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Canal breaks tonnage record
The Panama Canal Authority reports that on March 16 1,005,551 Panama Canal/Universal Admeasurement System (PC/UMS) tons of cargo passed through the canal. This was a new record, topping the previous high of 934,488 PC/UMS set on July 3 of last year. The widening of Culebra Cut and other improvements have cut the time it takes for ships to get through the canal, which means that more tonnage can be handled per day.
Seguro’s medical director fired over CAT scanner flap
Dr. Mauro Zúñiga has been fired as the Social Security Fund’s (CSS’s) director of medical services for going public with complaints about the socialized health care system’s plans to purchase computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanners. Zúñiga, who served as the leader of the AMOACSS doctors’ union and was a major figure in the civilista movement against the dictatorship, denounced what he said were a series of irregularities in CSS contracting, and pointed out that the fund intends to pay $1.5 million per machine when the going price is $1 million. It appears that the Ministry of Economy and Finance has tried to rig the bid specifications to exclude all but one supplier, and while the Ministry and the CSS have been arguing about it the system has continued to pay high fees to private hospitals for the service. According to a report in El Panama America, over the past eight years the public health care system has paid some $28 million for CAT scanning services, enough to buy two or three scanners for each of Seguro’s hospitals. An earlier proposal to buy the equipment for in-house scanning was also one of the reasons cited by the Moscoso administration last year for the firing of Dr. Juan Jované as Seguro Social director, and in turn the outsourcing of CAT scanning to private hospitals is one of the examples that Jované has cited to make his argument that there has already been partial privatization of the public health care system.
Work permits for foreigners down a bit
La Prensa reports that in 2003 the Panamanian government issued 3,177 work permits to foreigners, 140 fewer than in 2002. The beneficiaries came from 62 countries, with the biggest contingent, 28 percent, from Colombia and the second largest, 10 percent, from Taiwan. On the other hand, more than 1,500 foreigners, almost two-thirds of them Colombians, were deported last year for working in Panama illegally.
Pacora water plant inaugurated
Some 30 years after it was first planned, the northeastern Panama City corregimiento of Pacora finally got a water treatment plant. The new IDAAN water and sewer utility’s plant cost $10 million and will provide some 12 million gallons of water per day to Pacora, Tocumen and nearby areas. The facility went into service on March 16.
Labor strife likely in lame duck period
Minister of Economy and Finance Norberto Delgado says that the Social Security Fund’s financial situation is critical and that in the lame duck legislative session after the May 2 election a proposal to “save” the system will be presented to the assembly. The proposal will likely raise employee contributions to the fund, raise the retirement age, reduce benefits or some combination of these measures, in which case it should be expected that the labor movement will be back on the streets to do battle over social security again.
New banana union leader
An insurrection against former SITRACHILCO banana union boss José Morris has been ratified by the election of Cornelio Quintero to replace him. The Puerto Armuelles Fruit Company (PAFCO), a several times removed subsidiary of Chiquita Brands, transferred its plantations to a cooperative headed by Morris, who restricted membership to a few dozen friends and imposed severe pay and benefit cuts on the SITRACHILCO members who worked for the co-op but were not allowed to join it. On March 3 more than 2,000 union members called for Morris’s resignation from the union leadership, and subsequently went on strike and seized union offices to enforce their demand. The Ministry of Labor stepped in and an election was held on March 21, which Quintero won without opposition.
Another term for Genaro López
Genaro López, the militant labor activist who says that “I try to be a good communist,” has been re-elected to a seventh term as secretary general of the SUNTRACS construction workers’ union. He ran unopposed. The union’s number two leader, Saúl Méndez, was also re-elected.
ARI says Clayton shopping mall not in park, but ANAM wants project suspended
The Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) is denying local resident’s charge that its sale of 15 hectares of woodland that are part of the former Clayton illegally infringes upon Camino Las Cruces National Park, but the National Environmental Authority (ANAM), by way of a letter from its director Gonzalo Menéndez, is asking ARI to suspend the project. The law creating the park rather clearly indicates that the woods are encompassed in the protected area, but ARI director Alfredo Arias, the nephew of Mireya Moscoso’s late husband Arnulfo Arias, only has a few months to cash in before he will probably be thrown out of public life for a very long time along with the rest of the Mireyista crowd. Arias is also involved in another park controversy, as he is one of the few landowners whose property would be served by the controversial Boquete - Cerro Punta road, which would cut through the Volcan Baru National Park.
C&W fined for monopolistic practice --- again
Cable & Wireless has been fined $200,000 by the Public Services Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) for refusing to allow the Telecarrier long distance phone company to connect with phones in many parts of the Interior. However, it seems that the UK-based phone company has more than paid off the fine in profits generated by the illegal extension of its old monopoly. Cable & Wireless Panama, 49 percent of which is owned by the Panamanian government, seems to come up with a new scam every month or two and has been repeatedly fined for monopolistic or otherwise anti-consumer practices. The fines rarely equal or exceed the proceeds of the illegal practices.
US consulate completes move
On March 12 the American consulate completed its move from its old premises near the US Embassy on Avenida Balboa to Building 520 at Clayton. The new locale is roomier and more easily defended from car bombs. Eventually the US Embassy will also move to Clayton, for the same reason.
Part of Corredor Sur sinks
On the morning of March 9 there was a monumental traffic jam on the Corredor Sur, after a bridge near Costa del Este suddenly sank 6 inches, making the road impassable. That section of the road was built on a landfill over what was a wetland. It seems from this and other incidents that work on the Corredor Sur, which was done by the Mexican-based ICA construction consortium, was substandard. ICA is an old company with a solid reputation, but at the time that the Corredor Sur was being built it was undergoing a generational transition and had problems not only with the toll road here, but with a high-profile freeway in Bogota.
Taboga dock sinks
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