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Liborio García's selection as ombudsman sets of protests
University of Panama closes for a week over student groups' turf battles
Spaniards kidnapped in Darien come back after 77 days of captivity
Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Fire destroys court records

On April 1 a fire swept through the third floor of the Maritime Tribunal building in Ancon, which also houses several other courts and their records. Investigators have not announced any official findings about a cause of the fire, which mainly destroyed records of criminal cases, but have told the daily newspapers and TV stations that they found suspicious chemicals on the fire scene and that they have ruled out an electrical origin. Arson to destroy official records is a time-honored feature of Panamanian public corruption. A lot of this was done with US troops standing by watching in the wake of the 1989 American invasion, and during the Moscoso administration the investigation of a scandal about well connected individuals obtaining free fuel for their private aircraft from the Civil Aviation Directorate's pumps was cut short when that government agency's files burned up in a fire that was officially ruled "spontaneous combustion."

Five arrested in detective's slaying

Five men are in custody and charged in connection with the March 22 kidnapping and murder of Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) detective Jorge Herrera Ramos. The victim had a taxi in which he moonlighted, and in which he was apparently forced to drive to an isolated area of Pedregal and then killed execution-style with a bullet in the back of the head. The accused all have long criminal records, and one was a prison escapee who had been doing time for murder. Police and prosecutors believe that the motive for the crime was the theft of the taxi.

Police records may be available again

During the Moscoso administration the legislature passed and the president signed a PRD-initiated law prohibiting the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) from divulging individuals' police records. The idea was to give former offenders a chance to get jobs and put their lives of crime behind them. However, a number of high-profile crimes in which repeated violent offenders were hired by people unaware of this aspect of the job applicants' nature have caused politicians and the public to reconsider the move. Thus on April 5 the National Assembly's Government Committee approved a proposed law that would make individuals' police records available to the public again. The change would have to be approved on second and third readings by the legislature, signed by the president and published in the Gaceta Oficial to go into effect, and it seems likely that these things will happen.

High court: ethical magistrates not allowed

Oscar Vargas, who is a magistrate for the Office of Patrimonial Responsibility (DRP), the institution in charge of recovering assets improperly taken from the government, moved to recuse himself from an investigation about recovering funds embezzled from the National Bank of Panama (BNP) by a network of administrators and employees there. Why? Because he worked for Illueca y Asociados, the law firm that filed the complaint that broke that scandal wide open and he considered it a conflict of interest to take part in the investigation. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that Vargas must take part in the case. It is the latest in a string of cases in which the court has held conflict of interest by judges to be not only permissible, but mandatory.

Museum back on track

The stalled project to build a Museum of Biodiversity at the site of the old Amador Officers Club appears to have been put back on track, thanks to a $30.5 million loan from the government to the private foundation that's promoting the project. Construction is set to begin in May. The museum building's eccentric design is by the renowned Canadian architect Frank Gehry, who's married to a Panamanian. If the project now proceeds to completion the museum would become one of Panama City's defining landmarks and principal tourist attractions. Beyond construction of the building, the foundation will be challenged by a Panamanian popular culture that doesn't much appreciate museums and a shortage of people who know how to run a world-class institution.

Decree to quash possible Constituent Assembly

Panama's politicians enjoy all manner of benefits, including the expectation of impunity for the corrupt acts by which they enrich themselves while in public office, and they don't want to see that change by way of a new constitution replacing the one imposed in 1972 by the military dictatorship. On the other hand, most Panamanians are sick of all the games and would like a new constitution. Thus in the 2005 Moscoso-Torrijos constitutional revision, a new provision was added to allow for the convocation of a constituent assembly, but designed in such a way that it would be difficult to do by petition and that the political parties would dominate the process if this is done. Now the Electoral Tribunal has decreed new regulations to make the possibility of derailing the political class's gravy train even more remote. To start a petition drive for a constituent assembly, a group would have to conduct a prior petition drive to get at least 4,000 signatures and essentially get the tribunal's approval as if it were a political party. These 4,000 people would have to go to offices of the Electoral Tribunal during only specially reserve hours to sign the petition. Excluded from eligibility to participate in this process would be people without telephones or who want to keep their numbers unlisted. The period for gathering the required signatures of 20 percent of all eligible voters in order to get a referendum would be limited to six months.

SMN marine's death ruled a homicide

Anti-corruption prosecutor Yolanda Austin has held that the January 2005 death by heat stroke of National Maritime Service (SMN) marine Nataniel Chiari was a case of culpable homicide, the rough equivalent of what's called manslaughter in the Common Law system, which is punishable by up to six years in prison. After failing a training course abroad Chiari was forced to run laps in the sun while wearing a rain poncho and carrying a heavy load, until he collapsed and died. The initial medical examiner's report falsified the cause of death, and there has been no disciplinary action against Chiari's superiors or their superiors who have apparently been involved in covering up the crime. Both the Chiari family and the lawyers for the SMN have complained that the ruling is unfair, the former because they think that a murder charge is called for, the latter because he claims that no connection has been shown between the maltreatment and the heat stroke that killed Chiari. Prosecutors have yet to decide whom they might charge with criminal acts in the case.

Mirones announces tighter police discipline

In any place one from time to time finds rogue cops, but lately here in Panama more embarrassing incidents have come to light than is normally the case. (This, however, could mean not that there are more police officers gone bad, but that those who do are getting caught and called to account more often.) The issue was one of the things that President Torrijos and National Police Director Mirones raised at an April 7 graduation ceremony for 46 new officers. Torrijos noted the good news about police, and claimed that violent crime is down overall, even if some of the local gangs are ever more audacious. He also called upon citizens to support the police. Mirones, however, played the "tough guy" role at the ceremony, announcing that there will be closer scrutiny of potential police recruits and stricter discipline within the police force. "There can't be a relationship between a police officer and a delinquent," Mirones said. "Those who act according to this profile can't close ranks by your side, nor can it be said that they are followers of the model that we have inherited from the heroes and martyrs of this institution."

Mireyista loot recovered

It isn't really news that under the Moscoso administration the Social Investment Fund (FIS) was used for the private benefit of a few well-connected families and individuals and to promote the Arnulfistas' doomed 2004 election campaign. However, legal action about these abuses has been slow in coming, in part because the courts have imposed obstacles. (Recall that Supreme Court Magistrate Winston Spadafora was the beneficiary of FIS spending to build a road out by his farm near La Arenosa, and then aggravated the controversy by filing criminal charges and a civil lawsuit against the journalists who truthfully reported about it.) But now the Comptroller General is auditing the use of FIS by the Moscoso kleptocracy and the FIS itself is going around recovering stolen property. As in, El Panama America reports, a backhoe, a tractor, a truck and a motorboat that were diverted to a shadowy foundation and recovered from the premises of a private business in Tocumen; a John Deere tractor allegedly given by FIS to the Pedasi municipal government but actually diverted to a couple of individuals who were keeping it on a private farm; some mobile health clinics that were used for campaign purposes; and a 20-passenger launch, Komatsu road grader and truck that were recovered in Chiriqui. Several former legislators are mentioned as suspects in the diversion of some of this property. Among the assets still missing are two big generators that went missing from the former Howard Air Force Base while under the custody of the former Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI), then headed by Alfredo Arias; and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of video equipment that went missing from Canal Once when that was run as a dependency of the Rosas family.

Former CA chief charged in peculation

Anti-corruption prosecutor Yolanda Austin has charged Carlos Raúl Piad, who served as director of the state-owned Caja de Ahorros savings and loan institution under the Moscoso regime and Digna Vargas, who headed one of the branch offices, in connection with a $30,000 overdraft in favor of a company owned by Ángel Modesto Jaén, a member of the Caja de Ahorros board of directors at that time. Piad denies any wrongdoing, claiming that he just gave his blessing to the loan but didn't actually sign the papers allowing it.

Prosecutor wants Alemáns jailed

At a March 30 hearing in the slow-moving money laundering trial of Nicaragua's former President Arnoldo Alemán, ex-First Lady María Fernanda Flores de Alemán, her father José Antonio Flores Lovo, former Nicaraguan tax director Byron Jerez and his wife Ethel González de Jerez and daughter Valeria Jerez, Panamanian prosecutor Mercedes De León asked Judge Adolfo Mejía of Panama's Third Penal Court to order the accused jailed without bail. The six are charged with laundering at least $58.2 million in funds looted from the Nicaraguan government here. There is, however, a problem: this trial is being held in absentia, with all of the accused remaining in Nicaragua. However, Nicaraguan prosecutors are participating in the case in a role similar to that of private prosecutors that can represent an alleged crime victim in an ordinary criminal case. The former Nicaraguan president remains under a very lax form of house arrest in Managua while serving and appealing a long sentence for various corrupt acts.

Prosecutor says Montesinos washed $600 million here

Peruvian anti-corruption prosecutor Walter Hoflich has told El Panama America that the jailed former spymaster for jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, Vladimiro Montesinos, laundered some $600 million in about 70 Panamanian bank accounts held in the name of 10 people and 50 dummy corporations that acted as fronts for Montesinos and Fujimori. The money came from kickbacks charged on military purchases between 1990 and 2000. It seems that money used to purchase arms was also put into these accounts. After being laundered here, much of the money was then forwarded to bank accounts in Switzerland, from which more than $50 million has been recovered. Montesinos, who had closed personal and business relations with members of the Moscoso administration and their relatives, fled here in September of 2000, but under pressures from domestic public opinion and the US and Peruvian governments, Mireya Moscoso ultimately denied his request. He was allowed to go underground and escape from here, but was captured in Venezuela the following year and extradited to Peru, where he was tried for various crimes and handed long prison terms. Fujimori, claiming Japanese citizenship due to his parentage, fled to Japan but during an attempt to return to Peru was arrested in Chile, where he is in jail while Peru seeks his extradition.

Human Rights Commission to hear Wald case

The Inter-American Human Rights Commission, which by treaty is the court of last resort for many Panamanian legal cases, has accepted the case of Rita Wald, a 17-year-old high school student and leftist activist who was disappeared by the dictatorship 29 years ago. The Torrijos administration opposes the Wald family's claims for damages because under the dictatorship of the president's father there was an "investigation" that found no wrongdoing and between 1990 and 1994 the investigation was reopened but then quashed again before there were any results when the notoriously pro-corruption José Antonio Sossa became the attorney general, and thus it is the government's position that the matter has been investigated and should be closed. Rita Wald's brother Edwin is a Partido Popular activist and told La Prensa that the commission's acceptance of the case could clear the way for a negotiated out-of-court settlement. However, Martín Torrijos has been steadfast in resisting all attempts to investigate or prosecute disappearances, political murders and other abuses that took place while his father was Panama's de facto head of state.

Former El Siglo publisher wins an old case

The Supreme Court has awarded former El Siglo publisher Jaime Padilla Beliz, the newspaper itself and its former employees damages of some $1.795 million, payable by the Panamanian government, for the paper's shutdown by the Noriega regime in 1987. El Siglo did not reopen until after the 1989 US invasion. These days El Siglo is more or less a Partido Popular-aligned publication that supports the Torrijos administration. The Panamanian government has a bad record when it comes to paying judgments against itself.

Sea Cliff beach blockage lifted

On April 10 Anton Mayor Roger Diver Ríos ordered the demolition of a fence that the Crucet family put up to black access to the beach at Sea Cliff, near Santa Clara. The Crucets argue that they have a tourism development which gives them the right to appropriate the public beach. The city officials' cutting of the fence was in the prompted by a protest that blocked the Pan-American Highway and then accompanied by a confrontation between neighbors and members of the Crucet family that escalated to fisticuffs. The Crucets and the mayor are bringing criminal charges against one another, the former alleging abuse of authority and the latter alleging improper taking of the public right-of-way. These sorts of confrontations are likely to become more common around Panama, as many developers believe that the new beach and island tourism development law allows them to kick people off of beaches that the constitution declares public. But by the plain meaning of the law, the legislation doesn't allow that sort of privatization.

El Coco residents close Pan-American Highway

On April 10 residents of the Veraguas community of El Coco de Montijo closed the Pan-American Highway for three hours to protest farmer Frank Omar Pérez's construction of a dam on the Martin Chiquito River. The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) has ordered the dam destroyed, but that action is being appealed. The private appropriation of public rivers, generally illegal but sometimes done under color of some government permit, is one of the emerging hallmarks of the Torrijos administration.

US, Canada warn about the Darien

The governments of the United States and Canada have issued warnings about travel in Darien province. On April 5 the US Consular Service advises that in the areas of Panama adjacent to the Colombian border "the presence of Colombian terrorist groups, drug traffickers and other criminals is common." The Canadian Ministry of External Relations classifies Darien province beyond Yaviza as a "red zone" that should be avoided because there have been "numerous cases of death and disappearances" there. The Canadian government adds that this warning does not apply to the rest of Panama.

Argument over proposed construction noise law

Panama City is noisy to the point that it's a health hazard and residents often complain but hardly ever see any results because those who profit from annoying others tend to be rich and well connected and because police and other authorities consider noise that disturbs sleep or is at a level that can cause hearing loss a trifling matter. Now another battle between residents demanding a bit of peace and quiet and part of the noise lobby is playing itself out in the municipal government, as the representantes consider a proposed ordinance to limit the hours in which construction noise is allowed to between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The Panamanian Construction Chamber, however, complains that its members have contracts that penalize them for late completion of projects and thus that they must often work longer hours in order to meet deadlines.

Punta Pacifica hit a FARC job?

News reports have linked the March 30 gangland-style slaying of a 25-year-old Chiriqui man, Almengor Santamaría, who was gunned down in an upscale apartment in Punta Pacifica, to Colombia's civil war. The apartment in question belonged to a Colombian, and another Colombian man is being held in connection with the slaying. El Panama America quoted a police source who noted ties between some of the suspects under investigation and Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas. FARC is known to conduct gun smuggling operations in Panama, sometimes accused of moving drugs through this country and is believed by many observers to keep some of their money here. However, there is also a history of disinformation flowing from foreign governments and right-wing elements in Panama which is aimed at promoting the idea that this country should take sides against FARC in Colombia's civil warfare. The murder has been the subject of discussion in the American community here because Punta Pacifica has been marketed as a "safe" upscale neighborhood for expatriates settling here. However, organized crime permeates all Panama City neighborhoods and these sorts of incidents from time to time occur in places where muggers and burglars hardly ever go.

Drug raids turn up Colombia-bound arms

A series of raids staged in Panama City and Rio Hato on the March 31-April 2 weekend by the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) was intended to break up a marijuana and cocaine trafficking ring. Quantities of those substances were found and seized and six Panamanians and one Colombian were arrested. At one locale in the Panama City corregimiento of Alcalde Diaz, however, police found not only 10 kilos of cocaine but also six AK-47 assault rifles, an M-16, many clips for these types of weapons and a couple of crates of bullets. Police believe that they found a two-way smuggling operation, wherein drugs are shipped from Colombian to Central America while arms left over from Central America's civil wars of the 1980s are sent to Colombia. Both the leftist FARC guerrillas and the rightist AUC paramilitaries are suspected of engaging in this sort of two-way traffic through Panama.

Driver's license chief removed in scandal

An investigation by El Panama America, wherein reporters working undercover bought certificates from driver training schools for classes and tests they never took and obtained licenses to drive from the Land Transportation and Transit Authority (ATTT) without going through the formalities has resulted in the firings of four employees in the authority's license bureau for corruption and the removal of the national drivers' license director for poor supervision. The case has been turned over to prosecutors. The situation took a turn for the bizarre when National Transport Chamber president Esteban Rodríguez, who owns one of the driving schools in question, filed criminal defamation (calumnia e injuria) charges against El Panama America reporter Ohigginis Arcia --- not because he was allegedly defamed, but because his daughter Christie Rodríguez, who was reported to have taken money to improperly issue a certificate for a professional driver's license, was supposedly defamed.

Indonesia to open an embassy here

The Indonesian government, which has long had formal relations with Panama but has not maintained either a consulate or an embassy here, will soon be opening a diplomatic mission here. Trade in goods and services between Panama and Indonesia is not too noticeable to the average Panamanian or Indonesian consumer, but there are a lot of Indonesian sailors working on ships flying Panama's flag and the Colon Free Zone has become the preferred wholesaling and warehousing center for trade between Indonesia and all of Latin America.

Old drug plane found in Colon

The partially submerged wreckage of a plane with skeletal human remains and 30 kilos of cocaine aboard were found on March 22 in Gatun Lake in Colon province. It appears that this was a Mexican drug smuggler who about one year ago had been flying low to avoid radar, but flew just a bit too low. The practice of planes dropping waterproofed bales of drugs along both of Panama's coasts to be fetched by accomplices in cayucos and forwarded on their way has now been shown to have been extended to Bayano Lake in eastern Panama province, and this latest finds raises questions about whether this is done in Gatun Lake as well.