news

Also in this section:
Judge Arrocha suspended, still underground
Opposition to the Ancon Hill cable car
Gang war involves hoodlums with police, DEA, Moscoso ties
Panama Canal expansion support drops in poll
Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Torrijos meets with Karen Hughes

She has a title and a spot in the State Department organizational chart, but Karen Hughes is in fact and function one of US President George W. Bush's closest advisors, answerable directly to him whatever any diagram might say. She stopped by to visit with President Torrijos and Vice President and Foreign Minister Lewis Navarro on a Latin American trip that also included stops in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador. Photos of the meeting and some general feel-good type statements were released --- "an opportunity to broach subjects related to bilateral and regional relations," Lewis Navarro described the meeting --- but the details or specific subject matters of the talks were not publicized. It is known that the United States is particularly concerned about the leftward political trend sweeping across much of the region, and that Panama is on good terms with governments like those of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia with which the Americans have relations ranging from strained to belligerent.

Durodollars lady loses a round, breaks silence

Former presidential secretary Dalvis Xiomara Sánchez, who raised suspicions of rampant corruption in the Moscoso administration when she complained that more than $38,000 in cash had been stolen from her home, has been found by a Comptroller General's investigation to have illegally and unjustly enriched herself by more than $220,000 while working for Mireya. At the time it was reported that the money had been kept in her freezer, earning the Sánchez affair the popular name "durodollars," after duros, the popular Panamanian homemade popsickles. In her first responses to questions, made through proxies, Sánchez alleged that the cash was her life's savings from working as a secretary for the US Southern Command. However, her ex-husband claimed that there were no such savings. After Moscoso (and Sánchez) left office, the former secretary's construction of a mansion in the Costa Esmeralda area of San Carlos raised further suspicions and led the Torrijos administration to freeze her assets. In the wake of this latest ruling, which is a step toward both civil forfeiture and criminal proceedings, Sánchez went public with a different story, claiming that in her five years as a secretary for Mireya she had more than $800,000 in income, and protested that the cash that was stolen from her was taken from her bedroom rather than her freezer. According to the claims that Sánchez is now making, the difference between what the Comptroller General is claiming that she can justify and what it can prove that she received is almost entirely attributed to alleged support received from members of her family while in a highly paid government post.

Money, reputations riding on trial

A March 30 trial date has been set for former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán, his wife María Fernanda Flores and is tax director and alleged bag man Byron Jerez. The three are accused of laundering some $70 million looted from the Nicaraguan government in Panama, and prosecutors here have managed to identify and freeze $10 million of the alleged proceeds of political corruption. Alemán has been convicted of fraud and embezzlement and is serving a 20-year sentence under a form of house arrest which restricts his movements to Managua and environs, but he has a number of political and legal skirmishes underway, one of which is an attempt by his faction of the Constitutional Liberal Party to broker a deal with the Sandinista Front which would give him an amnesty. Another of the embattled ex-president's fronts is a series of court appeals that recently resulted in an order that assets in Jerez's name that had been frozen as the proceeds of corruption be returned to him. If Alemán loses his case before judge Gíniva Aguilar of Panama's Third Penal Circuit Court, the frozen $10 million will be turned over to the Nicaraguan government.

Tourism cops busted for torture

Panama's police are not friendly to people suspected of robbing tourists, but it seems that members of the Tourism Police who arrested three men who are suspected of being part of a gang that robs tourists along the Corredor Sur went too far. They allegedly smashed the suspects' fingers with a hammer, beat them with golf clubs and forced their heads into bags full of pepper gas in an attempt to make them reveal what happened to the proceeds of a string of robberies. For that police lieutenant Rubén Vigil and six subordinates have been stripped of their jobs and jailed on various torture-related criminal charges. According to a report in El Panama America, the crime was allegedly aggravated by the cops' motive to make the suspects reveal where the money was so that they could take it for themselves.

Legislature seeks to ban foreign biologists

In a move aimed largely at non-governmental organizations, the City of Knowledge and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the National Assembly has passed a law banning foreigners from working in Panama as biologists and setting up a board based in the University of Panama to decide who is and who is not qualified to be a biologist. There is a campaign underway urging President Torrijos to veto the measure. The law is in large part the PRD caucus's attempt to assist the university's scandal-tainted rector, Gustavo García de Paredes, to win re-election by promising students of the biology department that they will have jobs reserved for them. It would also in effect make campaigns like the one that resulted in the defeat of Mireya Moscoso's plan to build a road through the Volcan Baru National Park more difficult, because it would prevent foreign biologists from lending a hand to such efforts as was done in that case.

Caciques ousted over election dispute

In the wake of a close and disputed March 7 election whereby Pedro Rodríguez was re-elected as president of the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, Cacique General Máximo Saldaña and three regional caciques who questioned the legitimacy of the vote have been removed from office by Rodríguez. The election dispute, and possibly a challenge to the caciques' removal, are likely to end up before the Electoral Tribunal. Rodríguez, however, is denying that the tribunal has any jurisdiction in the comarca.

Navarro and Pérez Balladares fall out

Former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares and Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, once political allies who may face one another in a PRD primary for the 2009 presidential nomination, have been engaged in a verbal sparring match of late. Toro is accusing the mayor of "opportunism" and "infantile demagoguery" for questioning his decision to privatize the old state-owned IRHE electric utility. Both men are insinuating that the other was too close to former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega. Navarro is belittling Toro's ability to speak about relations with the United States, as the latter had his US visa canceled due to participation in the sale of Panamanian visas to Chinese migrants ultimately seeking to illegally sneak into the United States. And so on. Nobody has formally announced a presidential candidacy, but Pérez Balladares, Navarro and Housing Minister Balbina Herrera are frequently mentioned as potential PRD standard bearers.

Martinelli and Tapia fall out

At one point, when the magazine distribution duopoly made Juan Carlos Tapia an offer he could only refuse with respect to putting his Lo Mejor del Boxeo magazine on racks in stores, the boxing journalist and social commentator was only able to get such exposure as he could by a deal with supermarket baron and politician Ricardo Martinelli that put the magazine in the checkout line racks of the Super 99 stores. But that was then and this is now. Martinelli, who finished a distant fourth in the 2004 presidential race, is gearing up for another run in 2009, Tapia isn't supporting him and the two men are feuding. Martinelli accuses Tapia of boorish manners in that he "hides behind a sports program" to make political comments for which no chance to reply is given. "If you want to participate in political life, welcome to the ring," Martinelli said in an open letter to Tapia. Tapia, for his part, has accused Martinelli of trying to organize an advertisers' boycott of his television show and vows that he "will not rest until [Martinelli] pays the consequences." (Martinelli denies the allegation.) Tapia claims friends in most political factions, but has offended people in the various parties with his sometimes caustic commentaries. Martinelli, who served as Seguro Social director in the Pérez Balladares administration and minister of canal affairs in the Moscoso administration, has in general pursued a time-honored tactic of political parties that are extensions of business empires, for example by raising most of his campaign contributions for his last presidential bid from Super 99 suppliers.

Desertions from Endara's party

Vanguardia Moral de la Patria, a new party that former President Guillermo Endara is trying to get on the ballot, suffered a setback when more than 1,000 members meeting in Aguadulce on March 12 decided to quit the organization. Basically the dissidents don't like the way that Endara has been running the party and they object to former First Lady Ana Mae Díaz de Endara being involved in making decisions for the group.

Former Changuinola mayor jailed

Samuel Palacio, the former mayor of Changuinola and suplente for PRD legislator Benicio Robinson, has been removed from the latter office and sentenced to six months in jail for using public funds to promote his unsuccessful primary campaign to be the PRD candidate for re-election as mayor. 

High court lifts deputy's immunity

Legislator Alejandro Vanegas (PRD-Colon) will go back to square one about a criminal complaint dating from before his election in 2004, in which he was accused by one of the clients of his trucking business of stealing cargo. Shortly after the 2004 election the charges were thrown out by the trial court in Colon but the accuser appealed, and after Vanegas took office and the constitution was modified, it was left up to the Supreme Court to decide whether his legislative immunity would apply. The court decided to reverse the lower court's decision, lift the deputy's immunity and send the case back to prosecutors for further investigation. Vanegas denies any wrongdoing.

Solís asks court to lift deputy's immunity

Electoral Prosecutor Gerardo Solís has petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the immunity of opposition legislator José Olmedo Carreño, so that criminal proceedings may be started against him for alleged improper use of government funds in his 2004 election campaign. The legislator ran on the Arnulfista and MOLIRENA tickets in Chiriqui's circuit 4-5, which includes Boqueron, Alanje and Renacimiento. Panamanian law gives legislators immunity from investigation or prosecution for crimes, but that can be lifted by the high court. In earlier court decisions judges have extended legislators' immunity to the deputies' non-legislator accomplices in criminal acts, but under our Civil Code legal system precedents are not so binding as they are in Common Law jurisdictions. Carreño denies any wrongdoing.

Thefts from the Supreme Court's pump

The Supreme Court's presiding magistrate, Graciela Dixon, has complained to the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) that 262 forged coupons that were used to obtain $2,354 gallons of gasoline worth $5,991 at gas stations around the country were issued in the court's name. The documents appear to have been issued on copies of the court's forms, out of the proper numerical sequence, which would suggest that it may not necessarily have been an inside job by someone with access to the genuine forms at their point of issuance.

Hantavirus death in Nata

A 57-year-old woman in the San Cristobal neighborhood of Cocle's Nata district has died from an hantavirus infection. She died in February but the results of pathologists' tests on tissues taken from the body weren't made public until mid-March. This would be the 11th confirmed case of the rodent-borne disease since the first one was reported in 2000, and the fifth fatality. The problem has been centered in Panama's "Dry Crescent," which includes Cocle, Herrera, Los Santos and part of Veraguas provinces, and is linked to rodent migrations in search of water during dry season. People are warned to used rubber gloves and dust masks when cleaning areas that have been or might have been infested with rats or mice and to be careful with food storage, garbage disposal and the creation of water flows in ways that could attract rodents.

Rotavirus vaccination campaign

The Ministry of Health is conducting a campaign to vaccinate babies between two and six months of age against rotavirus, which causes the diarrhea that's behind up to 40 percent of this country's infant mortality. The vaccinations will immunize a kid through age five, but its the babies that are must vulnerable because they get dangerously dehydrated so quickly when diarrhea attacks.

Fire season

On March 13 some 400 hectares of grassland and woods in Clayton and adjacent Camino de Cruces National Park went up in flames, and at the same time the fields around the Rodney Carew National Stadium were ablaze. Firefighters managed to prevent the loss of human life or homes, but were nevertheless criticized by some residents for what was alleged to be a slow and inadequate response. Fires like these are common in the dry season, but we haven't had such a big big burn in the capital for several years.

Bones left at Hosanna Temple

Skeletal remains of several human beings found recently in plastic bags at the Hosanna Temple, a large Evangelical church on the edge of Panama City's La Cresta neighborhood, are probably archaeological relics and according to La Prensa arrived there as a part of Hutchison Whampoa executive John Meredith's attempt to flout this country's rules about antiquities and archaeological sites. According to the daily Mr. and Mrs. Meredith are rebuilding a house in the Casco Viejo and while working on that job the construction crew found the bones. Between the late 17th and mid-19th centuries the site was home to a Catholic mission that was at some points a convent and sometimes used as a hospital, which included a cemetery. Ordinarily, work would have to be suspended while archaeologists reviewed the site, but apparently to avoid that the bones were put in plastic bags and taken to the Hosanna Temple, of which Mrs. Meredith is a member of the congregation. The remains were then turned over to the Institute of Legal Medicine, which upon determining the bones' age called in the National Institute of Culture's (INAC's) Historical Legacy Office. Prosecutors are investigating to determine whether the apparent infraction of administrative regulations about the discovery of archaeological sites amounts to a crime.