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Luciani, Villalaz and Jované charged for poisoned medicine

by Eric Jackson

Prosecutors have charged Seguro Social director René Luciani and his predecessors Rolando Villalaz and Juan Jované with negligent homicide in the poisoned medicines scandal. The prosecution theory is that when the Social Security Fund under Jované's direction placed an order for glycerin with Medicom SA and under Villalaz's direction received the material it should have known that the company was not to be trusted, and that when the supposed glycerin was mixed into cough syrup and other medicines without prior testing during Luciani's time those negligent acts contributed to the diethylene glycol (DEG) poisoning deaths of at least 101 and possibly more than 300 persons. In addition, all three are accused of maintaining unacceptable conditions at the Seguro Social medicine lab, including the lack of provision for the inspection of raw materials going into the medicines mixed there.

Villalaz and Jované were arrested, and Luciani was allowed to surrender to authorities, with Villalaz and Luciani spending a weekend in jail before their pretrial release subject to travel restrictions.  Jované was let out of custody earlier for health reasons. They were all questioned for several days by prosecutors armed with 70-page lists of questions. The questions may not have been identical, as Luciani's attorney complained that the complaint against his client is some 400 pages long while the complaint against Villalaz is less than half that long.

All three men maintain their own innocence and friends, colleagues, political allies and relatives of all three men have rallied to defend against the allegations.

Prosecutors have formally asked for Luciani's removal as Seguro Social director, but as this article was written neither the courts nor those with the power to remove him have acted on that request. Theoretically Seguro Social directors are hired and fired by the Social Security Fund (CSS) board of directors, but during the Moscoso administration Jované was fired by the president and the courts upheld that firing. Here the case is more complicated because a number of the CSS board members, present and past, could be accused of failing to provide the funds to staff and equip the lab to do the proper inspections.

The big question now is whether the Public Ministry will conclude its investigation with these arrests and these legal theories.

The latest charges are in addition to earlier charges against people at the medicine lab and against individuals at Medicom. The toxic DEG was labeled at "TD glycerin" --- an abbreviation for "tidai" or substitute or imitation glycerin --- at the Taixing Glycerin Factory in China and the labels were switched at least once and probably more than one time in a chain of commerce that stretched from the factory through CNSC Fortune Way, a Chinese wholesaler, to Rasfer SA, a Spanish wholesaler to the Panamanian importer Medicom to the CSS. By all account the material came to Seguro Social mislabeled as medical grade glycerin.

The former head of China's food and drug agency, Zheng Xiaoyu, has been sentenced to death for taking more than $800,000 in bribes to allow mislabeled or contaminated food and drug additives into the stream of world commerce. However, the government in Beijing says that the primary responsibility in the deaths here lies outside China, with those who altered the original labels on the tubs of DEG. Chinese authorities say that they will also prohibit the use of the confusing name "TD glycerin" to avoid future tragedies.

But attorneys for relatives of several the DEG poisoning victims have filed private criminal charges against not only Luciani but also Health Minister Camilo Alleyne, and those charges are not only about bad conditions at the CSS medicine lab but include allegations that health authorities were told by professionals in the Seguro Social and Ministry of Health public health care systems that there was a mysterious rash of deaths and illnesses among their patients in July of 2006 and this information was not acted upon other than to conceal it from the public until October.

At the time, the Torrijos administration was engaged in an expensive public-funded referendum campaign in which any person who questioned the professional ability of the government was branded as unpatriotic. Part of the referendum campaign included presidential visits to remote indigenous communities in which medications were passed out and vitriolic anti-opposition speeches were delivered. A CSS pharmacist and nurse died in a transportation accident while going home from one of these events in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca and Ngobe students have charged that people did die of DEG-laced medicines  that were passed out in the comarca. However, so far there has been no confirmation that anybody died from materials that were distributed during presidential campaign swings. Seguro Social has virtually no presence in the comarcas, but medicines produced by or for the CSS do get into those semi-autonomous indigenous commonwealths through the Ministry of Health's facilities as well as during political events.

The "what did you know and when did you know it?" line of questioning, which could reach the very top of the Panamanian government, is the essence of the relatives' private complaint against Alleyne, whom public opinion polls indicate that an overwhelming majority of Panamanians would like to see removed as health minister.

That sort of question is also posed as a defense. Jované, when leaving the prosecutor's office after questioning, rhetorically asked how he was supposed to know that medicines that his CSS administration ordered but had not received during his tenure contained DEG. Jované, an economics professor at the University of Panama and one of the notable figures on the Panamanian left, has received the support of fellow professors and several leftist groups. Leaving the prosecutors' office after questioning, Jované dismissed the allegations against him as politically motivated and without any legal justification.

In a statement by attorney and former Vice Minister of Public Works Grettel Villalaz, said that the 125-page complaint against her brother Rolando cited principles of law and axioms about public officials' responsibilities but was devoid of facts upon which a prosecution could be properly based. Rolando Villalaz is being defended by a team that includes his mother, law professor and former Supreme Court magistrate Aura Emérita de Villalaz, law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal and criminal defense lawyer Nelson Brandao. Rolando Villalaz, also an attorney, has received the support of the Movimiento de Abogados Gremialistas lawyers' group. After his release from custody Villalaz told El Panama America that prosecutors have all the information at their disposal to identify "those who are truly responsible for these poisonings."

When released after questioning on June 4 Luciani told reporters that getting out of jail was his first round win and that he would not rest until he's finally vindicated. Defended by attorney Jerónimo Mejía, Luciani also vowed to fight in court to keep his job.

On that same day, Health Minister Alleyne appeared alongside President Torrijos at a meeting of the Pan-American Health Organization that took place as part of the OAS summit. After than ceremonial appearance, Alleyne ran to a waiting car to avoid taking any questions from reporters. Torrijos has never made any public pronouncement about his role or his administration's performance in the DEG poisoning affair.

Editor's note: There are conflicting interests here, about which the readers should be aware. Attorney Miguel Antonio Bernal, whose columns appear in The Panama News, is defending Eric Jackson in a calumnia e injuria case and also Rolando Villalaz in the poisoned medicines case; and Eric Jackson's Wappin Radio Show airs on Radio Libre, which is owned by Rolando Villalaz.

Arrests devastate Panama's Servicio Maritimo Nacional coast guard
Luciani, Jované and Villalaz charged in poisoned medicines case

OAS meeting gathers an audience for many causes

Pro Ciudad takes its first steps
Small dolphin demo for the international media

Reports from Venezuela on RCTV, TVes and all the commotion
Panama News Briefs