PARLACEN immunity on its way out

In some of the Panamanian media, it has been reported as Mireya Moscoso’s idea. The president of Panama, who had earlier said that she intended to take advantage of the privileges and immunities of membership in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), announced at a summit of Central American leaders that she wouldn’t accept the immunity from prosecution that ex-presidents are supposed to get when they automatically become deputies to that regional body after their terms in office expire.

But of course, Panama has interpreted the PARLACEN treaty differently than the Central American republics. Despite their theoretical PARLACEN immunity from arrest and prosecution, former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán is in jail for his massive peculations, and Guatemala’s ex-President Portillo is in hiding because of similar allegations. In Panama, however, the legal precedent was set when the Martinelli family imposed an illegal Cambio Democratico party dues payroll deduction system on workers at the IDAAN water and sewer utility and Mireya stopped all legal inquiries into the matter by appointing the Martinelli responsible to PARLACEN, whereupon the courts ruled that deputies to that regional body could not be prosecuted or even investigated for crimes that they may have committed. Former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares has also used his membership in PARLACEN as a second line of defense --- behind the support of the pro-corruption attorney general he appointed --- to avoid investigation or prosecution for the cut of the action he apparently received in the PECC lighthouse and buoy maintenance contract kickback scandal.

PARLACEN immunity looks all the uglier because the so-called parliament actually has hardly any legislative power and doesn’t really do very much. Add repeated scandals in which PARLACEN deputies have tried to interpose their immunity when caught in drug courier activities, and even the discovery of a drug smuggling ring operating out of PARLACEN headquarters itself, and the sum is a region-wide public clamor to abolish the institution. The movement gained momentum when Costa Rica withdrew from the body.

But Mireya was all set to succeed to Toro’s immunity, as the one sure “winner” on an Arnulfista ticket that includes her sister-in-law and former Minister of the Presidency Ivonne Young, Government and Justice Minister Arnulfo Escalona and many of the other usual suspects.

However, when she got to the February 26 Central American summit in Guatemala City, she found her counterparts in the other PARLACEN countries calling for the end of automatic memberships in the regional “legislature” for former presidents and vice-presidents. Not only no immunity, but no paychecks, no expense accounts and no tax breaks. A special commission to draft proposed treaty amendments on this and other points was created.

So Mireya announced that she had decided that she wouldn’t accept immunity upon becoming a PARLACEN deputy. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, for his part, announced that all of the current presidents of PARLACEN countries had agreed to forego such legal immunity.

Since PARLACEN’s creation ex-President Pérez Balladares has been the only former Panamanian chief executive to accept immunity by way of his membership in that body. When former President Guillermo Endara and former Vice-President Guillermo Ford left office in 1994, they declined to accept seats in PARLACEN and the immunity that went with it. On this year’s campaign trail, Endara’s supporters have frequently made the argument that he didn’t need immunity then and won’t in the future.

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Mireya probably won’t get
PARLACEN immunity

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Mireya probably won’t get PARLACEN immunity

Mireya probably won’t get
PARLACEN immunity