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Attorney General José Antonio Sossa is treating his critics as criminals again. This time he has charged former La Prensa publisher and president of the Foundation for the Development of Citizens’ Liberties I. Roberto Eisenmann with calumnia e injuria (criminal defamation). Eisenmann wrote a column in La Prensa in which he accused Sossa of “dedicating himself to protecting delinquents” and harassing journalists and people who complain. He may not get a court that will listen, but Eisenmann shouldn't have much trouble proving all that.

The Public Services Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) is sticking by its insistence that award-winning journalist, legal scholar and political activist Miguel Antonio Bernal can’t continue his radio show because only those with degrees in journalism can be licensed to work on the radio. Bernal says that's a flagrant violation of a number of treaties to which Panama is a party and has lodged a complaint with Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression for the Organization of American States.

The Ministry of Health and Kuna authorities in the Madugandi Comarca are at odds over the ministry's anti-malaria program. The local sahilas have prohibited the ministry's activities in the comarca, and there is an argument raging about whether the people in the area are being denied health care --- which the ministry claims --- or are being treated with traditional Kuna medicine instead. As we uploaded these briefs Health Minister Fernando Gracia had called for a national summit with the ministry and indigenous leaders to discuss coordinated actions against malaria. The mosquito-borne disease mostly affects remote rural areas, mostly in the indigenous comarcas. Panama has several different traditions of herbal medicine, including that practiced by the Kuna inatuledes. Many indigenous people treat certain ailments with traditional methods and seek standard western-style medical help for other maladies. The usual Panamanian government policy has been to work with traditional healers in the indigenous areas, as Seguro Social and the Health Ministry often have little presence in these parts of Panama.

On February 2 Ngobe protesters lined the road between Chiriqui Grande and Almirante to protest Electoral Prosecutor Gerardo Solís’s declaration that he won’t recognize the people who won recent elections for caciques in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca. It’s an argument among Ngobe leaders, with one faction claiming that comarca authorities can call and run their own elections, and another saying that the Electoral Tribunal must oversee comarca elections. The main antagonists are comarca governor José Ellington, who supports the tribunal’s involvement, and regional cacique-elect Yoni Bonilla.

Panama has traditionally downplayed its status as a Caribbean country. However, we do have a long coastline on the Caribbean Sea and West Indian elements in our culture, and the Panamanian government had intended to host the Association of Caribbean States summit here on February 13 and 14. (Why the sudden interest in the Caribbean? Maybe Panama wanting to be the headquarters of a Free Trade Area of the Americas has something to do with it.) However, after the leaders of Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico failed to send in their RSVPs, the Moscoso administration decided to postpone the gathering.

At a January 30 meeting of the binational Panamanian-Colombian Border Commission the Colombian Army announced that it has put about 2000 troops into reinforcing eight outposts along the Darien and Kuna Yala borders. The stated purpose is to prevent “irregular forces” from crossing into Panama from Colombia.

Immigration director Ilka de Barés says that the government will be submitting a proposal to reduce tourist visas from 90 days to 30 days. The National Police chief’s wife says it’s because her office is too busy dealing with tourists. Her office would get more work from the change, unless the new regulations prompt significant numbers of foreign tourists to stay for shorter vacations or to avoid Panama altogether.

You could get more cars more quickly into the government offices and old commercial district in the morning, and out with the same efficiency at night, but turning Avenida Balboa one-way in opposite directions during rush hours played havoc with people trying to go the other way, for example from the Casco Viejo to Tocumen in the morning. So after a few weeks of trying the six lanes inbound by morning and six outbound at the end of the workday, Transito has heard all the complaints and changed Avenida Balboa back to the way it was, three lanes each way.

The Catholic Church is facing questions and Roberto González, a priest who teaches at the Instituto Agropecuario Jesús Nazareno in Atalaya is facing a charge of sexual harassment against several students at the school. More serious charges of having sexual relations with students were thrown out, and González maintains his innocence. His superiors in diocese of Veraguas say that they have cooperated with authorities in the investigation and will continue to do so.

Panamanian artist Pacífico Castrellón, jailed since 1995 in Peru for plotting an MRTA guerrilla attack on the Peruvian congress in Lima, has be retried and reconvicted by a civilian court and given a 15-year term with credit for the time he has already served. Previously, a military court had given Castrellón a 30-year sentence. Although he is appealing the new sentence, if nothing comes of that and he must serve his time, Castrellón would ordinarily be released in 2006 after having served three-quarters of his sentence.




Also in this section:
Panama news briefs
ANAM director rejects environmental study for Mireya's road, steps down
Huge crowd for Alemán rally
Torrijos fires up the campaign workers
Otto Reich warns of corruption's consequences
On the campaign trail
All of the candidates have been nominated

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