news

Panama News Briefs

Arson suspected in burning of three Kuna villages

Police, prosecutors and high-ranking government officials say that the fires that destroyed three remote Kuna villages --- Piria in the Madugandi Comarca on December 21, Isla Miria in the San Blas Archipelago on December 26 and Wala in the Wargandi Comarca on January 7 --- were of suspicious origins and that one of the theories that investigators are working on is that they were the products of rivalries between criminal gangs that smuggle drugs through the area. The suspicion is strengthened because, as Housing Minister Balbina Herrera told El Panama America, threats have been made. Nearly 1,500 people lost their possessions in the fires, which swept through the three communities and destroyed almost all of the structures in them. Kuna villages are built of thatch-roofed houses located close to one another, and thus particularly vulnerable to fires. There were a few injuries but no fatalities in the three blazes.

Cop dies after tear gas exposure in prison riot

National Police First Corporal Jovanny Montenegro collapsed and died of a cardiac arrest at the La Joya Penitentiary on December 26. Earlier that day he had been exposed to tear gas while helping to suppress a riot that was apparently staged as a cover for an escape attempt, and afterwards he complained of breathing problems. Montenegro had been on duty for more than 24 consecutive hours when he collapsed. National Police Chief Rolando Mirones denied that Montenegro's death was caused by the tear gas, citing its US manufacturers' claim that the substance is non-lethal. However, it is well known that tear gas sometimes is lethal to especially vulnerable people, particularly when it is used in enclosed spaces.

Special legislative session starts January 23

President Torrijos has called the National Assembly into a special session to begin on January 23, which will take up proposed changes to the Penal Code and the rules of criminal procedure. Assembly president Elias Castillo also wants to add the creation of a three-member fifth bench to the Supreme Court to the special session agenda, but that addition would have to be decreed by Torrijos. A presidential commission has proposed and the Cabinet Council has passed on to the legislature a controversial draft of a new Penal Code. In general the draft code would increase penalties for all crimes, but would in certain circumstances legalize domestic violence and sex between adult men and underage girls. The fifth bench idea is basically a court packing scheme that would shift control of the high court, and thus, under our system, the entire judiciary, to Martín Torrijos's appointees.

Torrijos puts Valdés back on Electoral Tribunal

Eduardo Valdés Escoffery's retirement from the Electoral Tribunal was short-lived. At the end of November he stepped down after 10 years as the legislature's appointee on the three-judge panel. But at the end of December President Torrijos made him the presidential appointee, replacing Dennis Allen. Earlier the Supreme Court had made Electoral Prosecutor Gerardo Solís a magistrate and the legislature had given Erasmo Pinilla another 10-year term. That leaves the tribunal with two magistrates from the PRD, Solís and Pinilla, while Valdés has political roots in MOLIRENA. The president still must appoint a new Electoral Prosecutor. The newly constituted tribunal elected Pinilla as its presiding magistrate as its first order of business.

Battle for control of PRD joined

The nominations are in and the battle for control of the Democratic Revolutionary Party is underway. There will be a four-way race for the PRD party presidency, with former President Ernesto Perez Balladares and Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro the early favorites. Perez Balladares says he wants the party's 2009 presidential nomination and Navarro is often mentioned as a presidential candidate but says it's too early to talk about that now. The mayor's cousin, Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro, is also mentioned as a possible presidential nominee. Challenging Martín Torrijos for party secretary general is Pérez Balladares supporter and former Labor Minister Mitchell Doens.

RP extradition request for Noriega

Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro has told La Prensa that his ministry has forwarded an extradition request for General Manuel Antonio Noriega to the US government, but has received no response. The former dictator has a September parole date from the US Bureau of Prisons, but meanwhile was tried and convicted in absentia for a number of crimes in Panama and has the prospect of many years in prison facing him here. There are political traps in all of this. The Torrijos administration is full of old Norieguistas --- for three examples, take Vice Minister of Government and Justice Severiano Mejía (a former Panama Defense Forces major and top Noriega aide), Public Works Minister Benjamín Colomarco (who headed the Dignity Battalions militia) and Colomarco's wife (who heads the post office and is the sister of Noriega's mistress Vicky Amado). However, if jailing the ex-strongman here might be unpopular with some members of the president's inner circle, not making him serve his time here would enrage many voters --- how many is an interesting question --- and could affect the 2009 presidential ambitions of any politician (Samuel Lewis Navarro, for example) who might be said to have had a hand in Noriega avoiding prison here. Blaming the Americans by claiming that they sat on an extradition request and let Noriega go into exile in a third country after his release could be a convenient political dodge.

Gangland hit in Portobelo juvie home

In the pre-dawn hours of January 6 a group of six masked gun man entered the Centro Vocacional Basilio Lakas, a juvenile detention facility in Portobelo and killed 17-year-old gang leader Omar Frutos with shots from heavy-caliber pistols and a shotgun. The assailants, who with one exception encountered no resistance from the police and guards, then walked out of the facility and made their escape. Wounded in the attack were the victim's 15-year-old cousin and cellmate and one guard who resisted the hit men. Frutos had a record of many arrests for robbery and homicide and a reputation as the leader of a particularly vicious Colon street gang. The brazen attack on his place of detention is believed to be the result of a contract put out by a rival gang.

Togas are back on

The toga party appears to be back on --- the presiding magistrate of the Supreme Court, Graciela Dixon, says that the plan for high court judges to wear robes on the job, which was announced and then withdrawn late last year, is on again. No word yet on whether there'll be any worm dancing.

Traffic fatalities up in 2006

437 people died in traffic accidents during 2006, even though our year-end holidays were relatively safe. That's an 8% increase over 2005. Staying off of the road didn't turn out to be a perfect safety strategy, either: 167 of the deaths were pedestrians, not all of whom were in the road. 88 of the drivers or passengers who died were killed when their vehicles went off the road and ran into fixed objects.

Tragic reminder of a rainy season hazard

The government every now and then issues a warning but nature's warnings are far more terrible: storm drains are dangerous during heavy rains. On December 28, a day and a half after he was swept away into a drain in Curundu during a rainstorm, the body of 16-year-old Lennis Aguilar was found near the canal in Diablo.

Colon mayor and garbage contractor cited for health hazard

In Panama City city hall and the Ministry of Health have been passing out fines for people who allow mosquito breeding conditions on their property. In Colon it's much worse. There, the Ministry of Health has fined Mayor Antonio Latiff and the city's garbage collection contractor, Aguaseo, for breeding mosquitoes. Panama is having a lot of cases of dengue fever lately. The mosquito-borne disease is occasionally deadly, but mostly it's like a body flu that lasts for about a week. It's no fun, and it's mostly caused by littering that creates small, clear bodies of water like those that collect in beer cansthrown alongside the road or in discarded old tires.

You can't say this politician has no backbone

In fact, Vice President Rubén Arosemena has a very SORE backbone. He’s recovering from pre-Christmas surgery to repair some ruptured spinal discs, has been released from the hospital and ought to be going full speed again in a few weeks.

Cosmetologists working the streets?

This edition's news of the weird comes from immigration director Ricardo Vargas. The transformation of Via Veneto and its side streets into something of a red light district has been the subject of a lot of public discussion, as is the fact that many of the streetwalkers who sell sex on those streets are Colombians who come here on tourist visas. Vargas says there's nothing he can do. He told La Prensa that "It's very difficult to tell if a woman is a cosmetologist or if she's engaged in prostitution if you come across her while walking down the street."

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