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Baucus warns that González is an obstacle to the free trade pact

What people are saying about Bush's Iraq policy speech

US Navy photo by Mass ‎Communication Specialist 2nd Class Todd Frantom

They're not here to take out Panama's National Assembly, yet

A 19-nation military force some 7,500 strong and led by the United States was recently here in Panama, and with all the fuss over where former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega will be headed next, one might think that it might have to do with another Panamanian leader whom US authorities consider a fugitive from the law, one Pedro Miguel González.

The latter was chosen president of the National Assembly on September 1, with the full support of the PRD-Partido Popular ruling coalition and also a few votes from the legislature's lame so-called opposition. Given that there is an oustanding US warrant to arrest González for a 1992 drive by shooting in Panama that took the life of US Army Sergeant O. Zak Hernandez --- a charge that could get the legislator death by lethal injection if the feds get their hands on him --- one might think that the Marines had landed to take him away, as Noriega was apprehended by US forces back in 1990.

That was not the case, however. This picture is from the Panamax 2007 naval maneuvers, an annual event wherein sailors, marines, soldiers, aviators and cops practice various tactics, play with each others' equipment, teach, learn and schmooze, all predicated around defending the Panama Canal from a hypothetical attack.

(The big story that didn't appear in any of the US Southern Command press materials is that in last year's Panamax maneuvers, there apparently was a real enemy present --- the commander of Panama's National Maritime Service at the time. This time around, Ricky Traad is in jail awaiting trial on drug and money laundering charges.)

Pedro Miguel González and Manuel Antonio Noriega figure, each in their own ways, in the ongoing US congressional consideration of a United States - Panama free trade agreement. The Traad affair doesn't really register up there, nor do all three Panamanian government branches' condoning of and participation in the most flagrant sorts of corruption, of which the recent prohibition of an investigation into in our faces peculation by a former president is a sordid example.

So do we have a small faction of congressional Democrats seeking assurances that Panama's labor and environmental laws will be adequate before they'll vote for the free trade pact? The question they should really be asking is whether we have the rule of law.

Another recent event that brought Jimmy Carter, Senator Byrd, a bussed-in crowd of the PRD party faithful and a gaggle of international reporters to the banks of the Panama Canal is another case in point. To media that don't cover Panama on a regular basis, and to those Panamanian news organizations that are politically aligned with the PRD or the Partido Popular, the one and only story was a double-barreled triumph of national pride, the start of work on the canal expansion and the 30th anniversary of the Panama Canal Treaties. What went without notice except in El Panama America, local environmental circles and The Panama News email updates was that, in gross non-compliance with this country's environmental laws, work started on this mega-project without an environmental permit having been approved.

(By the way, do you want to get on the list for news and website production updates from The Panama News? Just send me an email.)

The same problem applies to our labor laws, and indeed to this country's attitude toward treaties into which it enters. The most flagrant of many examples is the case of the at the time public utility workers who were fired back in 1990 for going on strike. By treaty, the court of last resort in such cases is the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in San Jose, and years ago this tribunal held that the workers were illegally fired and owed damages and back pay. However, successive administrations have thumbed their noses at this legally binding court decision in particular and our labor laws in general.

The US Congress, under both Democrat and Republican leaders, has this history of certifying the most bizarre fantasies. Let us hope that their decision on the US-Panama free trade pact, whatever it may be, will be based upon reality rather than some strange belief that the rule of law counts for very much in Panama.

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The Panama News and friends were in all sorts of places these past few weeks and we have some pictures to show for it.

Milton Roldan was out in the bush, taking a peek at a two-toed sloth's nap.

Andre Doumoulin and other members of a committee to support the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt (a Colombian Green politician long held hostage by the leftist FARC guerrillas) climbed Volcan Baru for the cause.

I went to Panama City's main annual international food fair and charity event, the Caravana de Asistencia Social at ATLAPA.

And then Silvio Sirias used words rather than pictures to portray a particularly harrowing show and tell session.

Also in prose, painter and retired nurse Gaenor Speed describes the process of getting her driver's license renewed, which ought to be simple but has been made a bit more difficult for foreign residents. (This "reform," by the way, was enacted by General Noriega's former adjutant before he was shifted away from running the Transito Authority back to the number two spot in the Ministry of Government and Justice in a recent cabinet shuffle.)

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