Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Former Navy SEAL slain in home invasion robbery

Alfredo Delgado, 47, a naturalized US citizen of Mexican origin who served with the elite US Navy SEALS and fought in the Gulf War, was slain on the evening of September 21 by masked gunmen in his home in the La Esperanza neighborhood of Panama City's Alcalde Diaz corregimiento. The four robbers poisoned Delgado's dog, cut the fence around his house and pried off the iron bars on the house itself. Delgado, at home with his wife and two children, confronted the four robbers but was shot in the head. After the shooting the maleantes forced the wife to hand over jewelry, an inconsequential amount of cash and an empty metal box. After that Mrs. Delgado got her husband to the emergency room at San Miguel Arcangel Hospital, but he was pronounced dead a few minutes after his arrival.

Correction: There was an email solicitation for donations to the widow that was brought to the editor's attention by several readers and, as the name in which that solicitation urged people to send checks did not match the widow's, it was reported as a fraudulent pitch. However, the person who originally made that appeal contacted and complained to me and said that the error in the name was merely clerical and was corrected in subsequent emails, which were not received by The Panama News as we only got the originals indirectly. In any case, it was an error on my part to presume fraud from the discrepancy. It was not a fraud. I apologize for the insinuation that the person who made the appeal was some sort of scam artist.

Bocas man slain, suspects arrested

On Friday, September 12, American emigre Kim Crofts was woken by the sound of an intruder in his home near Bluff Beach on Bocas del Toro's Isla Solarte. Crofts challenged the intruder and began to give chase, but was gunned down and died at the scene. There was a lot of mystery and speculation as to exactly what happened and why --- one ghoulish character in the American community here published his theory that the crime was not a robbery and had the hallmarks of being committed by a cop --- and meanwhile the cops at the Bocas station of the National Police are neither well equipped nor amply staffed to solve murder mysteries. Thus a collection was taken among friends and neighbors for a reward fund, and in following up on tips generated by this effort police identified and arrested five men, none of them from the Bocas islands. Authorities say that confessions have been made, and if they got the right people and truly solved the case it's a matter of a botched home invasion robbery, in which the Crofts were singled out because their home looked like an easy target and the maleantes presumed that since they were gringos they were rich and would have a lot of valuables to steal. In what was probably an ignored tipoff and evidence of planning, the Crofts's eight-year-old dog suddenly died a few days before the attack and may have been poisoned to weaken the home's defenses.

Government denies request for SAN-100 log

It is a maxim among the lawyers of many judicial systems when one conceals evidence it must be presumed that the missing evidence is contrary to the interests of the person concealing it. The Torrijos administration has filed a criminal complaint accusing La Prensa of altering a document, a copy of a page from the log of National Air Service helicopter SAN-100 that the daily says was provided by a source and which it published. The document purported to show that the presidential pilot recommended that the old Huey not be used to fly VIPs because of its age and certain defects. The government produced a different version of the memo which it claimed to be genuine. Parallel to this controversy, La Prensa took recourse to Panama's transparency law and requested copies of the entire log and all administrative notes related to SAN-100. However, the government has denied the requests because it says the documents are classified “confidential” and moreover are now part of the files of pending judicial investigations.

Another document in the SAN-100 case

It turns out that this past January an Israeli company, Israel Aerospace Industries, was hired to evaluate the Panamanian government's helicopter fleet and it issued a preliminary report that cited parts that needed to be replaced and possible structural faults with helicopter SAN-100, which crashed on Avenida Central while carrying a delegation of high-ranking Chilean and Panamanian police officers. The Torrijos administration argues that the document was flawed and unimportant and so withheld it from the Chileans --- but Chile obtained it through other sources and its ambassador here has diplomatically expressed his country's annoyance at such documents not being turned over by Panama. Right after the May 29 accident the government cancelled its contract with Israel Aerospace Industries and hired a Canadian company, Helitech Support Services, to do the same job. So would the Chileans have obtained their information from an aggrieved Israeli source?

Big Brother's new toys?

The Ministry of Government and Justice has put in a no-bid purchase order with Interamerican Police Security Distributors, Inc, for more than a half-million dollars worth of electronic equipment. As in, stuff to scan and analyze things going out over the Internet. As in, stuff to automatically monitor many phone calls and sort out the stuff that the government finds suspicious. As in, stuff to quickly locate the place from which a cell phone call is being made. If the government wants to be Orwellian, it will be better equipped for this purpose. But if it wants to zero in on a kidnapper making a ransom demand while the deed is being done, that possibility would also be enhanced. Colonel Daniel Delgado Diamante of the disbanded Panama Defense Forces, now Minister of Government and Justice, defends the purchase as an advance in public safety and national security. There are critics of the government who put different spins on this story.

Martinelli promises to scrap decrees

Cambio Democratico / Union Patriotica presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli has signed a pledge to the Red Democracia Ciudadana that if he's elected he will revoke the five “security decrees” issued by President Torrijos this past August. Opposition legislator Wigberto Quintero has likewise introduced a proposal to do the same thing, but that will go nowhere in the PRD controlled National Assembly. Meanwhile, PRD pundits are saying that it won't be possible for the next government to change what has been done. Should we take that as a coup threat? Recall that the “11” on the PRD flag stands for October 11, 1968, when Omar Torrijos and Boris Martínez led a military coup against the recently inauguarated Arnulfo Arias, because, they said, Arias had ignored the previously existing promotion lineup in a reorganization of the old Guardia Nacional. After awhile Torrijos maneuevered Martínez out of the picture and then talk began about a “revolutionary process,” but at the time the coup was an assertion that elected presidents don't have the right to alter the structure of the militarized police force.

Balbina says she'll scrap SENIS

“Sapo” literally means “toad,” but in Panamanian Spanish it also means “spy” or “informer.” The systematic espionage against citizens in the police state style is “sapería,” and Balbina Herrera promises to have none of it if she's elected president. Thus, she has promised to rescind one of President Torrijos's five “security” decrees, the one creating the SENIS secret police. This break with the president's policies has prompted an argument with Colonel Daniel Delgado Diamante, formerly of General Noriega's high command and now Minister of Government and Justice, who has just ordered more than a half-million dollars worth of electronic phone call and email interception equipment for SENIS.

Varela brings intra-party rivals, MOLIRENA on board

Panameñista presidential candidate Juan Carlos Varela has formalized an alliance between his party and the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement (MOLIRENA) and brought his principal primary rivals, businessman Alberto Vallarino and former legislator Marco Ameglio, onto his council of policy advisors. Polls have Varela in third place behind the PRD's Balbina Herrera (who's enjoying a bounce from her narrow win in the September 7 primary) and supermarket baron Ricardo Martinelli. If these alliances are as broad as Varela's appeal gets, then his campaign will be in serious trouble. If it's a matter of firming up his base in order to grow from there, it would be a conventionally wise strategic move. The main problem with all of this is that MOLIRENA is just a shell of what it was a few years ago. The lingering taint of Mireya Moscoso's kleptocracy and Varela's rigid conservative sectarianism aren't very helpful to the Panameñistas either.

Bosco Vallarino has gun permit problems

It seems that the Panameñista candidate for mayor of Panama City, Bosco Vallarino, feels the need to be heavily armed in his travels around town. One of his bodyguards was stopped by police with a 9mm Ruger pistol and a .357 magnum revolver, both fully loaded and with extra ammunition just in case, but no permits. The Vallarino campaign says it was all a misunderstanding, that the weapons were the candidate's and he once had proper permits, but these had expired and applications for their renewal had been filed. It's probably not a significant legal problem, but it is telling about the candidate and his perceptions of the dangers of the city he would lead.

21 PRD primary winners impugned

Challenges have been filed against 21 candidates who were declared victors in the September 7 PRD primaries. In some places, complaining candidates' names were left off of the ballots. In San Miguelito there seems to have been some serious fraud, including by way of at least one apparently altered acta, that affected several races. If any of the challenges are upheld the elections may be re-run in the affected areas.

Weight limits on Gaillard Highway

The PRD calls it the Carretera Omar Torrijos Herrera, but almost nobody else does. It's the road that goes from Albrook, past Clayton, Miraflores, Paraiso and the turnoff to Gamboa at Summit, then through the forest preserve to the Transistmica. The stretch through the forest preserve has just been rebuilt, but not to take the heavy vehicles that broke it up in the first place. There's now an eight-ton limit on what can be driven on the road.

Volunteers collect 9 tons of trash from city beaches

So, you really don't know Panama but you've seen the real estate hype about the scenic waterfront of its capital? If you live here and walk along the water you know that actually, Panama City's beaches are not only far too polluted for safe swimming, they are covered with trash. On September 14 volunteers from environmentalist groups and the city's sanitation crews conducted one of the periodic beach cleaning days, with the volunteers picking up trash and putting it in bags provided by the city and the municipal crews hauling the refuse away. Nine metric tons of refuse (about 10 percent more than US-style tons would weigh) were picked up and hauled away. There were all sorts of things, but particularly there was a lot of plastic packaging material, which people throw into sewers, rivers and storm drains and which ends up on the beaches. All that trash is a health hazard, a tourist repellant and a reflection of a cultural problem in Panama. It's also a consequence of our lack of laws banning no-return beverage bottles and cans, limiting packaging (especially the stuff that's neither biodegradable nor recyclable), and promoting recycling. One might think that now that Panama's breweries and soft drink manufacturers are almost all in foreign hands, and because we don't produce the oil or coal out of which most plastics are made, it would be relatively easy from the political standpoint for the country to crack down on the production of things that will end up as refuse on our beaches. But then, since when did very many of our lawmakers stop to consider the public interest?

Colombia hands over Justo Arosemena drafts

Justo Arosemena (1817-1896) is considered by many Panamanian historians to be the most outstanding leader that Panama ever had, even though in his time Panama was part of Colombia (or New Granada, as it was sometimes called). He was ousted as head of what was then the federal state of Panama in 1856, under foreign pressure after he dared to suggest that the US-owned Panama Railroad ought to be taxed, but he held many local and Colombian diplomatic, political and judicial offices and published many widely respected writings about the problems of Panama, Colombia and Latin America. Because this great Panamanian lived at a time when we were part of Colombia, his handwritten drafts of 1853 proposals for a new set of legal codes resided in Bogota, in Colombia's National Library, until September 18. On that day the Colombian Supreme Court's presiding magistrate, Francisco Javier Ricaurte Gómez, handed the documents over to Panamanian officials. Panama has not been very good about preserving its historical archives, and so far there is no announcement of what will be done with these papers.

Uh oh...

Was that a collective gulp heard from the country's courthouses? The Supreme Court's presiding magistrate, Harley Mitchell, has doubled the number of court auditors from six to 12 and plans to audit all of the country's 255 civil and criminal courts. The announcement coincided with a visit to Bocas del Toro, where judicial corruption is legendary and had been thought well nigh untouchable as the Atlantic side province is so distant from Panama City.

'Integrity? What's that?'

The theory is that the immortal rhetorical question that was posed by the late World's Most Dangerous Wrestler, Dick the Bruiser, better not be asked in the Panamanian courts anymore. On September 4 the Supreme Court issued a Code of Judicial Ethics, something that Panama didn't have before. The code is based upon a Latin American model adopted at regional judicial meetings, with adaptations that, for example, would allow Panamanian judges to make out-of-court statements about cases that have come before them. The central ethical issues, bribery and undue influence, were by law if not by code considered unethical before the code's adoption. The cutting edge ethical controversies to be resolved are about behaviors that facilitate or give the appearance of bribery or undue influence, such as ex parte meetings between judges and parties or attorneys for parties in cases before them.

Former anti-drug prosecutor acquitted

Patricio Candanedo, once Panama's top anti-drug prosecutor, has been provisionally cleared of criminal charges that he falsified documents and improperly deprived three Colombian men of their freedom shortly before resigning his post in 2006. It was argued that the three drug suspects were ordered held at La Joya Penitentiary without the proper paperwork for an order of preventive detention. It appears that the court found the accusations against the Colombians well enough founded and any flaws in the procedures against them sufficiently minor to negate any finding of criminal intent and behavior on Candanedo's part.

Boxer held in wife's death

Boxer Alfonso “Huracán” Mosquera was jailed on September 17 on suspicion that injuries from his maltreatment of his wife, Luz Nereida Moreno, led to complications that led to her death on August 12, after several weeks in the hospital. Mosquera protests that he never hit his wife and the medical reports about the cause of her death are contradictory, but there was apparently enough evidence for the prosecutors to issue an order of preventive detention, which, when appealed to a judge, resulted in a $25,000 bail being set. As these briefs were written Mosquera had not made bail.

Boxing hero's son slain gangland-style

Ismael Laguna, now ailing from Parkinsonism and not often seen in public anymore, was a world champion boxer and the pride of Colon back in the 60s. His son, Alexis Laguna, was less of a hero, and in fact was the target of a money laundering investigation. The investigation and the younger Laguna's life ended on September 20 when someone shot him 14 times at the Santa Maria building in Panama City's corregimiento of Bethania. The money laundering file may just be included in a murder case, however, or vice versa with the Laguna murder file. One of the theories of the case is that Alexis Laguna was killed to silence him about the organized crime activities underlying the money laundering investigation.

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