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Alleged Colombian drug lord's arrest leads to questions about his ties to elite Panamanians
Pedro Miguel González affair sets back consideration of US-Panama free trade pact

Contenders jostle for position in race to succeed Torrijos

An Urban woe

Left rises to Saúl Méndez's defense
Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Epidemic in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca

Dozens of people have become sick with a mysterious disease marked by fever, stomach upsets and serious respiratory problems in the Ñurúm district of the Ngobe - Bugle Comarca. At least 18 people, most of them children, have died of the illness since mid-August. Keeping track of the outbreak is a problem for both health authorities and the news media because the affected area is difficult to reach, well beyond where roads go.

Spadafora - Figali scandals take another twist

There is every appearance of a mutual non-aggression pact between the Supreme Court, which must approve any criminal investigation of a legislator, and the National Assembly, which must approve any criminal investigation of a high court magistrate. Poll after poll has repeated the showing that a huge majority of Panamanians believe both the judicial and legislative branches of government are highly corrupt and no cases have been more notorious than those in which magistrate Winston Spadafora and his suplente Jacinto Cárdenas have ruled in favor of Jean Figali and his business, most notoriously canceling Figali's debt to the government for the land on which he built the Figali Convention Center (a decision written by Spadafora) and overturning "stop work" orders on an adjacent Amador Causeway marina project for its lack of permits from the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) and the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP). Now the legislature will hear yet another set of complaint, this time by AMP secretary General Ernesto González De La Lastra, that Spadafora has been living in a house owned either directly or through a corporation by Figali without disclosing the conflict of interest; that both Spadafora and Cárdenas are officers in a company called Villas Marinas SA despite a constitutional prohibition on magistrates and their alternates being engaged in any other business, and that Cárdenas also violates that stricture by being a partner in a law firm. If precedent is any guide, the complaint will be unanimously thrown out by the assembly's Credentials Committee and most of the deputies will thus never have to vote on it. If that doesn't happen, there would be the prospect of two of Mireya Moscoso's appointees being thrown off the court and replaced by people chosen by Martín Torrijos. The obstacle to that latter possibility is that the PRD and its Partido Popular junior coalition partner don't have the two-thirds legislative majority to convict a magistrate in an impeachment trial, but then by losing such a vote the Torrijistas could make the bogus campaign claim that they fought for the "zero corruption" they promised but were blocked by the opposition.

Dixon and her entourage campaign in Europe

Graciela Dixon, the presiding magistrate of Panama's Supreme Court and chief defender of the allegedly legal principle that it's a crime to even investigate the murders and disappearances of political foes by the former dictatorship of this country, has been nominated by the late dictator's kid to a post on the International Criminal Court in The Hague. However, President Torrijos's nomination does not suffice. To get the job, Dixon will have to be elected in a vote among the countries that have adhered to the treaty. In order to enhance her chances at that, she has taken off on a 15-day campaign swing to Europe, accompanied by a bodyguard and administrative assistant, all at public expense. La Prensa put the cost of the campaign swing at $27,790.

Dixon gets support, opposition

The Colegio de Abogados, Panama's non-mandatory bar association, is supporting Graciela Dixon for a post on the International Criminal Court, with some prominent members opposing the endorsement. Meanwhile, some of the families of those who were killed in the 1989 US invasion and their lawyers are accusing Dixon of falsifying her resume by including a claim that she represented these clients when she never did. Virtually all of Panama's human rights groups and activists and all of the leftist groups oppose Dixon because she's for impunity for the crimes of the dictatorship.

New batch of immune politicians

The Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO), another organization that does nothing of consequence but whose members enjoy immunity from investigation or prosecution for criminal acts, is coming here. The group will be moving its headquarters from Sao Paulo, Brazil to the City of Knowledge at the former Fort Clayton.

Legislature considers circuit funds

The National Assembly is considering a return to the institution of circuit funds in next year's budget, to the tune of some $40 million. Under that system each legislator is given a certain amount of money to spend on public projects, more or less at his or her discretion, usually in his or her circuit. The practice in the past was that majority legislators would get more than opposition deputies, and the system in general was criticized because there were always a few legislators who would find a way to spend the money on themselves or their families. On the other hand, there are parts of the country that have ambulance services or passable roads only because a legislator's circuit fund bought an ambulance or a road grader, and many a Little League team's travel expenses, Golden Gloves boxing tournament or playground's maintenance were covered by such funds. In a year before Panamanians go to the polls and with polls showing that most people have a very low opinion of the current legislature, the patronage possibilities of circuit funds are most attractive to many deputies on both sides of the aisle. To get into next year's budget the National Assembly would have to approve the idea and then President Torrijos would have to sign off on it.

New suspect in Lorenzo shooting

Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant from one Julio Enrique Coronado after a security guard for the Odebrecht construction company identified him as the man who fired the shot that killed SUNTRACS construction union member Osvaldo Lorenzo in an August 14 picket line incident. In light of the new charges lawyers for Eduardo Boyce and Jorge Morgan Melchor, Odebrecht employees who have been held for murder in the case, have petitioned to have their clients released.

Dolphin protest at the Japanese Embassy

The local controversy about dolphins, which brings out hundreds of protesters at a time, is whether the capture of dolphins from Panamanian waters for use in theme parks either in this country or abroad will be permitted. In Japan they catch dolphins to kill and eat, and that practice has been the subject of growing protests both in Japan and around the world. Japanese opponents like to point out the high concentrations of mercury and other toxins in dolphin meat, and using that argument have been campaigning to remove it from the menus of public school lunchrooms. A series of worldwide protests against the Japanese dolphin hunt included a September 25 picket line at the Japanese Embassy in Panama City, in which about three dozen people participated.

New US Embassy

On September 18 the US Embassy inaugurated its new digs at Clayton. The complex cost some $70 million to build, in a two-year project whose general contractor was the Caddell Construction Company. One of the new features at the embassy is that there are electronic defenses on the grounds that prevent people from using their cell phones there, or for that matter Osama's boys setting off a remote controlled bomb using a cell phone for a detonator. The place is also set back well away from the road, unlike the old embassy on Avenida Balboa, which means a much better defense against drive-by or drive-up attacks. The new embassy is part of a worldwide American embassy replacement program that was first proposed after the bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and became far more urgent after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Not a recommended place to sleep

Since Osama bin Laden's minions began launching their attacks on the United States and its military and diplomatic outposts around the world, the protection of American diplomats is supposed to have tightened. That's why, for example, there is a new US Embassy at Clayton that's far more secure than the old one on Avenida Balboa. On the morning of September 25, however, guards found a 29-year-old homeless man sleeping under some plants in the yard of the US ambassador's residence on La Cresta. El Panama America reports that the man told the guards who woke him up that he didn't know whose yard he had chosen for a sleeping spot. The residence is fenced and guarded, and the incident is likely to have some repercussions on somebody's career.

Arrests over strange airliner incident

As these briefs were written six young Syrian men were in custody after having allegedly tried to open the door to the cockpit on a COPA Airlines flight from Havana to Panama. As regulations require, the door was locked and the passengers did not gain access, but the pilot sent a radio message about it. Aggravating the alert was a flight attendant noticing that one of the knives from the in-flight meal service was missing. The Syrians as well as a Cuban man were detained for questioning. The Cuban was quickly released.

High profile home invasion attempt

Armed gangs invading homes in upscale neighborhoods are causing a fair amount of alarm in certain parts of Panama these days, with the assailants frequently drugging or poisoning their victims' guard dogs before staging their attacks. On September 20 the maleantes picked on a home in Las Cumbres where former Panama Defense Forces General Rubén Darío Paredes lives, but he reportedly thwarted the attack by confronting them with a firearm he keeps around the house. Paredes thinks that the plan was not robbery but kidnapping.

Prisoners shaken down to attend trials

The majority of people held in Panama's jails and prisons have been convicted of nothing. They are awaiting trial, but this and the existence of a long docket backlog are not particularly news. What is new is that Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez has complained that part of the reason for this backlog is the frequency with which prisoners don't get to their scheduled court appearances, and part of the reason for this is that prison guards are demanding bribes to allow prisoners on the bus to attend their trials.

Hermano Mayor vigila

No, the law enforcement reorganization doesn't include the formation of an elite Brain Police unit. However, the cabinet has approved a $7.5 million appropriation to employ the lawless Cable & Wireless phone company to install and operate a video camera surveillance system around Panama City. Already there are 25 cameras working in the Casco Viejo and La Cresta. The devices can scan in any direction and identify individuals at a distance of some 400 meters. The new batch of cameras will be mainly set up in Bethania, Rio Abajo, Parque Lefevre, San Felipe and El Chorrillo.

30 tons of garbage picked up from city waterfront

On September 23 in Panama City, hundreds of high school students and members of environmentalist groups took part in the annual beach cleaning day. Between the Casco Viejo and Panama Viejo, they picked up 30 tons of refuse for the city trucks to haul away.

Garbage privatization protest in Arraijan

Another chapter in the sad story of garbage privatization in Arraijan --- on Sunday, September 23 people from different neighborhoods from around the district held a march against the high cost of garbage pickup --- starting at a $4 per month basic rate but varying according to a number of factors --- and blocked the Pan-American Highway for about 20 minutes. The basic problem is that a lot of the district's poorer residents can't afford the fees and thus dump their garbage by the side of the road, but protest leaders are also claiming that the municipal contract with a company called Aseo Capital SA was approved in an illegal process. Previous deals between the city and other private garbage contractors hadn't worked out very well either.

Arraijan mayor charged with selling street

Arraijan mayor David Cáceres (PRD) and another city employee have been charged with abuse of authority for selling a city street to five families. A trial has been set for December.

Kung fu political women

Given the troubles of the city's PRD mayor, it seems like a good time for an opposition politician to start to run for the job. On September 12 there was a parade commemorating the foundation of the municipal district of Arraijan, and up on the dais were the mayor and his PRD entourage and also Marilyn Vallarino, an opposition legislator. She was talking to a TVN video crew about her plans to run for mayor and to do something about the high cost of garbage pickup when Yulitza Rodríguez, a PRD activist and city employee, poked Vallarino in the face and alleged that Vallarino doesn't even live in the Arraijan circuit she represents. Whereupon Vallarino grabbed Rodríguez by the lapels and threw her off the stage in a remarkable martial arts move --- without any shouting in Asian languages, however --- that was nationally televised. That set off a full-scale brawl, with the men of the mayor's entourage duking it out with the men of the legislator's entourage. Finally the police came in and broke up the fight.

He throws like a...

Well, let us not get into gratuitous sexist insults of all the many girls and women who play baseball. Let us just point out that in his big opportunity to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium, President Torrijos couldn't even get the ball to the plate.

Human rights violations --- or just female justice?

The National Ombudsman's office, after a tour through Embera and Wounaan communities, has begun a review of indigenous justice systems to determine if they amount to human rights violations. For property crimes, domestic violence, drunk and disorderly conduct and other relatively minor offenses, in those societies one is likely to be sentenced to confinement in the cepo --- the stocks, something like two railroad ties, one atop the other with slots to put a person's ankles through --- community service and compensation to the victims. In Embera and Wounaan villages maintaining public order is considered women's work so it's the women elders who hold the key to the cepo.

Women in black

Garbed in black, a delegation from the Alliance of the Women's Movement in Panama delivered a manifesto to government offices on September 12. During the previous week three women had been murdered in Panama, one a schoolteacher shot by her former lover in front of her students. The alliance complained that police, prosecutors and judges don't take domestic violence seriously enough, and that most murders of women are by current or former husbands or boyfriends.

20 years later it's STILL jailbait

On September 25 police arrested a 40-year-old US citizen, Paul Warren Wells III, in Tocumen. He had been here since 1999, having flown in from Mexico in that year. But since 1987, according to Migracion officials here, Iowa has wanted him to face several criminal charges, including sexual abuse of a minor. On the Scott County (Davenport Iowa) Sheriff's Department website Wells was listed as having been convicted of three counts of indecent exposure in 1987 and in 1992 of third degree sexual abuse of a girl aged between 14 and 17, and as being currently wanted for both failure to register as a sex offender and sexual exploitation of children. Only millionaire child molesters like Father Ron are welcomed in Panama by the Torrijos administration, so Wells was turned over to Migracion for extradition proceedings.

Alleged Colombian drug lord's arrest leads to questions about his ties to elite Panamanians
Pedro Miguel González affair sets back consideration of US-Panama free trade pact

Contenders jostle for position in race to succeed Torrijos

An Urban woe

Left rises to Saúl Méndez's defense
Panama News Briefs