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Dolphin capture opponents mobilize, promoters respond
Study warns of low support for Panama's institutions, growing intolerance

Allegation of an Al Qaeda plot to attack the canal

Has the old Inter-American Air Force Academy really been demilitarized?
Leftists protest in front of American Embassy

Latest US State Department report on human rights in Panama

May trial of civil suit about US-based company hiring Colombian death squad
Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Torrijos signs new gag laws

President Torrijos has resisted public pressure to veto a law that essentially prohibits most investigative journalism. From now on it will be a crime to publish any document that was not specifically written for publication --- virtually all government documents and virtually all documents that contain evidence of crime are now off limits to reporters. Another gag law, banning the publication of information that might affect national security, was also approved by the president. These laws were among the controversial provisions of the new Penal Code that the National Assembly passed. In a veto message issued by the Minister of the Presidency, it was announced that Torrijos had objected to four sections of the code, not including those new  anti-press laws.

Curundu fire kills three, routs more than 700

A March 21 fire in the slums of Curundu that is alleged to have been set by members of the Los Sicarios street gang in a drug selling turf war with the rival Los Niños de la Tumba Fria destroyed 137 houses, left more than 700 people homeless, injured 10 individuals and killed three children. When the bomberos responded to the fire alarm they were confronted by armed gang members and hundreds of police officers had to be brought in before the firefighters could work. Shots were fired between police and alleged gang members, and by the end of the day at least six of the latter were under arrest, including a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy said to have begun the fire with a molotov cocktail attack on a wooden house. There were also arrests of would-be looters and of people resisting evacuation orders in an attempt to salvage some of their belongings ahead of the flames.

It's official: Montenegro can't investigate corruption

President Torrijos has issued a decree that his anti-corruption czarina, former Administrative Prosecutor Alma Montenegro de Fletcher, is not allowed to investigate alleged cases of corruption. From now on her job will be to prevent public corruption --- except in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, in which corrupt practices are enshrined by custom and by and large protected by law.

Vanguardia Moral gets ballot status

The Electoral Tribunal has certified that Vanguardia Moral de la Patria, a new political party headed by former President Guillermo Endara, has signed up more than 61,000 members, more than enough to get a spot on the 2009 ballot. A couple of leftist groups are also seeking to register new parties, but it seems unlikely that either will get ballot status in time for the next elections. The lineup of legally registered parties now includes the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and its junior coalition partner the Partido Popular, which are affiliated with the Social Democratic and Christian Democratic internationals respectively; the Panameñista Party, the Union Patriotica, Cambio Democratico, the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement (MOLIRENA) and now Vanguardia Moral. The largest of the opposition parties by membership, the Panameñista Party, is in disarray with its current leader Juan Carlos Varela favoring an alliance with Cambio Democratic leader and supermarket baron Ricardo Martinelli, others looking for an alliance with Endara, and still another faction insisting that the Panameñistas must lead and control any 2009 opposition alliance. In 2004 former President Moscoso kept the favorite candidates of the party's rank-and-file out of the race for the Panameñista nomination and one of these, Guillermo Endara, ran under the now defunct (by merger into the Union Patriotica) Solidaridad banner and left the Mireyista alliance in a humiliating third place.

Political fallout in Belize over a crime in Panama

Four Panamanian customs officials are still facing charges that they took a bribe of more than $100,000 from one Moises Cal, a Belizean traveling on a diplomatic passport, to let him enter the country carrying an undeclared $1 million in cash. Cal got out of Tocumen Airport and then out of Panama without being apprehended, and then an interesting chain events began to unfold in Belize. Cal, it seems, was not traveling on a bogus diplomatic passport, just arguably an expired one --- although it didn't say that on its face. After slipping out of Panama and getting back to Belize he turned in that passport of the Foreign Ministry, which gave a couple of different stories about it. One was that this past December, when Cal became the ruling People's United Party's (PUP's) standard bearer for a parliamentary constituency in the country's capital, Belmopan, he had to resign his diplomatic post and was supposed to have turned in his diplomatic passport then. Belizean Foreign Minister Amalia Mai told a Belizean television reporter that Panama's only questions to Belize were about that passport. Meanwhile, Cal resigned as a candidate and went into hiding from the press, and in downplaying the affair Mai pointed out that "Cal never was a particular favorite of the party hierarchy." And who are "the party hierarchy?" Well, the biggest contributor to the PUP is also a major political player in the UK and the biggest ever contributor in Australian politics, one Michael Ashcroft --- who happens also to be a director and reputed part owner of  Panama Holdings Subsidiary Inc, a Panamanian company whose co-director and vice president is one Samuel Lewis Navarro, the vice president and foreign minister of Panama. (Ashcroft is also the former employer of Canal Affairs Minister Ricaurte Vásquez.) Might the web of business and political ties have something to do with why Panama, which would make its requests for law enforcement assistance through Lewis Navarro's ministry, has only asked about the passport and not about the bribery and apparent money laundering? In any case, Panama has no extradition treaty with Belize under which to ask for the surrender of the Belizean ruling party politician.

Balbina: drug mafia has taken over the country

Housing Minister Balbina Herrera complains that "we're becoming prisoners of evil," because drug gangs have seized the country. Her specific points were the still unsolved 2006 poisoning murder of PTJ Inspector Franklin Brewster, who is thought to have been killed by members of the Sensitive Investigations Unit that he headed, who in turn had been hired by drug lords; and the more recent gangland-style murder of 22-year-old student Stanley Ábrego.

Jácome comes back to find pink slip

Jaime Jácome, who was sent on vacation a few months back after the legislature and president passed a law that temporarily gives the Attorney General the power to hire those who hold his post as director of the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), surely knew he wasn't getting his job back. That a couple of days before he had been called before prosecutors to be interrogated in a criminal investigation of allegations that he promoted unqualified people was just one hint. And when his vacation was over, he came to work to find the letter notifying him that he was fired. The firing might be challenged in court. The criminal case has more than anything to do with the qualifications of a Colombian academy and, although at a glance it does not look all that strong, promises to drag on for a long time.

More than 20 tons of coke seized

Some 19.5 metric tons of cocaine --- or about 21.5 tons by the US measurement system --- were seized by the US Coast Guard in the waters off Colon on March 18, having been uploaded onto the freighter Gatun Panama, which had come through the canal carrying grain and paving stones. In a series of accompanying raids three Mexicans were arrested, said to be operatives of the Sinaloa drug cartel. One of those detained, Luis Ernesto Mondragón, is alleged to be one of the cartel's leading figures. Also seized was Marine Management & Chartering Inc, which prosecutors believe is a front for the drug smugglers.

Police sergeant wounded in Pedregal drug raid

National Police Sergeant Secundino Camarena was wounded by gunshots to both legs and the groin in the course of a March 18 drug raid in Pedregal. It may have been a set-up: the police were responding to an anonymous tip when several assailants opened fire from several directions.

PRD picks up another deputy

Abraham Martínez was elected to the National Assembly on the Solidaridad ticket, but was one of those party members who didn't like the merger with Partido Liberal Nacional that created the Union Patriotica. Thus Martínez has joined the PRD, where he gives the ruling party and even more ironclad grip on the legislative branch.

At least the roof won't leak

La Critica reports that the national archives are saved. How little they know over there. The government has approved $600,000 for improvements to the National Archives building, which includes a new roof so that the records there will no longer be rained upon. But between insects, crumbling acid-based paper, mold and water damage already inflicted, the salvage of the country's important historical documents and everyday governmental records would require some expensive scanning equipment and many new employees and that part of the job is not yet provided for.

No accountability for sale of sailors' certificates

During the Moscoso administration it became a big international scandal when an international union activist walked into the Panamanian consulate in Manila, paid $4000 and walked out with first mate's papers for which he was unqualified. Those papers would have allowed him to be at the helm of a supertanker in most countries' territorial waters, and as a result the coast guards of several nations instituted special inspections of the papers of crew members of Panamanian-registry vessels. In the uproar a number of government employees --- though not the one most responsible in Manila --- were charged with the long-standing racket of selling mariner's certifications regardless of qualifications. But the 48 cases arising from the scandal dragged on and now the Ninth Penal Court has declared that the charges must be dropped due to the statute of limitations. The prosecution is appealing.

Kids who killed two-year-old get seven years

Three teenagers who took part in an inter-gang shootout for control of drug selling turf in Curundu this past August have been sentenced by a juvenile court to seven years in prison for the incident, in which two-year-old Bryan Hinks was killed. The case aroused cries of outrage in the neighborhood last year when two of the accused were arrested and within a couple of days released to the custody of their parents.

Insect fear

By anecdotal evidence the mosquito populations in much of Panama City are unusually high and there is fear of a serious epidemic of dengue fever, which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. However, through the first week in March of the year health authorities registered fewer cases of dengue than in the same period last year. There is a doubt factor because most cases of the usually flu-like ailment are not reported and after the poisoned medications scandal many Panamanians no longer have much to do with the public health authorities. Also, new and more virulent strains of dengue are appearing around Latin America and there's fear of that as well. In any case, extra funds have been appropriated and we are seeing insecticide spraying trucks in city neighborhoods more frequently of late. A number of people in the area where The Panama News office is located are spraying themselves with insect repellent before going to bed at night. The fundamental way to combat dengue is to deny the Aedes aegypti places to breed by cleaning up trash, old tires, junk cars and other places where small bodies of clear water accumulate.

Government jobs for bus fire victims' relatives

The Torrijos administration has jailed the driver, owner and mechanic of a bus that burned this past October 23, killing 18 persons. That the bus had no emergency exit, had an air conditioning system that used an explosive chemical and was bought because the Banco Nacional de Panama insisted that the owner use his bank loan to buy only that particular unsafe model of bus has been studiously ignored by the Torrijos administration --- they're not considering better vehicle safety regulations or looking into the conduct of the state-owned bank and its management at the time. (Some relatives of the deceased, however, have filed criminal charges against former bank officials and the bus's importer.) The "nothing we can do" approach by the government probably has to do with its intentions to replace the present city buses with "articulated" vehicles that have proven unpopular and prone to breakdowns in Bogota, but it has had the embarrassing side-effect of leaving families whose breadwinners were killed in desperate poverty. Thus the Torrijos administration has been finding government jobs for some of the victims' relatives, as a form of compensation, La Estrella reports.

Dolphin capture opponents mobilize, promoters respond
Study warns of low support for Panama's institutions, growing intolerance

Allegation of an Al Qaeda plot to attack the canal

Has the old Inter-American Air Force Academy really been demilitarized?
Leftists protest in front of American Embassy

Latest US State Department report on human rights in Panama

May trial of civil suit about US-based company hiring Colombian death squad
Panama News Briefs