President: Martín Torrijos
First Vice-president: Samuel Lewis Navarro
Second Vice-president Rubén Arosemena
Minister of the Presidency: Ubaldino Real
Vice-minister: Dilio Arcia
Minister of Government & Justice: Héctor Alemán
Vice-minister: Olga Gólcher
Minister of Foreign Relations: Samuel Lewis Navarro
Vice-minister: Ricardo Durán
Ambassador to the United Nations: Ricardo Alberto Arias
Ambassador to the United States: Federico Humbert Arias
Minister of Education: Juan Bosco Bernal
Vice-minister: Miguel A. Cañizales
Minister of Economy & Finance: Ricaurte Vásquez
Vice-minister, Finance: Rolando Mirones
Vice-minister, Economy: Héctor Alexander
Minister of Commerce & Industry: Alejandro Ferrer
Vice-minister, Internal Commerce: Manuel José Paredes
Vice-minister, Foreign Commerce: Gisela Vergara
Minister of Agricultural Development: Laurentino Cortizo
Vice-minister: Adonai Ríos
Minister of Labor: Reynaldo Rivera
Vice-minister: Anel O. Rodríguez
Minister of Health: Camilo Alleyne
Vice-minister: Dora Jura
Minister of Housing: Balbina Herrera
Vice-minister: Julio Aizpurúa
Minister of Public Works: Carlos Vallarino
Vice-minister: Luis M. Hernández
Minister of Youth, Women, Childhood and the Family: Leonor Calderón
Vice-minister: Doris Zapata
Minister without portfolio (more or less a chief of staff): Ebrahim Asvat
Director, Panamanian Tourism Institute (IPAT): Rubén Blades
Director, National Maritime Authority: Rubén Arosemena
Secretary of Communications: Jorge Sánchez
Secretary of Government Innovation: Gaspar Tarté
Secretary of Social Integration for the Disabled: Gabriel Campos
• As IPAT director Rubén Blades will have cabinet rank, and there is persistent talk that one of the first things that the incoming legislature will do is merge IPAT and the National Institute of Culture (INAC) into a new Ministry of Tourism & Culture, which Blades would head.
• The Ministry of Canal Affairs will be eliminated, and such of its functions which are not left in the hands of the Panama Canal Authority will be taken over by the Ministry of Economy & Finance.
• Both vice-presidents will hold other administrative posts, Samuel Lewis Navarro as Foreign Minister and Rubén Arosemena as director of the National Maritime Authority.
• The Attorney General (Procurador General) and the Administrative Prosecutor (Procurador de Administración) are appointed by the president and approved by the legislature and serve for 10-year terms. Their terms will expire at the end of this year. President-elect Torrijos has said that he will not appoint Attorney General José Antonio Sossa to a new term, but Administrative Prosecutor Alma Montenegro de Fletcher is hoping to be reappointed.
• The Comptroller General and the Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) are appointed by the Legislative Assembly, which will be controlled by the PRD. The current Ombudsman, a member of the PRD's junior partner Partido Popular, may get a new term in office. The present Comptroller, a Mireyista insider, will not be reappointed.
• The director of the National Police, who in the government’s organizational structure answers to the Minister of Government & Justice, has yet to be named. President-elect Torrijos has expressed a desire to consider a career police officer for the post, which would require a revision of the policy of civilian police chiefs that has been in effect since the creation of the National Police in the wake of the 1989 US invasion.
• The director of the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), who in the government’s organizational structure answers to the Attorney General (Procurador General), is appointed by the Supreme Court. Although the high court has a 5-4 majority of Mireya Moscoso appointees, none of whose terms are set to expire during the Torrijos administration, it is expected that the PRD-controlled legislative and executive branches will move to eliminate this vestige of Mireya Moscoso’s power, either removing magistrates Winston Spadafora and Alberto Cigarruista and their suplentes under the argument that the ratification of their nominations was procured by bribery, or by increasing the number of magistrates so as to turn the present controlling majority into a minority. As we are also going to have a new Attorney General in January, it is likely that we will see a new PTJ director within the first year of the Torrijos administration.
• The director of the Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social) is chosen by a mixed board representing various social sectors, but may be removed for cause by the president. The process of selecting the next CSS director is underway.
• The Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), which is in charge of management and disposal of assets that came into Panama’s possession as the result of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, is set to lapse next year. There are suggestions that its existence may be extended by legislation, but Martín Torrijos has made no pronouncements on that subject. The authority is now headed by Alfredo Arias, a nephew of Mireya Moscoso’s late husband Arnulfo Arias, and its board of directors is in the process of searching for its next director. It is likely that any appointments by the outgoing Mireyistas would be rescinded by the incoming administration.
• Some other key appointments have yet to be made, among them the directors of most independent or autonomous authorities, institutes, secretariats and state-owned enterprises.
• Within a few months of taking office, Mireya Moscoso fired some 13,000 public sector workers, some of them with more than 20 years on the job, and replaced them mainly with activists from the parties in her ruling coalition and relatives of people in her circle of supporters. Despite apparent legal barriers like the much ignored civil service law, there likely be a major purge of Mireyistas from government jobs.
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
