The lawsuit brought by the daughter of a man whom the military dictatorship led by the president's father is now before the court of last resort, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC). In May of 1970 leftist activist Heliodoro Portugal was dining at the Coca-Cola Cafe in Santa Ana when men in civilian clothes hustled him out and took him away in a car. In 1999 the Truth Commission set up by former President Mireya Moscoso dug up his skeletal remains, along with those of several other people, from under what was the motor pool parking lot at the old Panama Defense Forces Puma Infantry Barracks in Tocumen. Identification of the remains and other forensic work was obstructed in various ways by former Attorney General José Antonio Sossa but Heliodoro's daughter Patria, who was a toddler when her father disappeared, persisted. Having been blown off by the Panamanian courts she took her appeal to the IAHRC, an institution of the Organization of American States that by Panamanian statute is the highest court of appeal for cases arising from this country that implicate internationally recognized human rights. Last year an IAHCR mediator advised the Torrijos administration to settle the matter out of court, but the government rejected that advice. The commission has given the government until January 23 to answer the brief filed by Patria Portugal's lawyers. Meanwhile the attorney general appointed by Martín Torrijos, Ana Matilde Gómez, has changed the Public Ministry's policy and the commander of the Puma Infantry at the time of Heliodoro Portugal's disappearance, retired Colonel Ricardo Garibaldo, will stand trial for murder in the case next June.

A coalition of environmentalists led by University of Panama biologist Ariel Rodríguez is playing upon divisions within the National Assembly, including within its dominant PRD caucus, to fight Proposed Law 132, which would allow the government to privatize currently public beach and island properties by issuing 60-year tourism development concessions. “We are facing corrupt economic interests who have asked their excellency, McTorrijos, for quick action in permanent legislative session so that the islands and beaches they have chosen can be rapidly assigned to them...”, Rodríguez charged in an email letter to supporters. But from the outset of the legislative battle the environmentalists have expected to lose in the National Assembly, and with that in mind they have prepared a lawsuit to be filed whenever the proposal is enacted into law.

On November 30 several dozen representantes from various Panama province districts blocked the intersection of Via España and Calle 42, near the Hotel Europa, for about two hours. The street blockage caused a major traffic jam that extended back to the banking district. So why? Because, while gathering for a meeting of the Provincial Council at its nearby headquarters, the representantes double-parked or parked on sidewalks, and a transito cop issued them tickets for doing so. The politicians demanded the officer's firing and the cancellation of the tickets. As these were politicians rather than FRENADESO, police rerouted traffic instead of firing tear gas or beating heads. The blockage ended when Vice Minister of Government and Justice Olga Gólcher promised to cancel the tickets. After much public criticism, Gólcher told El Panama America a few days later that the representantes' action has been “disgraceful” and that the officer would not be disciplined because he had been doing his job.

In a new election called because the Mireyista candidate who won in 2004 was found guilty of having used public funds to influence the vote, the PRD's Gustavo Polanco has been declared the new representante for Boca del Monte. He carried the corregimiento in eastern Chiriqui province's San Lorenzo district by 30-vote margin over his nearest rival.

On December 3 people with various disabilities, members of their families, employees of organizations that work with the disabled and other sympathetic individuals marched through David to protest Panamanian society's systematic exclusion of people with disabilities from economic and social life. High on the protesters' list of demands were stronger laws requiring barrier-free design and enforcement of such laws that already exist.

The investigation into the crash of a small plane in which the Colombian-Panamanian owner of the Hotel Contadora, a government official, two lawyers and the pilot and co-pilot died is still long from over, but initial findings are that it was not the product of a bomb aboard the plane. In bombings the pattern by which wreckage is scattered, splinters caused by the blast and explosives residues make the crimes easy to identify. Businessman Carlos Alberto Arango's heavy handed tactics to force other Contadora Island tourist businesses to close and his hotel's involvement in the smuggling of illegal immigrants from Colombia had led some observers to presume that the plane crash near La Laguna in San Carlos district was a gangland hit. But it seems more likely at this point that it was an accident.

After an appeals process the Ministry of Education has decided to expel 10 students from the Instituto Nacional and transfer another two from day to night classes for their parts in anti-government protests over the course of this school year. The sanctions are essentially aimed at eliminating the leadership of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER-29) from the school.

Now that US troops have been gone for a few years and most Panamanians welcome American tourists and retirees, one seldom sees or hears the “Yankee Go Home” slogan anymore. We have heard, however, from politicians across the Panamanian political perspective, criticism of the US cancellation of Supreme Court magistrate Winston Spadafora's visa. (The most notable exception to this trend is President Torrijos, who upholds the Americans' right to issue or deny visas to enter the United States as the State Department sees fit.) In contrast to the politicians' grumbling, there was the statement to El Panama America by Luis H. Moreno, the president of the Ethics and Civility Foundation: “the magistrates should go home,” he said. It appears that the rules of civility vary depending on whether it's an “honorable magistrate” or one of the other kind.

On November 25 President Torrijos played host at the Palacio de Las Garzas to the Episcopal Secretariat for Central America, the organization of Catholic archbishops from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The regional church leaders were in town for the Regular Episcopal Plenary Assembly, which is composed of all of the bishops and archbishops from these countries, about 40 in all. The assembly took up matters of common interest to Catholics in the region, both in matters of church doctrine and in social problems that need to be addressed. It was the first such regional gathering since the ascension of Pope Benedict XVI. Though the new pope came to his office with a conservative reputation, a number of his predecessor's policies, including the church's response to the AIDS epidemic, are under review and regional meetings like these have as one of their function the role of informing the Vatican's thinking on controversial matters.

On December a police raid in Coco Solo encountered two containers with false bottoms, which contained 2,294 kilos (5,042.4 pounds) of cocaine. The raid was an outgrowth of an earlier seizure in Panama City, but did not directly involve any arrests.

Banker and insurance executive Sam Kardonsky, one of the main people behind the growth of the Colon Free Zone, died on November 29. He was 84 years old. He was one of the founders of the free zone in the late 1950s. As president of Towerbank International and an insurers of the contents of shipping containers moving in and out of the duty-free import/export zone, he was one of the earlier providers of the financial infrastructure for its spectacular growth beginning in the late 1960s. In 1983 Kardonsky was kidnapped and held for ransom for 21 months, and resumed his business activities upon his release.

El Panama America's correspondent in Havana, Luis A. Castillo A., asked Cuban strongman Fidel Castro about former President Mireya Moscoso during the course of President Torrijos's visit to Cuba. “Who was this woman?” Fidel reportedly asked. “The problem is that there are always undignified people occupying important positions,” he added. Cuba cut off relations with Panama for a time, after Moscoso pardoned a group of Miami-based terrorists who planned to assassinate him (and a lot of other people) by setting off a huge explosion when he spoke at the University of Panama in 2000.

The National Assembly is now going through a list of 81 applicants for the Defensor del Pueblo --- national Ombudsman --- post. Most of the applicants are lawyers, the most prominent among whom is law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal. Kevin Harrington, the former top translator for the old Ministry of Canal Affairs who bills himself as a philosopher, is also in the running. The odds are that the next ombudsman or ombudswoman will be someone politically connected to the PRD-Partido Popular coalition that backed Martín Torrijos's political campaign. It's not likely that somebody as independent as Bernal or Harrington will be chosen. However, both previous times that the legislature has chosen an ombudsman they have not gone with an activist from the main party in the legislature.

Gambling Control Board secretary general Raúl Cortizo has told El Panama America that a study on the effect of casinos on society that the board has commissioned indicates that about five percent of Panamanian people are gambling addicts. The board has imposed a moratorium on new casino permits, and there are seven applications pending from before the temporary ban was imposed. Under the Moscoso and Pérez Balladares administrations the board was mostly a permit dispenser for the gambling industry that Toro privatized, but it seems that under the Torrijos administration it's taking its enforcement and control functions more seriously. Sometime next year the board will be submitting recommendations for reforms to Panamanian gambling laws.

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