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Also in this section: Panama News Briefs
Move to pack the Supreme Court At a national lawyer's convention on April 25, National Assembly president Elias Castillo (PRD-Panama City) called for the creation of a fifth bench on the Supreme Court, to be charged with hearing habeas corpus motions. Castillo, noting the clogged dockets that keep many an innocent person behind bars in hellish conditions awaiting trial, advocated the move as part of a solution to the problems with this country's justice system. The addition of three more high court magistrates would also mean that the court's political balance would be shifted from a 5-4 majority of magistrates appointed by PRD presidents to an 8-4 partisan divide, or, viewed another way, from a 6-3 majority of members not appointed by President Torrijos to a 6-6 tie, turning to an outright majority when the terms of the remainder of those magistrates appointed by Ernesto Pérez Balladares expire. The issue of judicial reform was the subject of a presidential commission's report, upon which the legislature is expected to act sometime this year. Prior to the current president's inauguration, it had appeared that the court would have a 5-4 majority of Mireya Moscoso's appointees throughout Torrijos's term in office. However, that balance changed when a law mandating that public employees retire at age 75 was invoked to remove one of Mireya's appointees, whose replacement Martín named.
Rule strengthens legislators' impunity for crimes The National Assembly has passed on third and final reading its new internal regulations, which include a section that purports to restrict the 2005 constitutional amendment that gives the Supreme Court rather than the legislature itself the power to strip a deputy of his or her immunity from criminal investigation or prosecution. Under the rule passed by the assembly, it would take a two-thirds majority of high court magistrates to lift a deputy's immunity. Both the Supreme Court and the National Assembly have notoriously pro-corruption majorities, and the problem is aggravated by rulings by the former that if a person with legislative immunity commits a crime in league with a person who has no such immunity, the non-legislator can also not be investigated or prosecuted for the crime. President Torrijos, who won the 2004 election on a "zero corruption" pledge, has had nothing to say about what the legislature, in which his party enjoys an absolute majority, has done.
Failed court fire investigation The latest in Panama's long history of mysterious fires affecting public records remains a mystery. According to a report submitted on April 24 to the Supreme Court by the bomberos, the April 1 fire that swept through the rooms in the Tribunal Maritimo where records for not only that admiralty court but also those of several of Panama City's criminal and civil courts were stored was of an undetermined origin. The blaze, and a subsequent smaller fire that the fire department said was ignited by "high winds," destroyed the files and evidence in many cases. According to fire chief Mario Ramírez, the destruction to the wooden building was so extensive that it has not been possible to safely get to the spot where the fire started in order to collect evidence.
Legislative districts being redrawn The 2005 constitutional amendments included a provision that will reduce the number of legislators from the current 78 to 71, even as Panama's population grows. Here we have a weird mix of single-member and multi-member legislative circuits, the latter sending people to the National Assembly according to a set of rules that includes elements of proportional representation, which, in combination with the practice of burning the paper ballots and rules that prevent the investigation of most frauds, has ensured that election theft is an integral part of our system of choosing legislators. Redistricting is usually a sordid process in the best of political systems, but the deliberations of the assembly's Government Committee, which is talking about merging some circuits and dividing others, tends to make Tom DeLay's Texas congressional redistricting look rather straightforward. In the last three elections the great majority of deputies who sought another term were thrown out by voters. In 2009 there is likely to again be a movement to oust all incumbent legislators, regardless of how the districts are drawn.
Ex-governors take up the local sport Colon has long been the cradle of world champion boxers. However, ex-governors Julio Hernández (who served in the Pérez Balladares administration) and Gasam Salama (who served under Mireya Moscoso) should probably not be confused with Panama Al Brown nor Ismael Laguna --- or even US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, for that matter. But the two former governors did their rendition of Flying Fists of Fury on April 24, when Salama, who is director of the bus terminal that he was awarded when he was governor, objected to the strident remarks that Hernández has made about the project on his radio show. (Hernández claims that he was dispossessed of the land on which the terminal is being built by Salama, which seems to bother the radio commentator more than the conflict of interest inherent in Salama getting the concession while he held a public office that had influence over the decision.) So Salama turned up at the radio station, the argument came to blows, and Hernández told La Prensa that he'll file a criminal complaint.
Cops and accomplices accused of drug robberies, rape Six officers of the National Police, one from the Judicial Technical Police, a private security guard and five other civilians have been arrested in connections with a series of violent assaults on Panama City and San Miguelito homes and businesses in search of drugs to steal and resell. In the course of one of these attacks it is alleged that a woman was sexually assaulted, and in another that a woman was sprayed with mace, gagged, blindfolded and beaten. The officers allegedly committed the crimes while dressed in their uniforms and purporting to be conducting drug raids. The 13 men have been charged with association for illicit purposes, robbery, assault and a number of other crimes and are being held without bail.
US-led naval maneuvers to be held here Between April 27 and May 6 there will be joint international naval maneuvers in Panama's Pacific waters that involve the navies or coast guards of the United States, Panama, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Colombia. Operation Round Up will be run out of Rodman, a Panamanian National Maritime Service (SMN) base that used to be a US naval station, and will be oriented toward training sailors in coastal patrol techniques.
Target of pedophilia investigation found dead On April 24 the body of Bruce Crosby, a 59-year-old US citizen living in Changuinola on a tourist visa, was found dead in his home. Preliminary police finding are that he died of asphyxia and that it was probably a suicide. Crosby had gained notoriety through his web page, which contained cryptic offers of all-included tourism packages for $3,000, repleted with references to sharing his bed with underage boys and hints that what he was offering was sexual tourism for pedophiles. Crosby's business became the subject of a story in Okke Ornstein's Noriegaville website and investigations by Panamanian and US authorities. A few days before his death the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) raided Crosby's home and seized his computer.
Hackers vandalize First Lady's, MICI's websites More Panamanian government institutions have had their websites vandalized. This time the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's website was defaced and First Lady Vivian de Torrijos's email address was hijacked to send vulgar messages that appeared to come from her. The government's websites and email addresses have been repeatedly attacked and our law enforcement authorities have proven incapable of finding the culprits. That may change, as the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) are working to upgrade their capacity to fight computer crimes.
Historic document missing It was far from the first such loss, and it appears that it will be far from the most spectacular one that will come to light this year, but Panama's historic legacy has taken another big hit. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Watermelon Slice Incident, an April 15, 1856 riot that killed 18 people, 16 of them US citizens, and led to the first US military invasion of Panama, La Prensa reported the discovery that part of the official report of the affair has been removed from the National Archives. The remainder, it seems, is illegible because successive governments have not seen fit to spend the money to properly preserve old records with historical importance. The archives are not air conditioned as they ought to be and the books and papers in them are infested with destructive insects and fungi. Most countries make microfilms or photocopies of their important documents and store them at a second location to prevent losses, but Panama has not seen fit to do that.
Priest beaten for scolding children Father Jorge Espinoza Bernal, a parish priest at Colon's Catholic cathedral, was beaten with sticks by two adults at the church on April 22, after giving a sermon about the importance of confirmation. Why? Because Espinoza had scolded eight kids for their failure to do their memorization work for catechism, and the mother and older sister of one of the kids took offense. The priest said he forgives his attackers and is not pressing charges.
One killed, six arrested in drug flight What's an insolvent banana co-op to do? Renting out the airstrip that its cropdusters use to international drug cartels might be one source of income. However, it has yet to be shown that the proceeds of drug trafficking were used for the benefit of more than a few members of the troubled COOSEMUPAR cooperative in Puerto Armuelles. On April 16 a National Air Service helicopter caught a Mexican drug cartel's plane on the ground at the co-op's Finca Jagua and opened fire, killing the pilot and wounding the co-pilot, both of them Mexican nationals. Police swept in on the ground and seized 400 kilos of cocaine, fuel that was about to be put into the plane, and four other individuals, two of them security guards for the cooperative and two in a pickup with the aviation fuel. The wounded pilot made his way to a nearby farm, whose residents turned him in to authorities. A few days later another Panamanian suspect was arrested in connection with the case.
Sergeant busted trying to sell stolen helicopter part The National Air Service (SAN), this country's law enforcement air patrol, reports that one of its sergeants has been arrested while trying to sell a $300,000 part stolen from one of the institution's helicopters. The announcement was made over the Easter weekend, but it's unclear when the arrest was made and the SAN didn't release the sergeant's name.
$220 grand Brinks heist On April 17 a gang of assailants robbed a Brinks truck of about $220,000 when it was picking up cash from the Machetazo in San Miguelito. The masked robbers opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, wounding two Brinks guards. The guards returned the fire, and from blood found in the abandoned getaway van it appears that at least one of the assailants was also shot. Various suspects have been hauled in for questioning and released, and El Panama America reports that one thread of the investigation is about the possible involvement of police officers in the robbery.
$160 grand taken in casino heist On the morning of April 23 four masked men entered the new Veneto Hotel and Casino and stole about $160,000 from its safe. It appears that the men gained access to an unmarked entrance to the casino by impersonating agents of the Gaming Control Board, put on masks before they go to where video cameras would pick them up, overcame a couple of guards and made off with the money. The method used has led the investigation to center on employees or former employees of the casino and upon Gaming Control Board employees, as these would be the people with the inside knowledge to pull of the heist in that manner.
Leishmaniasis outbreak in Capira In Panama Oeste's Capira district there has been a rash of leishmaniasis cases diagnosed, and most likely there have been others that have gone unreported because they have been confused with flu, fatigue or other woes. The disease is spread by parasites borne by sandflies and transmitted via sandfly bites. In children the symptoms tend to be more acute, with fever, vomiting, diarrhea and coughing. In adults the symptoms tend to be more subtle but can be longer lasting, and include fever, fatigue, weakness and loss of appetite. There are treatments for the disease but there is no effective vaccine. The best prevention is the avoidance of sandfly bites, which means properly screened homes, insect nets for beds in heavily infested areas, insect repellents and dressing with long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
First Centennial Bridge suicide On April 19 38-year-old barber and preacher Antonio Dutary Aparicio told friends that he was going to complete a mission that day and later jumped from the Centennial Bridge into the Panama Canal, some 260 feet, to his death. It was the first suicide at the new bridge. Because of cost overruns, the Moscoso administration eliminated many important features from the bridge --- things like the road surface, lighting, and elevators to the top where inspectors must go to check the tension on the suspension cables. Another item Mireya eliminated was the suicide prevention fences. Although the work was not completed until well after she left office, the former president cut a ribbon on the bridge just before her term ended.
Most NGOs to lose their right to collect funds Only those non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that file documents with the Comptroller General's office will be allowed to accept donations from within Panama or from abroad as of June 30. Of the 600 or so officially recognized NGOs, only about 135 have complied with regulations requiring that they file declarations identifying all of their donors with the Comptroller. These filings are not accepted from lay people, but must be submitted by attorneys or certified public accountants. The right of a non-governmental organization to get legal recognition in the first place is not guaranteed in Panama, and has from time to time been denied due to foreign members in a group, social prejudices like those against homosexuals or political considerations. The regulations to be enforced are defended as safeguards against fraud, particularly by groups that receive public funds. However, the great majority of NGOs do not receive public funding and operate on shoestring budgets. Many of these do, however, point out social problems in ways that annoy politicians.
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