|
|
|
|
|
News
| Economy
| Culture
| Opinion
| Lifestyle
| Nature |
Volume
14, Number 13 |
Also in
this section:  The dictator's son remilitarizing
a country that abolished its army
Torrijos gets power to reorganize police and security forces by decree article by Eric Jackson, photos by the Presidencia Just
before its regular session ended on June 30, the National Assembly
passed enabling legislation to allow President Torrijos to reorganize
Panama's police and security forces by decree.
Officially, Panama abolished its military by a 1994 constitutional amendment after the old Panama Defense Forces were defeated and disbanded in the December 1989 US invasion. But US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently declared that Panama's National Police are "an army in all but name," a member of General Manuel Antonio Noriega's old general staff, Colonel Daniel Delgado Diamante, is the Minister of Government and Justice and Noriega's adjutant, Major Severino Mejía, is the vice minister. The president has also evaded the legal requirement that the National Police director be a civilian by promoting Police Commissione Jaime Ruiz as "acting" director. The planned changes, as reported by several of the Spanish-language dailies, include formally removing the requirement for a civilian director, combining the the National Air Service police air patrol and the National Maritime Service coast guard into a joint air and naval command, creating a National Border Service and establishing an Intelligence and National Security Service. Many of the people who led the Civilista opposition to the former dictatorship are especially critical of the latter proposal, claiming that the new intelligence unit is essentially the recreation of General Noriega's G-2 intelligence, torture and psychological warfare unit.  The Catholic Church ended up
opposing the former military dictatorship, but now the hierarchy is
aligned with the government and the Vatican and the Torrijos
administration have agreed to put Catholic military chaplains on the
government payroll. Here a priest sprinkles holy water on the
remilitarized police
officers' sabers.
Also in
this section: News
| Economy
| Culture
| Opinion
| Lifestyle
| Nature
Make
the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://ww.executivehotel-panama.com
|
|||||||||||
|
©
2008 by Eric Jackson email: editor@thepanamanews.com or e_l_jackson_malo@yahoo.com Mailing
address: |
|
|
|||||||||
