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As this issue of The Panama News was uploaded, there was one day left on the special legislative session Mireya Moscoso called for the purpose of passing anti-crime legislation, many of her proposals had been defeated and proposals to modify the immigration laws and toughen penalties for juvenile offenders were languishing for lack of a legislative quorum. The PRD has warned that it will repeal those “hard hand” measures it opposed but were passed, but more pointedly the Mireyistas in the lame duck legislature have been withholding their support for the president’s proposals, mainly by just boycotting the sessions.

Government and Justice Minister Arnulfo Escalona has been talking tough about it. Frustrated by the assembly’s de facto rejection for the second time of Mireya’s proposal to provide 20-year prison sentences for minors guilty of crimes ranging from marijuana possession to aggravated murder, Escalona said that legislators must “put on pants or put on skirts.” That brought on angry protests from the women in the legislature, but probably the most effective response came from a single man --- Archbishop José Dimas Cedeño, who reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the Moscoso crackdown.

(If the national debate is to get down to mach credentials, one might ask how much of a "tough guy" Arnulfo Escalona really is. He did assault Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro on the steps of city hall, but failed to land any convincing blows, let alone score a knockdown.)

Meanwhile on the streets, the police have arrested thousands of people, most of them in poor neighborhoods, most of them black, almost all of them for minor offenses. The result has been the filling of Panama’s jails and prisons to nearly double capacity, a misery that was compounded by the breakdown of the water system at La Joya, the country’s largest detention facility.

The 20-year maximum penalty for minors is still theoretically before the legislature, but even Mireyista loyalists admit that it has little chance of passage. The immigration law reforms have passed on first reading, but with only one day left in the special session they seem doomed as well. (Moreover, incoming IPAT director Rubén Blades has criticized the measure as harmful to the tourism industry, which probably means that if somehow the law is passed, the next administration would repeal it before it ever took effect.)

An anti-gang law that was originally patterned on those in effect in Honduras and El Salvador was passed after being substantially weakened. Unlike in those countries, sporting the wrong tattoo will not be cause for long years in prison, but if three or more people join together for the purpose of committing one or more crimes, each member of the association would be liable to spend up to three years in prison just for belonging to the group. The law more or less parallels existing laws against illicit association.

Also passed in the legislature’s special session is a law that provides criminal penalties for possessing illegally obtained firearms.

However, the president’s proposal to increase the penalties on adults who commit murder from a 20-year maximum prison term to life imprisonment was rejected.



Also in this section:
Panama News Briefs
Mireya's "mano dura" degenerates into macho taunts
Free trade turmoil postponed by hurricane
Chávez wins big in Venezuela
The Torrijos team

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