanian companies through which Saddam moved more than one billion dollars over the years. Although there is no internationally recognized government of Iraq to request assistance and the US government has no legal standing to assert claims to Saddam's ill-gotten fortune, Panamanian authorities have joined in the hunt for the money.

On April 21, as previously announced, the IDAAN public water and sewer utility began a series of rotating water valve closures in the Panama City metro area to save water. Large rainstorms on April 26 and 27 may have signaled the beginning of rainy season, but the metro area's fresh water reserves are still very low after one of the more severe dry seasons that Panama has seen.

Not only did President Moscoso sign a law promising government transparency, but the organic law governing the Panama Canal mandates a "freedom of information policy." However, by a 5-4 vote the Supreme Court has ruled that the public and press have no right to know the compensation paid at the Ministry of Canal Affairs, because only those who are receiving those benefits have a legitimate interest in knowing this information. Rulings like these are shaping up to be central theme in the PRD's 2004 election campaign attack on the Arnulfistas. However, the second-place candidate in the polls, Guillermo Endara, is also highly critical of this sort of government secrecy.

The Supreme Court says it will decide sometime in September whether the CEMIS bribery investigation and a few possible prosecutions pursuant to it may continue, but Second Vice-President Dominador Kaiser Bazán is unhappy with that schedule. Basically the Arnulfista-dominated Supreme Court has set its schedule so that no changes in the Legislative Assembly membership might take control of that body away from President Moscoso before she leaves office next year. However, the CEMIS project is a key link in a planned multi-modal sea, rail and air freight system, without which the Panama Canal Railway can't make money and the transfer of containers among the nation's seaports is severely restricted. Kaiser Bazán, a Colon resident whose opinions on the matter reflect those of most Atlantic siders, is not against the investigation and punishment of public corruption where it exists but notes that Inter-American Development Bank funding for the project and thus the province's economic development is on hold while the case is pending. Because of the legal system's delays, he told El Panama America, "the project is paralyzed, affecting hundreds of workers and business owners."

US-based BellSouth has convinced Panama's high court that the wireless trunk telephone service that Dominican-based Tricom wanted to offer customers here is essentially the same thing as cell phone service. Thus the court upheld a lower tribunal's order prohibiting Tricom from installing its system, as BellSouth and Cable & Wireless have contracts that give them exclusive dibs on cell phone services through the year 2007. BellSouth and C&W generally don't compete on the basis of price, and as a result Panama has some of the highest cell phone rates in the region.

Alleging a technical violation by which international calls might be mistaken for local calls, UK-based Cable & Wireless has cut off Dominican-based Tricom from offering international long distance services from phones that get their local service from C&W. The disconnection was done on C&W's part without any ruling by the government's Public Services Regulating Board or any court, and may be struck down after the legal battle that is sure to ensue. However C&W, whose parent company is mired in a stock fraud scandal and whose Panamanian subsidiary includes several Moscoso administration ministers on its board of directors, is defying the law that took away its local calling monopoly at the end of last year and has a long history of monopolistic practices for which it has sometimes been fined. One such monopolistic practice was C&W's cutoff of its cable subscribers' access to Panamanian websites that did not use C&W as their web server, including The Panama News. In response to customer complaints, Cable & Wireless told people that The Panama News had gone out of business, which was not true. Essentially C&W can pay the fines when it does get fined for its abuses, use its political ties to avoid penalties commensurate with its abuses, and thus hopes to drive competitors out of business.

One of Panama's major auto dealerships, Motores De la Guardia, has fallen victim to the nation's prolonged economic crisis and will close its doors shortly. The company, which sold Mazda and Daewoo products, found itself some $15 million in the hole while its owner, Jorge De la Guardia, didn't have the personal funds to both cover the debt and keep the business running. The closure was negotiated with creditors in lieu of a forced bankruptcy, with De la Guardia covering the business's unsecured debts.

Also in this section:
Business & Economy Briefs
Panama's development, district by district
American fugitive runs Bocas scam

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