|
|
|
|
|
News
| Economy
| Culture
| Opinion
| Lifestyle
| Nature |
Volume 14,
Number 24 |
Also in
this section: Panama
News Briefs
Mayoral tensions in Martinelli's coalition When
the Martinelli coalition was just Cambio Democratico and the Union
Patriotica, it was agreed that the latter party's Iván
Blasser would be the alliance's candidate for mayor of Panama City.
But polls indicate that Blasser is a scarcely relevant also-ran, and
meanwhile MOLIRENA has broken its alliance with the Panameñistas
--- including their mayoral candidate Bosco Vallarino --- and
MOLIRENA legislator Olimpo Sáez
thinks he deserves to be the mayoral nominee. That has set off a
fight within the highly fractious MOLIRENA, and meanwhile Cambio
Democratico is divided between those who want to stick with Blasser
and those who want a candidate with a better chance. For the most
part the Union Patriotica is sticking by Blasser. So far, polls have
the PRD's Bobby Velásquez
ahead, followed by Vallarino and Miguel Antonio Bernal.
Saldaña
wins PRD primary for Alvarado's seat
Dr.
José
Daniel Saldaña,
a physician, has won the PRD primary for the legislative nomination
for Chiriqui's circuit 4-5 (Dolega, Boquete and Gualaca). Carlos
Alvarado was the deputy and was headed toward renomination in the
September primary when he suddenly died. Saldaña
beat Alvarado's alternate, Omar Chavarría, by a wide margin.
Lots
of independents
We
won't know how many will get on the ballot until the February 3
deadline, but at the end of 2008 more than 180 people had filed
preliminary papers with the Electoral Tribunal to seek election as
representantes, mayors or legislators as independents. Election
authorities have added all manner of obstacles to gathering the
necessary signatures, and meanwhile some of the political parties are
bringing some of the more prominent candidates onto their party
tickets.
Most
parties losing members
So,
now that the PRD has hired all the botellas that they're likely to
hire and they're behind in the polls, there's an exodus of
opportunists. Also leaving are some people who have honest
disagreements. In any case, in the month of November the PRD lost
3,670 members.
Meanwhile, 2,412 left the Panameñistas and every other party
with the
exception of MOLIRENA saw a decline in membership. MOLIRENA picked up
163 new members.
Torrijos
gives Barrios 10 years
Boris
Barrios, a temporary appointee as Electoral Prosecutor who in his
short time on the job had distinguished himself by purportedly legal
theories about how it's proper to use government funds to promote the
political fortunes of the PRD from whence he comes, has been rewarded
for his efforts. President Torrijos has appointed him to a full
10-year term.
Torrijos
won't permit Balbina to lose
On
December 11, a few days before appointing Barrios to a full term as
Electoral
Prosecutor, President Torrijos announced that he "would not
permit" his party's candidate, Balbina Herrera, to lose next
May's elections. The comments generated protests from the opposition,
and increased calls for international observers for the elections.
10,403
prisoners can vote
The
Electoral Tribunal, having legalized voting by prisoners who are
awaiting trial and have not been sentenced to the loss of civil
rights and who are confined in correctional facilities with at least
50 inmates, says that 10,403 prisoners will be eligible to vote on
May 3. The details of party observers, international monitors
and vote counters in the prisons, which are under the PRD
government's control, have not yet been disclosed. Under an April
2008 decree these inmates can vote for president only.
Legislator
intervenes to stop cops from giving son alcohol test
Mama's
got impunity and demands it for her son, too. Police are complaining
that legislator Zulay
de
Vásquez (PRD-Capira) --- already famous for her legislative
chamber altercation with colleague Mireya Lasso --- interfered with
their efforts to give her glassy-eyed son, who had been involved in a
collision between his car and a police car, a breathalyzer test.
Since she's a PRD legislator there will be no legal consequences, but
the voters may decide that they're tired of their legislative circuit
being associated with a wannabe ninja and her drunken relatives.
Assembly
committee OKs militarization decrees
On
a 4-1 vote on January 7, the PRD majority of the National Assembly's
Government Committee voted to support President Torrijos's August
2008 decrees that
reorganized the nation's law
enforcement agencies along military lines. Committee chairman Jerry
Wilson didn't invite opponents of the decrees to attend, but said
that nobody could claim that the measure was jammed through in the
middle of the night.
K’os
discriminates
Dayanara
De Obaldía rented a VIP salon at the K’os
discotheque on
Calle Uruguay for her birthday, but the party was called off due to
racism. All of her black guests were denied entrance by the club's
bouncers. It's totally illegal, but by and large this country's tiny
inbred
white aristocracy approves. Part of the problem in confronting this
sort of racial discrimination is that among the great majority of
Panamanians who disapprove of this sort of thing, many wonder why any
self-respecting person of any race would want to participate in the
Calle Uruguay club scene in the first place. Alberto Barrow of the
Panamanian Committee Against Racism complained in La Prensa that this
sort of thing happens a lot and complaints about it never get any
action out of the government.
Chiriqui
deputy dies suddenly
On
New Year's Day PRD legislator Agustín Escudé's
wife
found him dead in the bedroom of their house in David. He was 48
years old. Dr. Escudé, who was also a surgeon and an
Evangelical pastor, had been suffering for some time from
cardiovascular problems. An autopsy was performed but its results
were not disclosed to the public.
Slightly
deadlier roads in 2008
Transito
reports that 435 people died in traffic accidents in 2008. That's 13
more than in 2007, but last year was a leap year with an extra day
and the total national population grew a bit, so that it means that a
person's odds of dying on the highway were just slightly higher than
the year before.
Many
more autopsies
El
Panama America reports that since 2000 the number of autopsies
performed per year by the Institute of Legal Medicine's Judicial
Morgue has doubled. In 2000 there were some 750 autopsies, while in
2008 there were about 1,500, about 55 percent of which were of people
who died in violent acts. According to La Prensa, with the exception
of the invasion year of 1989, this past year was the first time that
deaths caused by firearms surpassed those caused by traffic
accidents.
Kids
shot in gang turf wars
In
the past month six young children have been shot in different
incidents in the course of gun battles between urban youth gangs. In
addition to five hospitalized for their wounds, nine-year-old
Joseavis
Olibarren was mortally wounded on December 12
in El Chorrillo when the Vietnam and PRD gangs had a shootout near
her family's home.
Arraijan
pastor and his wife slain
Was
it a member of his gang past catching up with him? In the pre-dawn
hours of December 23, at least four men came to the Arraijan door of
34-year-old Isaac
Atencio, an Evangelical pastor who used to be a gang member. The men
were admitted to the house without a struggle, and shortly afterward
opened fire. Atencio and his pregnant 26-year-old wife Damaris were
shot and killed. There were four
children in the home when the murders took place, the Atencios' son
and three of his cousins.
Arms
for Christmas dinner
About
three dozen San Miguelito families
had food on
the table for Christmas after a December 12 "arms for food"
swap at the Los Andes 2 shopping center. There were 35 guns turned
in, along with some explosives and a few thousand rounds of
ammunition. Due to a severe crime wave, the number of weapons in
circulation in places like San Miguelito is believed to be soaring,
mostly without benefit of permits. The proliferation of firearms,
however, is not reducing violent crime.
Two
hantavirus deaths in December
Two
people died of rodent-borne hantavirus infections in Los Santos
province in December. The disease is endemic in Cocle, Herrera and
Los Santos provinces and as seasons change and rodents migrate
(especially if the weather is unusual) the chances of human exposure
increase. To avoid the potentially deadly infection, the most
important thing is avoid maintaining conditions that allow rats and
mice to feed in or near where one lives or works, and it also helps
to use rubber gloves and a dust mask if cleaning an area that may be
tainted by rodent urine or feces, and to use bleach to clean areas
where there may have been rodents.
Also in
this section: News
|
Economy | Culture
| Opinion
| Lifestyle
| Nature
Make
the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://ww.executivehotel-panama.com
|
||||||||||
|
©
2009 by Eric Jackson email: editor@thepanamanews.com or e_l_jackson_malo@yahoo.com Mailing
address: |
|
|
||||||||
