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Torrijos shuffles his team President Torrijos has made a number of changes in his cabinet and other high-ranking positions. Some of them appear related to the upcoming canal expansion referendum, but most of the changes look like an ordinary adjustment that happens in the middle part of most administrations. This, however, is the second such series of moves in a presidency that has been in office for less than two years. The most notable changes are in the Ministry of Government and Justice. Stepping down is Héctor Alemán, who was elected as a legislator in 2004 and who had been President Torrijos's campaign manager in that election as well. Alemán will resume his post in the National Assembly, which had been filled by his suplente while he was serving in the cabinet. He is to also play the role of campaign manager for the "yes" side in the upcoming canal expansion referendum. Replacing Alemán is the vice minister, Olga Gólcher. She had not only been working as the number two person at the ministry, but had taken personal charge of the prison system after various scandals prompted its former director, psychiatrist José Calderón, to step down. The new corrections chief will be 47-year-old sociologist Carlos César Landero Moreno, who once occupied the number two spot in the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ). Gólcher's replacement as vice minister has not been announced by the president. Some media have reported that it will be Daniel Delgado, a former officer in the old Panama Defense Forces who had held various posts in the Pérez Balladares and Torrijos administrations, and who would move into this spot from being head of Customs. Others point to Danilo Toro, who has been serving as secretary general at the ministry, has played the role of political analyst and strategist in the PRD for many years and served for a time in the Pérez Balladares administration as presidential press secretary. At the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ricaurte Vásquez has been replaced by Minister of Public Works Carlos Vallarino. Vásquez will stay on as president of the Panama Canal Authority board of directors and a member of the cabinet. Vallarino has been replaced at Public Works by Benjamín Colomarco, who had been in charge of the Catastro --- official mapping and surveying --- office at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Colomarco's past includes heading the Noriega-era Dignity Battalions militia. The old Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) lapsed by law at the end of last year, with its remaining functions, employees and assets transferred to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. President Torrijos has appointed Olmedo Miranda, who has served in a number of posts in various PRD administrations, to head that part of the ministry and as president of an inter-institutional committee to oversee the disposition of the remaining former Canal Zone real estate. The shifts in the Torrijos administration also included a new job for presidential press secretary, who has been appointed as temporary secretary of government communications, replacing Jorge Sánchez. The latter will take a leave of absence to work for the "yes" campaign in the canal expansion referendum.
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