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Panama News Briefs
Walk for Life against AIDS
Sossa enters Toro-Weeden brawl on Pérez Balladares's side
On the campaign trail
   
   
Panama News Briefs
Government expels Spanish missionary
The Moscoso administration’s general attack on non-governmental organizations isn’t making exceptions for Catholic groups in this overwhelmingly Catholic country. We got a hint of that with the spat between the government and the Catholic Vicarate of the Darien over refugee policies and Mireyista legislator Haydée Milanés de Lay’s call for the ethnic cleansing of indigenous communities outside of the comarcas. Now the National Police Chief’s wife, Immigration Director Ilka de Barés, has ordered the expulsion from Panama of Spanish Catholic missionary Francisco Aperedor, who works with the Caritas social ministry. Caritas is part of the coalition protesting Mireya’s Social Security Fund policies and also opposes the creation of a new lake in the canal’s Western Watershed, and the government has decided that this is ”not related to or compatible with the work of a missionary of the Catholic faith.” This is apparently the first time that the Mireyistas have claimed competence to decide what’s proper in the Catholic faith.
Vicarate sues over refugee repatriation plan
The Catholic Vicarate of the Darien has sued the government to stop the planned repatriation of some 300 Colombians who have been displaced by warfare around their homes and are now living in and around Jaque. The suit seeks to overturn a 1988 decree that allows the government to summarily repatriate those who come here seeking refugee status.
Charges dismissed against man who warned of death squad attack
Criminal charges against Víctor Alcázar have been dismissed. The Darien tour guide was taken captive by invaders from the AUC paramilitary who assassinated four people, including three local Kuna officials. The attack began in Paya, but Alcázar escaped and ran ahead to warn people in Pucuro that they were to be attacked next, saving several people who were on the AUC hit list. Charges of complicity in the Paya murders were filed against Alcázar at the insistence of Mireya Moscoso, whose administration paid no official respects to the slain Kuna leaders. Meanwhile, the Moscoso administration has not bothered to bring charges against the AUC assassins.
Road construction begins, but only outside the park
Constructora Urbana, SA (CUSA), the contractor for the controversial Boquete - Cerro Punta road project, has begun construction work. However, the company says that it’s only working on the part outside of the park, between the Sendero Los Quetzales and Boquete. The part of the road projected to go through the park has not been issued the proper environmental permits. Conveniently, the part that CUSA is not working on is that part of the road that goes by property owned by Mireya Moscoso and her relatives.
Mireya issues decree for road through park
There once was a law saying that it’s illegal to log, hunt or otherwise destroy wildlife in the Volcan Baru National Park. Never mind, says the president. She has issued a decree excepting any such activities from the ban to the extent that they are for the road she wants to build through the park. A challenge to the road is pending before the Supreme Court and it’s not clear whether the president has the power to revoke the park protection by executive decree.
Road opponents defy ban, march in Boquete
Despite police warnings that opponents of the Boquete - Cerro Punta road project would not be allowed to march in Boquete’s November 29 patriotic parade, about 500 of them did just that. Unlike the last time that they tried to march, this time they were not blocked by police and vigilantes. The protest was entirely peaceful.
Lawsuits filed, fireworks operator denies liability
The family of slain baseball fan Ricardo Vega, along with Carlos Julio, who with his son was seriously burned when a stray firework slammed into the stands at a November 15 baseball game, have signed up the law firm of Reyna, Pitti & Gordillo, who has filed a $7.7 million lawsuit on their behalf against the fireworks operator (Pirotecnica Guarare, SA), the baseball tournament organizing committee headed by Second Vice-President Dominador Kaiser Bazán, the National Stadium management and event co-sponsor Cerveceria Baru. Pirotecnica Guarare is claiming that it shouldn’t have to pay because the accident was caused by a defective firework. The company didn’t follow normal precautions like burying the launching tubes in the ground several feet apart, which would have prevented the accident.
Election counters appointed
After Arnulfista objections kept several nominees off of the board, the Electoral Tribunal has installed a nine-member Junta Nacional de Escrutinio to oversee the vote counting in next year’s elections. The board includes Barbara Bloise, Fausto Fernández, Víctor Cucalón, Olegario Barrelier, Ezra Silva Azrak, Francisco Fong Ferré, Alejandro Román, Enrique Sánchez Salmon and Arrigo Guardia Grimaldo. They will use the ATLAPA convention center as vote counting headquarters next May.
Electoral Tribunal orders campaign finance audits
The Electoral Tribunal has ordered audits of the fundraising activities of the political parties. The tribunal’s presiding magistrate, Eduardo Valdés Escoffery, told El Panama America that they’re looking for the forbidden practice of party fundraisers collecting money from various sources, shady or not, and then reporting it to the tribunal as if it were a contribution by the fundraiser and thus concealing the provenance of the money. If any party gets caught engaging in the practice, it can be fined up to $100,000 and have its government subsidies withheld.
Toxic streams in Chame and San Carlos
Researchers at the University of Panama have detected the presence of toxic pesticides, many of them having been banned for decades, in the Corona, Calabazo, Mata Ahogada and Lajas rivers, and two branches of the Rio Chame. The levels of the poisons are apparently not a cause for alarm, but the persistence of DDT, Heptachlor, B-BHC, Aldrin, DDE and other toxins in runoff from farms that may not have used them for a long time is a concern.
Prosecutor suggests that Marc Harris became RP citizen by fraud
For the time being it means little, because Attorney General José Antonio Sossa has shown no inclination to prosecute for the most flagrant corruption related to immigration and naturalization cases. However, in remarks before a Miami court, a US federal prosecutor has disputed Marc Harris’s claim that he is a Panamanian citizen, noting that there is no record of his ever having renounced his American citizenship. But to become a naturalized Panamanian, as Harris purportedly was, one must renounce his or her other citizenship. These circumstances, then, suggest fraud in Harris’s naturalization, and may pose an impediment to his return to Panama if an when he gets out of prison. If the usual federal sentencing guidelines are applied, Harris will likely spend seven to 10 years in prison. However, if the judge believes that he has a fortune hidden away of finds other aggravating factors the sentence could be much longer.
Investigation of alleged $13.3 million scam --- from 13 years ago
The Direccion de Responsabilidad Patrimonial (DRP), a part of the Comptroller General’s office, says that it is investigating two car dealerships and 33 member of the PRD for alleged misappropriations during the last days of the Noriega dictatorship. PRD leaders point to the raising of such allegations at this time as clear proof that Comptroller General Alvin Weeden is on an election time vendetta.
Drug ring operated out of PARLACEN
The Central American Parliament has been immersed in a drug trafficking scandal again. On December 4 Honduran police raided the international organization’s Tegucigalpa offices and arrested PARLACEN aide Mario Facussé for cocaine trafficking. Also detained in the case were four other individuals, including an aide to the Honduran agriculture minister. Last June, a Honduran PARLACEN deputy was busted in Nicaragua holding 7.2 kilos of heroin. So now there are calls within Honduras to follow the lead of Costa Rica and pull out of the Central American Parliament. Why is this in the Panama News Briefs? Because there are also calls in this country, in the press and from certain politicians. for Panama to get out of PARLACEN. Were such a thing to happen tomorrow (it won’t), former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares would lose his PARLACEN immunity from possible criminal prosecution for alleged kickbacks during his administration.
Nicaragua’s Alemán gets 20 years
So what’s this doing in the Panama News Briefs? First, the 20-year prison sentence handed out on December 7 by a Managua judge to former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán is sending a message that’s being heard well beyond Nicaragua. Alemán, who came to power with US backing as the anti-Sandinista alternative, went on a major looting spree while in office and the Bush administration had been pressuring the Nicaraguans to make an example of him. The new US “good government” policy has a regional focus, to the extent that Secretary of State Colin Powell was recently in Panama warning the government here about corruption and American ambassador Linda E. Watt has repeatedly raised the issue in speeches made for Panamanian public consumption. Moreover, it is alleged that some the millions in bribes, misappropriations and kickbacks for which Alemán is being sent to prison were parked in Panama. Some accounts, mostly in the name of a top aide of Alemán’s, have been frozen here and there may be more developments on this front, as a Nicaraguan request to look for funds in the names of Alemán’s relatives is expected to be forthcoming.
Teacher gunned down in classroom
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