Panama News Briefs

Panama News Briefs

Delgado charges La Prensa reporter

Yes the law was changed to strip government ministers of standing to charge people with criminal defamation (calumnia e injuria). However, the Torrijos administration is trying to carve out an exception to this, by way of Minister of Government and Justice Daniel Delgado Diamante taking a leave of absence as he faces a murder investigation and filing calumnia e injuria complaints while on leave. The latest charge is against La Prensa reporter Santiago Fascetta, for his reporting on the 1970 murder allegations. In remarks to La Estrella Delgado made an issue of Fascetta's Argentine citizenship

Mayor docked pay for being opaque

The mayor of San Miguelito, Héctor Valdés Carrasquilla, has been fined two months' pay by the First Superior Tribunal for failing to provide Kevin Harrington, the court appointed receiver for the PYCSA construction and toll road management company, with requested records of construction permit fees paid by PYCSA to the city. The mayor originally said that because it was a national project the city didn't have to provide the information, and later said that Harrington could have obtained the information if he had come to city hall instead of applying in writing for it as provided by the Transparency Law. Valdés Carrasquilla says he'll appeal the decision.

Investigation underway in death flights

Prosecutors are taking statement from at least five former soldiers who say that Luis "Papo" Córdoba, then a Panama Defense Forces captain in charge of military intelligence in Darien province, ordered the extrajudicial executions of at least 15 people, mostly illegal immigrants, by having them thrown out of helicopters over the jungle or the Pacific Ocean in 1982 and 1983. Córdoba, who was a major and head of the G2 intelligence, torture and psychological warfare unit at the time of the 1989 US invasion, was jailed for several years for other crimes and since his release has been an Evangelical preacher.

Scamster who caused Colombian riots welcome here

The collapse of the Colombian operations of DMG, a company headed by 27-year-old David Murcia Guzmán that has been running investment pyramid scams both here and in Colombia, resulted in rioting in Colombia that cost at least two lives and prompted curfews in five cities. But meanwhile Murcia is living well in Panama City, with the Torrijos administration, National Police, Banking Superintendent and Comision Nacional de Valores advising people to be wary of how they invest their money but refusing to enforce Panama's existing fraud laws. Murcia joins former Canadian Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard James McQuirter and former "patriot" militia figure and convicted felon Mark Boswell (alias Rex Freeman), both of the latter pitching different sales pyramid schemes, among the foreign hustlers allowed to operate international scams from this country.

Scam's attorney shot in nightclub district

On the evening of November 15 attorney Jorge Alexis Garrido Monfante was shot in the mouth outside the Kaos nightclub on Calle Uruguay. Garrido is part owner of that establishment and also the lawyer for Panama's branch of the Colombian-based pyramid scheme fraud DMG. The gunman, who stole nothing and apparently didn't try to do so, got away. Garrido lost some teeth but his wound was not life-threatening. What's alarming to many local businesspeople is the appearance that the shooting on Calle Uruguay represents the importation of Colombian business methods into Panama.

Gangland hit in Via Porras restaurant

A Mexican man, Carlos Morfin, stopped off for lunch at Jade on San Francisco's Via Porras on the afternoon of October 28, leaving his Colombian driver to stand guard outside. A few minutes later two men dressed in surgical scrubs burst into the restaurant and one of them shot Morfin eight times, killing him. The Colombian driver took a gunshot wound to the arm in the incident.

Church guard slain

In the early morning hours of November 10 Alexis Rodríguez Caballero, a 32-year-old security guard at the Catholic archbishop's office in Carrasquilla, was found dead next to the building where he worked. He had been shot at least five times. The body was found by Rodríguez's brother, who works for the church as a janitor.

Puerto Caimito anniversary ends in riot

Puerto Caimito, the sardine fishing port in La Chorrera district that's home to some of Panama's most outstanding athletes --- most notably New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera --- is also a rough community. On November 16 the community celebrated the anniversary of its official establishment and at about 11 that evening fights broke out that escalated in gunfire that wounded three people and the burning of two businesses.

Police recruiting falls short

President Torrijos had promised late last year to put 2,000 new cops on the streets during 2008. However, the National Police are getting fewer applicants and the dropout rate at the police academy is rising, so, according to El Panama America, this year's additions to the police ranks will only number 627.

Cops open fire on dam protesters

On November 6 the National Police used tear gas and shotguns to clear protesters from the Pan-American Highway in Veraguas. One man was hospitalized for birdshot wounds and another man was arrested. The protesters were mainly from the Farmers Movement in Defense of the Rio Cobre de Veraguas (MOCAMDERCO), which has been running a protest camp along the highway for about three months. The movement, most of whose members are of the Ngobe indigenous nation and are farmers who stand to lose their land or the water they need to irrigate crops or raise livestock, is against a hydroelectric project promoted by Estrechos SA, a company owned by Partido Popular notable and 1994 Christian Democratic presidential candidate Eduardo Vallarino. Such privatizations of water supplies upon which rural communities depend generally have the support of the Catholic hierarchy, but there are Catholic priests, nuns and lay missionaries among the MOCAMDERCO protesters. The movement has also drawn support from environmentalist and labor groups.

Prisoner slain in La Chorrera

On October 30 a 24-year-old prisoner, Eulogio Rizo Batista, was caught cutting the bars on his cell in an attempt to escape from the La Chorrera Jail. He was injured in the ensuing altercation with a police officer and died shortly afterward at the Nicolas Solano Hospital.

Extradition pact with Uruguay

Panama and Uruguay have agreed to an expedited extradition treaty, which in most instances would have Panamanian citizens wanted by authorities in Panama and found in Uruguay, or Uruguayan citizens wanted by authorities in Uruguay and found in Panama, summarily deported to their country of origin. The treaty would have to be approved by both countries' legislatures. There is no problem expected with Panamanian ratification, but sometimes extradition has been a divisive issue within the Uruguayan left, a coalition of which runs the government in Montevideo.

Government ignores Portugal family judgment

On November 12 Patria Portugal, the daughter of labor activist Heliodoro Portugal, who was taken away by government agents in 1970, died in secret police custody in 1971 and whose skeletal remains were found decades later buried under the parking lot of the old Puma Infantry Barracks in Tocumen, complained that the government had not complied with the Inter-American Human Rights Court judgment handed down two months earlier. Panamanian governments have a poor record of compliance with international court decisions.

New promise to pay part of old judgment

Back in 1990 the government fired 270 employees of the old state-owned IRHE electric utility for going on strike and after fruitless litigation before the Panamanian courts the workers appealed to the Inter-American Human Rights Court. That court ruled in favor of the workers and awarded back pay and reinstatement in similar jobs, but three successive Panamanian administrations ignored the judgment, which with interest adds up to some $60 million. The Torrijos administration has reached a settlement with 202 of the workers, to pay them about one-third of that amount, or actually to pay them one quarter of that third and purport to bind future governments to pay the rest. More than 20 percent of the employees are holding out for payment of the judgment, and the Torrijos administration says that they'll get nothing at all. The problem is, most of these workers are or were PRD supporters and the administration's stance is one more strain on the ruling party's internal cohesion.

New organized crime prosecutor

They already have special anti-drug prosecutors and anti-corruption prosecutors, but other than that --- maybe to deal with the traffic light sales cartels or the yeye drag racing scene? --- the Public Ministry has seen fit to add a new special prosecutor to deal with organized crime.

Campaign funds from drug lords not a concern

The purpose behind campaign finance secrecy became just a bit clearer when Electoral Prosecutor Boris Barrios told El Panama America that there is nothing in the Electoral Code against campaign contributions from drug traffickers so he and the Electoral Tribunal are not concerned with this issue. The close ties between the Panamanian government and organized crime are by no means an exclusively PRD issue, and are generally visible only by inference when one is able to observe the underworld elements whom governments favor.

Three tons of coke seized

In a search and seizure of double-bottomed containers at a workshop in the Panama City neighborhood of Pedregal that took several days to complete, police seized 3,057 kilos of cocaine presumed to be headed for points north. Five men were arrested in Pedregal and 10 Kalashnikov assault rifles were also confiscated. Later an alleged Mexican drug trafficker, Francisco Salazar Ramírez, was arrested at the Paso Canoa border crossing with Costa Rica and police believe that he had something to do with the waylaid drug shipment.

Balbina's immunity lifted over tainted onions

PRD presidential candidate Balbina Herrera is not going to be taken out, at least not directly, by legal problems. The ruling party has too much control over the legal system for that to be likely. However, she's now facing four different criminal investigations. The latest is about a company of which she is at least part owner, Agrovicaral Import and Exports Inc, that imported onions tainted with the carcinogen dioxin from the Netherlands in 2004. On November 13 the Electoral Tribunal lifted Herrera's immunity so that she can be investigated for that, but it's unlikely that she would be shown to have knowingly done anything wrong with respect to those onions.

Deadlock over gun laws

Along with violent crime, the number of applications for gun permits has risen sharply recently, according to many sources. The National Assembly has thus taken up the issue of gun laws, with one extreme represented by deputy Nelson Jackson (PRD - Portobelo) and his proposal to ban the carrying of firearms by anyone other than police officers, while others seek to make it easier to legally acquire guns. It seems that the paralyzing argument is closer to the center, about whether the minimum age to carry a gun should be 18 or 25. In any case there is no agreement either within the ruling party or among opposition ranks and it's looking increasingly unlikely that there will be any changes before the legislative session ends on December 31. If you have a clean police record, can excrete a drug-free urine sample and get a psychiatrist to certify that you're not a dangerous maniac, you may legally own firearms. The places and circumstances under which you may carry them outside of your home or workplace are regulated.

Civil service in legal system

It will be a while before we see how it works in practice, because similar laws affecting other parts of the government have become dead letters, but for now about 3,000 employees of the Public Ministry, including not only the prosecutors' offices but also those of the Administrative Prosecutor's office and the Institute of Legal Medicine, will have civil service protection.

Union Patriotica picks Mulino

In a November 15 national meeting in Aguadulce, the Union Patriotica party selected José Raúl Mulino as its president for the next four years. He replaces Guillermo Ford, who quit the post in protest against the opposition parties' failure to field a unified slate against the PRD for next year's elections.

New campaign ad rules?

Polls indicate that the scandal-plagued PRD may not be such a shoo-in for re-election in 2009 as was once presumed, with Balbina Herrera and Ricardo Martinelli running close to one another for the presidency and most voters saying that they think the country is on the wrong track and that the current batch of legislators ought to be dumped en masse. Thus Electoral Tribunal magistrate Erasmo Pinilla has declared that "the current heating of politics is the product of ads that have neither programmatic nor ideological content." So he's supporting an effort by Electoral Prosecutor Boris Barrios to tighten censorship on campaign advertising. So far, in a decision rendered in two hours without the opposing party given an opportunity to present a case, we know that it's "illegal" to allege in a campaign ad --- or, actually, to conclusively prove --- that PRD candidate Herrera's word is not to be taken seriously. The new rules to be proposed and adopted by the PRD-aligned tribunal and prosecutor will likely further criminalize that political speech which criticizes the ruling party.

134 independent candidates

There is still time for more to sign up, but many will fall short on their petition drives. So far, however, there are 134 people trying to run for office as independents in next year's elections. (This is not counting Dr. Juan Jované, who says he's an independent presidential candidate in a constitutional system that doesn't allow for these.) There are 95 would-be independent candidates for representante, 18 for mayor and 21 for seats in the legislature. The 2004 constitutional changes make it possible to run for the legislature as an independent for the first time, and we have had some independents elected to local offices in each election since the 1989 invasion.

New disease vector

Meet Anopheles darlingi, a species of mosquito that spreads malaria and was previously not found in Panama. Specimens of this insect were recently identified in Jaque and Biroquera, in Darien province. Health authorities are planning a study to find out how widespread these mosquitoes have become in Panama. The World Health Organization has been warning for some time that one of the results of global climate change is the shifting of natural ranges of many species, including vectors and reservoirs of diseases that can affect humans.

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