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Ocean Embassy files criminal defamation charge against Fundacion Humanitas leader
Campaign tactics for dolphin park resemble previous Torrijos efforts

Not necessarily bored...

Torrijos law enforcement reforms encounter problems, still likely to pass
Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

New York Times traces DEG to its source

It seems that there is a solution to the mystery of how toxic diethylene glycol (DEG), which caused the deaths of at least 100 Panamanians and maybe more than three times that number, got into the raw materials supply that Seguro Social used to make medicines. Times investigative reporters Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker traced the poison, which was mislabeled as glycerin, through Colon to Barcelona to Beijing to a little building in the Yangtze Delta, the Taixing Glycerine Factory, which doesn't actually make glycerin --- the stuff that made its way into Panama's medicine was, before labels got altered along the distribution chain --- coded as "substitute" glycerin. Here in Panama the government is staunchly defending Seguro Social director René Luciani and Health Minister Camilo Alleyne, whom relatives of the victims blame for aggravating the crisis through their negligence and whom polls say most Panamanians ought to resign. However, there has been a series of raids on Chinese citizens or Panamanians of Chinese descent who are in the herbal medicine business here. The Public Ministry's count of confirmed DEG deaths is now up to 100, but there are still more than 200 bodies of others suspected to have been killed in the mass poisoning to exhume and examine, some of the examinations may have given false negative results of the poison's residues and there may be unknown cases in remote rural areas about which authorities have not heard.

Blind block the road

The Ministry of Public Works (MOP) and its contractors are widening the Transistmica to four lanes in the Las Lajas area, and decided that while they were at it they'd destroy an unusual concrete footpath with railings leading from a building along the way to the bus stop and pedestrian overpass. That building was the headquarters of the Union Nacional de Ciegos (National Union of the Blind) and the railing was there to allow people who can't see to find their way between that facility and the bus stop. The organization had been trying for months to talk with the ministry about that particular issue, but the MOP couldn't be bothered. Thus on May 5 we saw a must unusual twist on a standard Panamanian form of protest. A group of blind people went out into the Transistmica to block traffic. After about two hours of ensuing transportation chaos the blind citizens were promised a meeting with MOP and temporary guide rails were put up to replace the ones that were destroyed.

A detour in Piña's return?

Attorneys for former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega have said that when released from a US prison later this year, he'll be returning to Panama. President Torrijos and the National Assembly have smoothed the way for that by passing a Penal Code section that allows convicts aged 70 or over with the right political connections to serve their prison time under house arrest. Noriega, who will turn 70 shortly before his scheduled September release, has several prison sentences for murder and other offenses, handed down after trials in absentia before Panamanian courts, hanging over his head in this country. Any return to power by the ex-strongman is a paranoid fantasy, but a lot of his closest allies do hold high positions in the Torrijos administration, which has also put both of his daughters on the payroll in diplomatic posts. The problem for the current batch of PRD leaders is not being supplanted by this figure from the past, but by the party being embarrassed by his presence and thus losing the aura of an inevitable re-election in 2009. However, it now seems that France might solve that political problem. The government of France has filed an extradition request with the government of the United States, over a 10-year money laundering conviction handed down by a French court that tried Noriega in absentia. It's not a done deal because the US legal system looks down upon trials in absentia and because France is about to have a change from one conservative administration to another that might change its attitude about Noriega. Still, if the government of Panama and the United States find it expedient there is now a way to avoid Noriega's immediate return.

PECC scandal to unfold in a US court?

Here in Panama, the Supreme Court halted the investigation of the PECC scandal, which implicated former President Ernesto Perez Balladares, our current president's cousin Hugo Torrijos and other top people in the PRD and the PRD-aligned news media. Now, however, US authorities have brought charges against Charles Jumet, the American who apparently played front man for Panamanian officials awarding themselves the government contract to maintain this country's lighthouses and sea buoys, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although the American courts haven't been able to touch the allegedly corrupt former Panamanian officials, if this matter proceeds it's very likely that stories that are most embarrassing to some people who wield a lot of influence in this country will be told in open court. The prosecutors for the Public Ministry, who had tried without success to pursue this matter in Panama's courts, say they'll cooperate with US requests for assistance in the US case, which will take place in a US federal district court in Virginia.

UN: Poverty up, perceived corruption ubiquitous

The lead story in the May 7 print edition of La Estrella was about the United Nations Development Program human development report that the Torrijos administration is trying to suppress. Jean Marcel Chery got ahold of a copy, and he reported that it shows a sharp increase in poverty, with a majority of people here now living below the poverty line. Worse yet for the Torrijos administration, the UN report can't be fairly described as reporting a "widespread" perception that all branches are corrupt --- the more proper description is that this is a nearly universal belief, held by more than 90 percent of Panamanians. What makes this story more interesting is that it was the lead in the print edition but you can't find it in the online version of La Estrella, such that it could readily be used to sell papers here but wouldn't easily find its way in the American congressional debate over the US-Panama Free Trade Agreement. The UN Development Program called the report "a preliminary draft" and Comptroller General Carlos Vallarino alleged that it was "written by the opposition," but meanwhile there is an outcry embracing critics ranging from conservative business leaders to leftist labor militants denouncing the government's attempt to suppress the report.

Minor legal flack for president's uncle

Rodolfo Charro Espino, the uncle of President Martín Torrijos Espino, is starting to get some legal flack over the Punta Chame scandal, wherein he acquired more than 60 hectares of beachfront land from the government, more than one-third of it for less than a penny per square meter, and then bulldozed a mangrove swamp and covered it with sand. The destruction of the mangroves, done without a permit from the National Environmental Authority (ANAM), is a flagrant environmental crime and ANAM has opened an investigation. (If other cases and the true market value of the land in question serve as any guide, however, the fine that Espino would likely be assessed would still leave him with the land at well below what the market would bear.) Meanwhile two brothers from San Carlos have filed a private criminal complaint alleging public corruption, environmental crimes and association for illicit purposes against Espino. It does not seem that anyone in the Torrijos administration or the Public Ministry is looking into the details of how Espino, Government and Justice Minister Olga Gólcher and other well connected individuals have acquired beach front lands from the government at prices way below market value. (Under legislation pending before the National Assembly, control over the law enforcement agency that would investigate that matter would be transferred to Government and Justice Minister Olga Gólcher.) On the other hand, a National Assembly committee has called upon the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Agricultural Development and the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama to explain the land sale situation.

Ceville: Ancon Hill cable car contract illegal

Administrative Prosecutor Óscar Ceville has opined that the March 2004 contract between the former Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) and Inversiones Guarare to build a cable car system that would run between the top of Ancon Hill and the Amador Causeway is illegal. Ceville agreed with the arguments of lawyers for environmentalist groups and neighbors farther down the hill that ARI lacked the jurisdiction to grant a concession over a national park, which that part of Ancon Hill is. Ceville's opinion can be accepted or rejected by the high court, but such positions are usually taken to be persuasive.

So how effective are those car alarms?

If you are making payments on an automobile in Panama, the insurance companies demand that you have a car alarm. But the car theft statistics for 2006 would seem to indicated that the value of these is mainly for the car alarm business. There were 619 cars reported stolen here last year, plus 1,751 complaints about parts being stolen from cars. The former figure is probably close to the real total, because when whole cars are stolen people usually report it to police, although there are also bogus stolen car reports made in conjunction with insurance frauds. On the other hand, a lot of times when people get their hubcaps, car stereos or engine parts stolen they don't bother to report the crimes to police because they figure that there's not much chance of recovering their property after taking the time to file a report, so the latter figure is probably substantially lower than the police statistics indicate.

Gangland hit in "safe" area

Was he Mexican, and what was his name? On the afternoon of April 30 while he was driving a car near the El Carmen Church, a man carrying ID that pegged him as a Mexican national was gunned down by hit men passing by on a motorcycle. It turns out that the victim was Luis Hermida Madrid, a naturalized Panamanian of Colombian origin. Or was it? It seems that in his immigration paperwork there was some fictitious information about his identity. By some accounts the man's real name is Luis Alvarez Rivas. In any case the man had, under several names and in several countries, a history in the drug running business.

Suspect in Grossi-Abrams case gets away to Colombia

While an American woman, Debra Ann Ridgley, is being held in the stabbing murder and gruesome attempt to dispose of the remains of American real estate investor Toni Grossi-Abrams, two other suspects, both of them Colombians, are being sought. One of the latter, Camilo Cuenu Castro, has made his way back to Colombia. He was arrested entering Costa Rica at Paso Canoas and deported as an illegal alien back to Colombia. He wasn't held in Colombia, but when the Panamanian request for his capture belated arrived the cops raided his home in Buenaventura. He wasn't there. The Costa Rican INTERPOL office has apologized to Panama, admitting that it had the information on Cuenu Castro but somehow immigration authorities slipped up and failed to detain him.

Fake diploma lady back in U of P administration

She's back! Ónfala de De Bello, a business prof who in 2005 lost her administrative post as secretary general of the University of Panama for her role in the creation of a diploma for a student activist who hadn't taken the classes to qualify for it, has been brought back to the university administration by Rector Gustavo García de Paredes. She's now one of his aides, at a monthly salary of $1,200 on top of her business professor's pay. Theoretically, the criminal case against de De Bello, the student in question (whose expulsion was rescinded) and several others is still pending in the Public Ministry and the courts, but everything on that front is on hold as the university has appealed to the Supreme Court to quash the criminal probe as a violation of university autonomy. Law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, who complained about and proved the abuse? He's the one accused by the administration of being the bad guy. But what else can you expect from a rector like "Dr." García de Paredes, whose own claimed doctorate is a fake bought in Spain during the Franco dictatorship?

Flap over elementary sex education text

Should the public schools be telling fourth graders about "oral, anal or vaginal penetration?" A government text aimed at fourth, fifth and sixth grade students does, advising them how to use condoms during such activities, and talking about subjects like homosexuality, trans-gendered people and transvestites. Some church and civic groups are furious about it, and now it turns out that one of the supposed authors, Astevia Mock de Donato, says that the objected-to parts of "Vive una sexualidad sana y sin VIH/SIDA" (Live a sex life that's healthy and free of HIV/AIDS) were added by someone else, without her knowledge. Part of the hue and cry is that there are those who object to any discussion at any level of school of religiously condemned sexual practices, fearing that it might, for example, "recruit" youngsters into a homosexual orientation. But others simply object that the material for elementary school kids might be acceptable for secondary students but is inappropriate for fourth graders. One problem that has a bearing on the controversy is that in much of the Interior, and coincidentally in places with some of Panama's highest rates of HIV infection, access to secondary education is limited because there just aren't any secondary schools nearby and consequently most kids don't go past the sixth grade. In those areas sex education has to be at the elementary school level or not at all.

Pushbutton explosion

No, that wasn't a thunderclap, or a case of sexual fireworks. That loud bang in the middle of a torrential rainstorm was a gas tank exploding in the laundry at the Las Flores pushbutton on the Transistmica. A fire spread and the bomberos broke down some doors to evacuate surprised lovers. A few people were treated for smoke inhalation and and a few others for reported "nervous symptoms," but it seems that main cause for worry was not a problem --- people who were rescued were not identified to unsuspecting spouses in newspaper photos or television videos.

Your tax dollars at work

On April 26 the judicial system threw a Secretaries' Day party in a courtroom at the Palacio de Justicia Gil Ponce in Ancon, with the honorable Supreme Court magistrates in attendance. Part of the entertainment was a male stripper, and wags have had a lot of fun with the incident.

Guess who's here for brunch?

Noel Buchanan, a homeowner in Villa Caceres, found a surprise visitor in his own at about ten in the morning on May 7. It was a five-foot-long crocodile. An animal rescue squad from the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) came to remove the animal. ANAM told El Panama America that lately, as the by products of urban sprawl into formerly wild areas and unusual rains for the season, it has been getting on average a call every other day about a wild animal intruding into a house in an urban area.

Ocean Embassy files criminal defamation charge against Fundacion Humanitas leader
Campaign tactics for dolphin park resemble previous Torrijos efforts

Not necessarily bored...

Torrijos law enforcement reforms encounter problems, still likely to pass
Panama News Briefs