|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
newsAlso in this section: Panama News Briefs Torrijos widely disapproved A Dichter & Neira poll commissioned for La Prensa has found that President Torrijos has a public approval rating of just 21 percent, while 73.4 percent of those surveyed say that his performance in office is "bad" or "very bad." That's down from an 80 percent approval rating in October of last year, a month after he took office. The poll found that 80 percent thought Torrijos had mishandled the Seguro Social issue, 86 percent believe that the way that he went about it harmed his image and 70.7 percent reject the contents of the reforms against 14 percent who favor them. Government under electronic assault It seems that The Panama News is far from the only victim here. While the editor was cleaning his email boxes of several thousand nearly identical, non-commercial emails with viruses attached over these past two weeks, and erasing spam that purportedly comes from Japan from the Panama UnClassifieds site, the Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Panama Maritime Authority both released press statements claiming that their websites had been vandalized. (The Panama News has had that experience too.) The first suspicion in the attacks on the government's websites is that they are the work of somebody who is angry about the Torrijos administration's unpopular policies, but no suspect has been named or apprehended. There is a lot of crime, committed for a variety of motives, on the Internet these days and the hackers, spammers and circulators of viruses and worms seem to be a step or two ahead of law enforcement agencies around the world. ARI set to trash another piece of the Las Cruces Trail The Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), already facing stern criticism and legal challenges for granting a concession for a residential subdivision in a wooded area of the former Fort Clayton through which the colonial-era Camino de Cruces runs, has given another concession to develop over another part of the road. The development, to be called "Clayton Village," has yet to get approval from the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) and is being challenged by University of Panama archaeologist Luis Almanza and several members of the National Assembly. Prison inmates to be sorted and separated One long-standing complaint about the Panamanian prison system is that the majority of inmates who have been convicted of no offense and are being detained pending trial are mixed in with convicts, and that someone whose crime is shoplifting or possession of a small amount of marijuana may end up in the same cell with a murderer or rapist. The minimum sorting that has happened until now is that men and women are incarcerated in different places, members of rival gangs that are killing one another are usually not mixed, former cops and public officials are kept apart from mainline populations and gay and lesbian inmates are segregated. Now the Ministry of Justice is beginning a program to separate those awaiting trial from those who have been convicted, violent and repeat offenders from less dangerous inmates, and the mentally or physically disabled from those who would bully or exploit them. The program is beginning with a pilot project at El Renacer near Gamboa. Where the Gorgas medical library went For years people who used to work at what was the US Army's Gorgas Hospital had been speculating about what happened to the contents of the medical library that the Americans turned over to Panama with the hospital. It turns out that the books, magazines, microfiches and other materials have been sitting in boxes in a store room at Clayton, in violation of Panama's agreement to properly preserve the materials. The University of Panama's rector Gustavo García de Paredes, whose institution had the responsibility for caring for the library, assured El Panama America that the library will soon be set up in more proper conditions at Santo Tomas Hospital. However, Santo Tomas medical director Rodrigo Velarde told the paper that nobody ever told him about it. It seems, though, that after the transfer of the maternity ward to the hospital's new wing later this year Santo Tomas would have the space for the library. Gorgas was an important center for teaching and research into tropical medicine and its library was a valuable scientific asset. The collection's value is surely diminished because nobody has been maintaining, updating and adding to it these past several years, and in Panama documents stored in improper conditions tend to deteriorate under the combined assaults of mold spores and insects. Treasure hunters busted An American-owned, Jamaican-registered treasure hunting boat, the New World Legend, has been arrested in Colon and its six-member crew detained. Aboard the vessel some 18th century cannons and other items of historical interest were found. The boat's owners say that the items were taken in waters off Jamaica, but the sketchy logs would indicate incongruities in the times when the artifacts were supposedly found, a circumstance which in turn suggests that in reality the New World Legend was illegally hunting for treasure in Panamanian waters. MOP: litterers drove people from their homes Panama is well into the rainy season and on June 6 flooding forced the evacuation of more than homes in the capital. The Ministry of Public Works is arguing that it was not an "act of God," but the result of people throwing trash into storm drains. A ministry spokesman told La Prensa that on that particular day the flooding was caused when several creeks were dammed up by debris that slobs tossed into storm drains. The national and local governments try to keep the drain system flowing, but it seems that the volume of trash overwhelms them when the rain comes down hard and sends all the plastic, paper, styrofoam and so on into the same drainage bottlenecks at the same time. MACO tries to redo purge Having been overruled by the Electoral Tribunal in his previous purge of party leaders who oppose the Rosas family dictatorship within the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement (MOLIRENA), party boss Jesús "Maco" Rosas has started new expulsion proceedings against his critics. As it now stands, without a substantial purge a majority of delegates to the next convention would oust the Rosases, presumably to return the organization its roots as a conservative business-oriented party rather than a family business. Medical examiner fired for political activity Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez has fired Dr. Hugo Moreno, who had served as medical examiner for Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro provinces. He had sought a seat in the legislature on the Arnulfista ticket in the 2004 elections, and though for most ministries people are by allowed to take leaves of absence and protected from firing or discrimination if they decide to run for office, the Public Ministry's ethical rules have long prohibited any sort of political influence to the extent that one must permanently resign as a prosecutor, medical examiner or PTJ officer in order to seek elective office. Dr. Moreno lasted as long as he did because former Attorney General José Antonio Sossa refused to enforce his own ministry's established ethics rules. When the breach was pointed out to his successor, however, Moreno promptly lost his job. Waylaid coke stash brings cops and hit men to Kuna Yala It started when Colombian drug traffickers buried more than a ton of cocaine on the Kuna Yala island of Achutupu. That sort of thing happens from time to time all up and down both of Panama's coasts. This time, as has on occasioned happened elsewhere, the smugglers' activities were noticed and some local men dug up the drugs and sold them. That, in turn, brought both the National Police, who made seven arrests, and a group of Colombian hit men to the island. A similar thing happened a few years ago in Piña, on Colon's Costa Abajo. According to various international reports the flow of cocaine out of Colombia is accelerated at the moment because as part of the Bogota government's "peace process" with the drug-financed AUC paramilitaries, the latter are trying to export as much cocaine as possible before they demobilize and have to cut back on their drug trafficking activities. It would follow that with more coke than the pipeline can handle, more of the drug is probably being stored at various points between Colombia and its primarily North American and European destinations. Firings for illegal visas in Guayaquil consulate Acting on a tip from Ecuadoran police, who in turn had been informed of suspicious documents by COPA Airlines, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has fired vice-consul Teresita Guerra de Solórzano and three other employees at the Panamanian consulate in Guayaquil for the illegal sale of at least 19 Panamanian visas. Prosecutors are investigating and criminal charges may be filed. Panama's system whereby most appointments as consuls are bought and those who land the jobs are mostly paid by a percentage from the ship registrations, seafarers' certificates, visas and other documents they sell has long been a source of corruption, and the consulate Guayaquil in particular has one of the more notorious histories. Government pondering passport policy Panama's relations with its Central American neighbors and the future of this country's public officials' opportunity to participate in one of the more notorious forms of corruption are in play as the government ponders whether to adopt the Unified Central American Passport (PUC), a decision that by international agreement must come by the end of this year. The supposed advantages are fewer opportunities for forgery or corrupt sales to non-citizens and simpler and quicker immigration checks when traveling to countries outside the region. But then the propositions that Central American ways of doing things or the Central American Parliament are less corrupt than the analogous Panamanian practices and institutions are questionable, and there is a fear that we will see an unwanted influx of Central Americans if we adopt the unified passports. The Pérez Balladares and Moscoso administrations oriented Panama's foreign policy toward the Central American republics, with Toro praising Honduran maquiladoras as a model for Panama's economic development and both ex-presidents using their membership in the Central American Parliament to quash investigations of what appeared to be criminal activities during their terms in office. It seems, however, that the Torrijos administration is returning Panama to its traditional identity and orientation as more of a South American than Central American country. Aguilar appointed bishop of Colon and Kuna Yala Pope Benedict xVI has appointed 42-year-old Father Audilio Aguilar, a Veraguas native and who has worked as a parish priest in Atalaya and Santiago, as the new bishop of Colon and Kuna Yala. Aguilar replaces Monsignior Carlos María Aríz, who is retiring. Homage to Father Gallego On the June 9, the 34th anniversary of his disappearance, the Catholic Church and the Cooperative La Esperanza de los Campesinos honored the late Father Héctor Gallego with an outdoor mass and public meeting in the Veraguas town of Santa Fe where the priest worked. The bishop of Santiago, Monsignior Óscar Brown, presided. A 30-year-old parish priest of Colombian origin, Gallego was last seen in custody of the now defunct Panama Defense Forces. The cooperative that he founded created competition for a store that a relative of the late General Omar Torrijos operated and many believe that this was the reason for Gallego's disappearance. But despite the crime, which galvanized clerical opposition to the dictatorship, the cooperative thrives these days.
News | Business | Editorial | Opinion | Letters | Arts | Review | Community | Fun | Travel
|
||||||||
|
