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by Eric Jackson, mainly from other media

Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez has petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the immunity from investigation and prosecution of nine members of the National Assembly and one member of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). The latter is no obscure deputy in a regional body that does little of substance, but former President Mireya Moscoso herself.

Gómez wants to investigate Moscoso on two complaints of pilfering public funds, one in relation to the diversion of some $72 million in aid from Taiwan to a private foundation that she and her friends and relatives set up and from which large "administrative salaries" were extracted, and one about the more than $1000 per day in public funds that Mireya used to buy herself clothing and jewelry over the course of her five-year presidency.

As a former president, Moscoso has the legal right to a seat in PARLACEN, which carries with it immunity from investigation and prosecution. When she first left office in September of 2004, auditors began to uncover a tangle of peculation and financial abuses by the ex-president, her sister Ruby Moscoso de Young (who served as Mireya's "first lady") and other members of her inner circle. As these complaints were being forwarded to prosecutors, Moscoso belatedly was sworn in as a PARLACEN member. Although she doesn't attend the regional body's meetings, she does have the same immunity that deputies who actually show up for the job enjoy.

In the wake of many scandals, including the breakup of two drug smuggling rings that used PARLACEN as their headquarters, Costa Rica pulled out of the regional body and all but one of the remaining member countries agreed to end deputies' immunity. Panama was the one nation that wouldn't agree, and for the lack of unanimity the attempted reform failed.

Also named in Gómez´s petitions were five members of the assembly's Government Committee, Raúl Rodríguez  (PRD-Chiriqui), Dorindo Cortéz (PRD-Colon), Juan Hernández (PRD-Panama City), José Blandón Figueroa (Panameñista-Panama City) and Jorge Hernán Rubio (Partido Popular, Panama City). These deputies have been accused by anti-corruption activist Enrique Montenegro of taking bribes to support a proposal to declare the islands of Bocas del Toro a tourism development zone, which would be a boon to developers. In El Panama America Rubio categorically denied the allegation and Blandón complained that public perceptions about corruption are not based in reality. On this particular complaint the Procuradora pointed out in the same daily newspaper that she and her staff have not determined that a crime has been committed but have been satisfied that an investigation of the matter is in order.

Franz Wever, the PRD deputy and taxi syndicate leader from Panama City whom Electoral Prosecutor Gerardo Solís had wanted to pursue for vote buying and other offenses in the 2004 elections, is also the subject of one of Gómez´s requests. Shortly after the present legislature was inaugurated in September of 2004, its Credentials Committee rejected Solís's petition to lift Wever's immunity. Later, however, Panama's constitution was amended to take the power to lift parliamentarians' immunity away from the assembly and give it to the Supreme Court.

The procuradora has also asked the high court to strip Rogelio Alba (Liberal Nacional-Kuna Yala) of immunity so that he can be investigated for a variety of offenses, including the smuggling of liquor and cigarettes out of the duty-free Colon Free Zone. Alba, who also faces moves to expel him from his party, said that the alcohol and tobacco smuggling was done for the benefit of his community.

Also the subject of moves to lift their immunity are deputies Hermisenda Perea (PRD-Panama City) and Alejandro Vanegas (PRD-Colon).

The National Assembly's Credentials Committee recently refused to hear, by a unanimous vote but for various proffered reasons, complaints by a coalition of 18 civic, professional, business, labor and church groups about corruption on part of eight magistrates or alternate magistrates of the nine-member Supreme Court. Many observers expect that the high court magistrates will return the favor by declining to lift the 10 legislators' immunity. "Between the Assembly and the Court 'today for you, tomorrow for me' prevails, a mutual non-aggression pact in which the only sure thing is the abyss, for both" El Panama America commented in a front-page editorial. However, the 10-year terms of two Supreme Court magistrates are set to expire at the end of the year and the replacements that President Torrijos picks could possibly alter some of the court's notorious pro-corruption dynamics.