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Legislative session ends in pandemonium

by Eric Jackson

It will be some time before Panamanians fully realize what the National Assembly did in the last days of its 2006 session. That's because the budget hearings were held in secret and a lot of things got jammed through in the middle of the night, very likely including some hidden benefits for the legislators and their families and friends.

It is known that a budget was passed that will mean thousands of public sector job losses, legislative circuits were redrawn and election rules revised, control over the Judicial Technical Police was at least temporarily shifted from the Supreme Court to the Attorney General, the Transito Code was revised and radio and television broadcasters will now be required to play the national anthem at noon and 6:00 p.m. as well as when signing on and off the air.

As the session's last hours ticked away --- it was about 2:00 a.m. on December 31 --- assembly president Elias Castillo (PRD-Panama City) made televised remarks about opposition deputies who were not there. One of these, Mireya Lasso (Vanguardia Moral - Panama City), was watching and took great offense. She went down to the Palacio Justo Arosemena, where security guards attempted to prevent her from entering the legislative chamber (as is her right, and actually, her duty) and once inside, began to shout her objections at Castillo. She was confronted by Zulay de Vásquez (PRD - Capira) and some other members of the majority caucus.

According to the PRD version of things, Lasso was rude and threatening to Castillo and slugged Vásquez. Lasso denies these things.

To demonstrate the PRD version of events, Castillo called in a selected group of reporters and showed them (and through them, the public) the video record of the incident. But his big problem was that it didn't show Lasso hit anyone, but rather showed security guards (who are all PRD activists) and PRD deputies trying to bar Lasso from the assembly chamber. In the press conference the PRD accused Lasso of "intruding" into the chamber.

The PRD caucus, which has the votes to do anything it wants, vows to censure Lasso once the National Assembly goes into regular session again in March. However, that caucus passed a legislative code of ethics (sic) a few months ago, and there doesn't seem to be any section of it that applies to what Mireya Lasso did, or what the PRD deputies say she did.

There have been some legendary scenes in the legislative chambers over the years. One of the more memorable was when, in 1996, Arnulfista legislator Olmedo Guillén and his PRD colleague (now Housing Minister) Balbina Herrera got into a heated discussion about an amnesty proposal for Noriega-era crimes and Guillén told Herrera to "go home and take care of your kids." Whereupon an enraged Balbina slapped her colleague in the face. The PRD held the majority in that legislature so there was no move to censure or discipline Herrera, and public opinion, particularly but not exclusively on the female side of the electorate, turned out on Balbina's side in that incident.

Also in this section:
Correction about Lord Ashcroft
Power struggle over courts and PTJ fought on several fronts
Legislative session ends in controversy, special session coming
Electoral Tribunal, election laws changed for 2009
Gringo community's right wing wages Christmas mudslinging offensive
Panama News Briefs