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Panama News Briefs

Singer Gilda Cárdenas dies in car crash

Tragedy has struck the cumbia band Las Plumas Negras again, this time on June 17, when its singer Gilda Cárdenas was killed in an early morning car crash when driving back to the capital from a gig in Colon province. She was 50 years old. The three other occupants of the car in which Cárdenas was traveling were injured. The founder and accordion player for Las Plumas Negras, Víctor Vergara, also died young a few years ago, of natural causes. Cárdenas's remains were returned to her native Las Tablas, the heart of the tipico culture of which cumbia is the principal musical expression for an emotional June 20 funeral.

FSU-Panama student slain

On June 14 Florida State University - Panama student George Ashby, who was 20 years old, bled to death after being stabbed in the leg in a wee hours argument at a birthday party in a La Boca residence. Another FSU student, William Randall, was arrested in connection with the death. The incident shocked FSU, which is not used to this sort of thing. It may also have exposed an academic weakness at the school, in that students there apparently don't know about such basic first aid techniques as using makeshift tourniquets or applying pressure to stanch bleeding from a serious leg wound.

Police warn of taxi driver assaults on women

Police have arrested one taxi driver and say that there are more who are suspected in a rash of robberies and assaults against women who were riding as taxi passengers in Panama City. The drivers, usually working with confederates on the streets, take their passengers into prearranged traps in which they are robbed by people waiting to grab purses or threaten the passengers with weapons. The suspect in custody is, in addition to robbery, accused of sexually assaulting passengers, using a knife to threaten them.

Alleged kidnappers nabbed

On June 16 police announced that they had arrested two Panamanian men whom they believe are part of a gang that was kidnapping people in Panama City and intimidating them into cleaning out their bank accounts to secure their release. Other suspects are also under investigation. A rash of apparently related crimes of this sort --- six abductions in the seven days before the arrests --- had led various opposition politicians to criticize the government for letting crime get out of control.

More purges in the Public Ministry

Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez has continued her housecleaning at the Public Ministry with the firings of two Chiriqui prosecutors, the suspension of a senior prosecutor in Panama province and a criminal investigation that may implicate a former anti-drug prosecutor, a former chief of the National Police and a former head of the detective squad in the diversion and resale of drugs seized in raids. Chiriqui prosecutors Anabel Cerrud and Berta de Cerrud lost their jobs because of cases left unresolved. Senior Panama prosecutor Geomara de Jones is suspended and under investigation for allegedly trying to interfere in the criminal investigation of her husband, prominent attorney Carlos Jones, who is facing charges of drunk driving and homicide after a traffic accident that left two people dead. Former anti-drug prosecutor Rosendo Miranda, former National Police director Carlos Barés and former commissioner of the National Police's DIIP detective squad Arnulfo Escobar are being investigated for an alleged cover-up in a case about the disappearance of drugs seized in police raids, a drug case in which a police captain has already been convicted. That latter investigation has been opened after a citizen's complaint and those named are denying any wrongdoing.

Gómez, Dixon clash

It was not the first run-in between the Supreme Court's presiding magistrate, Graciela Dixon, and Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez. On this occasion Gómez was in Chiriqui and went to pay a courtesy call on the judges of the Superior Court for Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro, but Dixon prohibited the meeting, which had been arranged by a local prosecutor and one of that appeals court's judges. The problem? Dixon alleges that Gómez improperly failed to get her permission before the visit. There has been some bad blood between the two at least since Gómez authorized a prosecutors' raid on the high court's records room in search of documentary evidence against Dulio Arrocha, a now-deposed appeals judge who had been practicing law and serving as a jurist for many years with a false law school degree.

11 killed in Bocas crash

A three-truck collision on June 10 on the road from Changuinola to Almirante has cost the lives of 11 people including three children. All of those who died were riding in the back a pickup truck after attending a send off party for a Baptist missionary. The pickup smashed into a truck hauling crates of bananas. The driver of the pickup and a man riding in the passenger cab both flunked alcohol tests and both driver and passenger were jailed without bond.

And this time they blocked the street because...

On June 19 students from the University of Panama blocked the Transistmica in front of the university, as the campus radicals are wont to do. This time, however, it was not to protest against some national government policy, show solidarity with the broad masses of workers and peasants or advocate the quick but agonizing deaths of the imperialist fascist aggressors and all their running dogs. It was actually a campus dispute. Apparently for arcane reasons having to do with the June 28 university elections, the dean of the Faculty of Public Administration, Nicolás Jerome, attempted to cancel the long-scheduled Latin American Foreign Relations Congress at the last minute. Jerome did manage to run the international gathering out of his department's auditorium, but its sessions were moved to the Paranifo.

More properties seized in Rayo Montaño case

At least 20 more pieces of real estate, these ones in Panama Oeste and Cocle, have been seized by police and prosecutors because they allegedly belonged, directly or more often through fronts, to the drug smuggling network said to have been headed by Pablo Rayo Montaño, a Colombian citizen. Lots and houses in Capira, Gorgona, Chame, Punta Barco, the town of San Carlos, Las Uvas and Santa Clara have been added to the inventory of seized real estate, which now adds up to more than 50 properties. Rayo Montaño, who was arrested in Brazil on an American drug trafficking warrant, is awaiting trial in the United States. He allegedly ran a gang that moved 15 tons of cocaine into the USA every month, and simultaneous to his arrest there were raids in at least six countries, including Panama, aimed at breaking up the ring.

Artifacts seized at Albrook

A trunk containing five muskets from around 1700 was seized by police at the Albrook airport on June 7, apparently after someone who intended to transport them on a domestic airline flight got nervous about the presence of police and abandoned it. Trafficking in antiquities and items of historical value is illegal in Panama, although the laws against it are not often enforced.

Father Ron back in the news

Former Catholic priest and ex-chief financial officer of the Archdiocese of Toronto Ronald H. Kelly, the Torrijos administration's favorite child molester, is in the news again in several countries. In Canada, one of the directors of a labor union pension fund that has lost millions of dollars investing in Father Ron's enterprises has been forced to resign. In the wake of revelations by the Ontario Financial Services Commission that $167 million (in Canadian dollars) from the Commercial Industry Workers Pension Plan had evaporated in Kelly's hands, and after cutbacks in pension benefits for retirees, former union leader Cliff Evans stepped down as pension fund trustee. Meanwhile the fund denied that it had any relationship with Kelly for several years, and denied that it had invested in Kelly's Caribbean hotel and resort businesses. But that series of stories in the Toronto Star prompted the Jamaica Gleaner to do some investigating, and that paper discovered that despite denials, Kelly controls the Wyndham Hotel in Kingston and the Comfort Suites in Ocho Rios, which were obtained with money from the union pension fund. Then, about one year after The Panama News wrote about Father Ron and his background, El Siglo became the first Spanish-language news medium to take notice that Kelly, who has a 10-count criminal record of sexually molesting young boys and yet, in violation of Panamanian immigration laws is allowed to live here. The PTJ has told El Siglo that it will investigate whether Kelly has engaged in pedophilia here. However, in keeping with the policy of zero action to correct acts of public corruption in which multimillionaires are the beneficiaries, there is no investigation of the improprieties connected with letting the chickenhawk Father Ron flout our immigration laws and establish residence here.

Octogenarian composer charged with sex with minor

Carlos Eleta Almarán, an 88-year-old musician and composer and former boxing manager, has been accused of having sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl by the teenager's family. On June 8 he was called before prosecutors for formal interrogation in the case.

Heavy waves damage houses, including Martín's

A series of large waves on June 18 and 19 splashed some foul polluted Panama Bay water on pedestrians along Avenida Balboa at high tide and damaged a number of beach houses along Panama's Pacific coast. One of the damaged buildings was President Torrijos's beach house in Anton district's Playa Blanca. (What was it that the Bible said about building your house on the sand?) On the other hand, the unusual waves made for optimal conditions at a surfing tournament held on Playa Teta in San Carlos on the 17th and 18th. (That surfing spot, however, is being threatened by private developers who are building a dam on the Rio Teta, which would eventually eliminate the sand bar that causes the wave break that makes the beach a prized surfing spot. The dam is purportedly for a hydroelectric project, but it appears that the generating plant is a sham and the real purpose is the appropriation of the river's public-owned water supply for private real estate developments.) This time of the year is peak surfing season on Panama's Pacific beaches.

Journalist charged with crime for exposé

El Panama America reporter Ohigginis Arcia nailed those involved in a scam by which people in two driving schools and the Land Transport and Transit Authority (ATTT) were selling chauffeurs' licenses to people who didn't take the classes or pass the tests required for those certifications. Now the owner of one of the schools, bus syndicate leader Esteban Rodríguez, has brought criminal defamation charges against Arcia. The charge was made under the "calumnia e injuria" law, which is actually two laws. Truth is still theoretically a valid defense against calumnia (publishing defamatory falsehood), but not against injuria (harming a person's reputation). Panamanian law does not take into consideration that one who in fact sells false diplomas has no good reputation that could possibly be harmed.

Journalist maligned in newspaper

El Panama America, known for its frequent blasts at "Asiatics," recently reported that the son of an "Asiatic" reporter for an Asian newspaper was among those recently busted for trying to smuggle marijuana to Taiwan. There is only one correspondent for an Asian newspaper stationed here, and nobody from his family was involved in this case. The maligned Taiwanese journalist, who has occasionally written stories that reflect badly on some of our politicians and who is a plaintiff in a long-running personal injury court case, told The Panama News that he believes that the story was planted by someone who has some ulterior motives to smear him.

Varela appears to have upper hand

Businessman Juan Carlos Varela looks more and more like the next leader of the opposition Panameñista Party. In recent internal party elections his slate won the most delegates to the upcoming party convention, but his three adversaries for the presidency denied that he had won a majority and formed an alliance to stop him. But now one of those rivals, former Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias, has thrown his support to Varela and called for party unity. Arias made his move in the wake of a June 11 showdown in which the Varela forces easily defeated their rivals to elect Michelle Piad de Sánchez as the leader of the party organization for women. Legislator José Isabel Blandón and former legislator Marco Ameglio still maintain their alliance and their hopes to block Varela's ambitions. The party has been in turmoil since Mireya Moscoso gave it a reputation for open corruption, led it to a resounding defeat in 2004 and then left it broke. It is traditionally one of the two main parties in this country but finished a distant third in the last elections.

Liborio García appoints women's rights defender

Although he may soon be out of a job for offensive things he said an allegedly did with respect to domestic violence, national ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) Liborio García has named a new director of his office's Women's Rights Protection division. Law student and journalist María Olimpia De Obaldía, who served as cabinet chief in the Moscoso and Endara administrations, will take up that position. The previous head of that division, Dayanara Salazar, was fired by García.

Olympic Committee decapitated

The Supreme Court has held that the 2002 elections by which the leadership of the Panamanian Olympic Committee was chosen were invalid. The challenge was brought by several of the federations that are part of the committee, which complained that long-time Olympics boss Melitón Sánchez changed the election statutes without having them duly approved and that this swung the election his way.

Collapse in Casco Viejo ruins

A wall of the ruined Compañia de Jesus church in the Casco Viejo collapsed on June 10, injuring a 35-year-old woman and a newborn infant. The incident happened amidst heavy rains. The government had planned to partly restore the ruins into a courtyard park, and despite the collapse that plan is apparently still on.

Anglican bishop, educator dies

Retired Archbishop Clarence Hayes, the founder of Panama's Episcopalian Instituto San Cristobal and one of the leaders of the Anglican faith on the global level, died after a long illness, it was announced on June 15. The Anglican church was established in Panama in the mid-19th century and Colon's Christ Church by the Sea is the oldest Protestant church on the Meso-American mainland. But at first the church mainly served the British shipping community and American Episcopalians who came here with the railroad. Later the church took on a different identity, as waves of West Indian immigrants came to constitute a majority of its congregations. However, it remained largely under foreign leadership well after than change, with Hayes becoming only the third Panamanian to head the church.

Panamanian sailors held in Honduras

The possibility of a ship being arrested in connection with an economic dispute is one of the common hazards of the maritime business. However, in Honduras nine Panamanians, the crew of the ship Calafate, were personally arrested when bringing in a cargo of cement. Honduran authorities claim that there was an attempt to evade taxes with respect to the cement, and instead of the usual procedure of detaining the ship and cargo until a bond was paid to cover the amount of money in dispute, they jailed the crew. The Ministry of Foreign Relations, at the behest of the crew's families, is looking into the matter.

Also in this section:
Legislative crunch time
Chávez coming here to celebrate Bolívar's attempt to unify Latin America
Spanish report blames FARC for the Colastras' abduction
Penal Code reform recommendations include new anti-press provisions
Panama News Briefs