Former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica was among those who moved to expel Luis Almagro from the Frente Amplio. Amid crises in Venezuela, migration, and the climate, the Western Hemisphere’s chief regional organization has been hobbled by pro-Trump leadership. Photo by UNASUR.

The Organization of American States shouldn’t be run by regime change zealots

by Laura Carlsen – Americas Program

With a Venezuelan opposition leader declaring himself the country’s president and the Trump administration appearing to back a coup, Venezuela is lurching toward a new phase of crisis. And that crisis could be worsened by hardline leadership at the Organization of American States (OAS), the world’s oldest and most influential regional organization.

Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), recently announced his bid for another five-year term at the helm of the world’s oldest and most influential regional organization. His re-election would be a major setback for good governance in the region.

Throughout his tenure, Almagro has acted against many of the basic principles and mandates of the organization and consistently represented US interests, generally supporting allies and punishing adversaries of the US government. In particular, he has actively sought regime change in Venezuela. His often unsubstantiated claims against Venezuela and Cuba echo the rhetoric of dangerous terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles and his open intervention in internal politics has completely reversed diplomatic advances in resolving controversies, divided the continent and led his own party to expel him and advocate for removing him from the leadership of the OAS.

Abetting corruption and dictatorship

Moreover, as Almagro has set himself up as arbiter in the internal affairs of leftist nations (while turning a blind eye to blatant disregard for law in rightwing regimes), his own leadership faces serious corruption charges related to management of funds for the beleaguered anti-corruption mission in Honduras.

In an unusual move, Almagro appointed himself the head in absentia of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), maintaining control of the mission and finances in Washington. The MACCIH was founded in 2015 as a result of citizen pressure and placed under the auspices of the OAS.

The lead representative of the MACCIH, former Peruvian prime minister Juan Jiménez Mayor resigned in frustration in February 2018, citing lack of support from Almagro, withdrawal of security measures for his team, and a “pact of impunity” between Almagro and JOH.

Jiménez also publicly accused Almagro of hiring persons close to him at hefty salaries despite the fact that the commission in Honduras doesn’t know what it is they do. With signs of corruption within the OAS anti-corruption mission, MACCIH lawyers requested an audit by the OEA Inspector General. Although member countries seconded the request, no audit was carried out.

Tensions between Almagro and the anti-corruption commission had been building for months. The MACCIH had recently taken on some major investigations in the midst of a political crisis in the country. Since the 2009 coup d’etat, Honduras has lurched from one crisis to the next. The nation has suffered a series of corruption scandals under the post-coup regimes, rule of law has deteriorated, and state and criminal violence have soared, often hand in hand.

On November 26, 2017 President Juan Orlando Hernández was re-elected in elections viewed as illegitimate by the majority of the population and many experts. Although the OAS declared the elections essentially too dirty to call, the opposition criticized the OAS for tacitly supporting the US Embassy in propping up Hernández (JOH), as massive protests called for him to step down and government forces killed at least 16 protesters.

In early 2018, with continuing post-electoral conflict, the MACCIH uncovered a corruption scheme involving members of the Honduran congress. The case alleges that legislators syphoned off hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money (in a country where 25% of the population lives on $5.50 a day or less). The MACCIH has filed several similar cases against government corruption since then, the latest on December 11. As the mission attacked corruption, it began to receive threats and encounter what one member, the Peruvian prosecutor Julio Arbizu, called “serious obstacles” to its work directly from Almagro.

A June 2018 evaluation of the MACCIH by experts at American University concurs that much of the blame for the obstacles and failures of the MACCIH can be directly attributed to Almagro. The study concludes: “The political course of the MACCIH has revealed an OAS weakened and divided, directed by an impulsive and inconsistent Secretary General.” The report quotes a member of the anti-corruption commission saying that Almagro “spent more time spying on our colleagues to report to Washington what Jiménez Mayor was up to than working on what we were supposed to be doing.”

Almagro’s decisions to abandon the Honduran political crisis and back off on prosecuting corruption and state crimes, undermining his own mission, has contributed to the exodus of thousands of Hondurans seeking refuge in the United States. Since the audit of his office requested by MACCIH members and donor countries was blocked, allegations against Almagro of misuse of funds have not been cleared up.

Dividing the Hemisphere

Almagro’s support for the Honduran leader deemed a dictator by his own people contrasts sharply with his extremely aggressive campaign against Venezuela. In a shocking break for with his diplomatic mandate, on September 14 Almagro threatened military intervention to overthrow the Maduro government. This position violates the OAS Charter and the reason for being of the organization, articulated in Article 21 that states “the territory of a State is inviolable; it may not be the object, even temporarily, of military occupation or of other measures of force taken by another State, directly or indirectly, on any grounds whatever;” Article 3 that mandates “respect for the personality, sovereignty, and independence of States;” and numerous commitments to resolve conflicts through diplomacy and peaceful means.

Almagro’s statement, although not unexpected, provoked an avalanche of criticisms from diplomats. His own party, the Broad Front of Uruguay, voted unanimously to expel him and the Uruguayan government announced it will oppose his re-election.

The promotion of intervention in alliance with the Trump administration has carefully driven a wedge between nations and forces in the hemisphere. Almagro’s attempts at regime change in Venezuela were consistently seconded by the Mexican and Colombian governments, but the new government of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador wisely decided against continuing to play the role of Almagro-Trump lackey in the OAS and abstained from a declaration by the majority of the Lima Group not to recognize Maduro’s re-election. Although Almagro has found a new ally in the neofascist government of Jair Bolsonaro, that alliance will only make the politicized nature of his strategy more painfully obvious.

The OAS chief’s obsession with Venezuela has eroded his leadership and distracted the organization from confronting shared threats to the region. The cozy relationship to the Trump administration has meant downplaying the need to promote joint measures to slow climate change. Nor has the organization under Almagro’s rule taken a strong stance in defense of migrant rights despite thousands of deaths and human rights violations.

With the United States withdrawing from international accords on climate change, migration and other shared interests — and Brazil following suit — there’s a growing governance gap on the most pressing issues facing the hemisphere. The OAS must step up to fill that gap, with creative solutions for working together before inequality and indifference send the planet into a tailspin.

Almagro has been far more interested in anti-democratic regime change than in facing these critical challenges. The region has an opportunity to restore regional cooperation on shared priorities. But that will require a change in leadership.

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Resumen de los fiscales del caso Blue Apple

gráficos por el Ministerio Público

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Prosecutors’ chart of the New Business case, for which a court just granted another one-year extension to investigate. Much of the time problem is that this was a crime spread around multiple jurisdictions, requiring proceedings to secure the cooperation of foreign governments. Perhaps a bigger risk to the former president that possible prison time is the possible loss of EPASA, the publishing company that puts out La Critica and El Panama America and a key part of the Cambio Democratico political operation. It is alleged that two major construction projects, the widening of the Arraijan – La Chorrera Autopista and the office tower on the legislative palace, were used for overpayment of public funds, which were then kicked back for Martinelli, hiding behind associates, to buy the newspapers.

Prosecutors outline Blue Apple
and New Business cases

by Eric Jackson

Jailed former president Ricardo Martinelli is running for mayor and legislator from his prison lodgings in El Renacer near Gamboa, looking forward to a February 4 bail hearing and a March 12 trial for illegal eavesdropping, illegal use of government equipment to do that and ultimately the theft of that equipment.

(Full disclosure: as this reporter’s attorney and someone whose work is occasionally featured in The Panama News was on Martinelli’s known 150-member enemies list, email and telephone communication between that person and this reporter were intercepted.)

Before the trial was removed from the Supreme Court the prosecuting magistrate asked for a 23-year prison sentence and the magistrate acting as judged reduce the potential incarceration time to 21 years. Ricardo Martinelli may spend the rest of his life behind bars, or his remaining years out on bail and stuck in eternal litigation. As he fled the country to evade arrest, in any normal legal system bail would be out of the question but this is Panama.

Meanwhile the ex-president’s two sons, Ricardo Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, wait under house arrest in a Miami mansion for a March 4 immigration hearing, at which they may be deported for being in the United States without proper visas. That sort of deportation would avoid all manner of extradition issues, but the two young men might try to get voluntary departure to somewhere other than Panama so as to complicate and prolong matters.

On January 31 prosecutors from the anti-corruption and organized crime offices laid out their theories of two complicated cases involving the Martinellis. One, the Blue Apple affair, is about generalized corruption in public works contracting during the 2009-2014 Martinelli administration.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez told of a more than $78 million kickback and money laundering scheme, involving a suppose factoring business called Blue Apple, 61 individuals, at least seven construction firms, at least 20 shell companies, the two younger Martinellis, a former minister of public works and the contracting director under him, a former vice president of Global Bank and an attorney who allegedly set up at least six money laundering chains.

Organized crime prosecutor David Mendoza described a scheme to divert nearly $44 million from a major road project and a big addition to the legislative palace, to finance the purchase by a group controlled by Ricardo Martinelli of EPASA, the parent company of the daily newspapers El Panama America and La Critica. The New Business case is named after one of 18 business entities, along with a law firm and four individuals, who funneled the stolen funds through 24 bank accounts at 13 banks situated in four countries. There may be more players to be discovered yet as prosecutors take their discovery missions to Switzerland, the United States and China, plus some Caribbean lands where some of the companies were registered.

The stakes are possible years in prison for the three Martinellis and their accomplices — powerful incentives for partners in crime to turn state’s evidence — and also the Martinelli media empire and its political effects. So far a number of people have made plea bargains but most of those named in both cases are denying all.

What to do in Panamanian legal culture? Why, argue procedure. The former president’s defenders are arguing the doctrine of specialty, which has it that a person extradited for one thing can’t be tried for another crime committed before the extradition without being first afforded an opportunity to return to the jurisdiction from whence he or she was extradited. It is specifically provided for in the 1904 US – Panamanian extradition treaty:

However, as noted in a 93-page opinion by Magistrate Edwin Torres, the extradition was not based only on that treaty, but also on the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crimes and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Neither of those agreements contain a specialty clause. Nor did the US State Department specify that the extradition was only for the purpose of trial on one of the many cases pending against the older Martinelli.

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Florence and the Machine. Wikimedia photo by Theornamentalist.

Friday Free Form / Viernes de Forma Libre

Carole King – You’ve Got a Friend
https://youtu.be/IBh0NGNnRFY

Florence + The Machine – Moderation
https://youtu.be/ScxZwXH09Ws

Rubén Blades & Making Movies – No te calles
https://youtu.be/7OFp3DFyOn4

Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper – Shallow
https://youtu.be/_IT0oeR9q8A

The Specials – Vote For Me
https://youtu.be/hs8WNk8tDsg

Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar
https://youtu.be/I-QfPUz1es8

Wendy O. Williams – Reform School Girls
https://youtu.be/E9UHpgWYH3I

Residente – El Futuro Es Nuestro
https://youtu.be/u0tCelKjieA

Prince – Purple Rain
https://youtu.be/91hGB8YyGt4

Cream – Those Were the Days
https://youtu.be/4299pnOpFY0

Mercedes Sosa – Todo Cambia
https://youtu.be/0khKL3tTOTs

Thom Yorke – Bloom
https://youtu.be/EdmL835q9To

Mad Professor – Rasta Dub
https://youtu.be/M9PkADawUKU

The Pretenders – I’ll Stand By You
https://youtu.be/vKl7DrQj9ig

Café Tacvba – Live on KEXP
https://youtu.be/pGYLAb6pasQ

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For a higher resolution version of this image, click here. These are US Air Force C-17 transport planes at Howard, a former US Air Force base in Panama that’s still a US forward operating location, with a hangar staffed by mercenaries. But Howard is also now a multi-agency humanitarian relief regional supply center, which US forces might use in a disaster situation. It might be presumed that this is a military move aimed at Venezuela, in which case it would further shred the principle of Panamanian neutrality and perhaps make Panama or its canal the object of attacks.

Aviones de la Fuerza Aérea de los EEUU en Howard

Para una versión de mayor resolución de esta imagen, toque aquí. Estos son aviones de transporte C-17 de la Fuerza Aérea de los EEUU en Howard, una antigua base de la Fuerza Aérea del EEUU en Panamá que aún es un lugar de operaciones de avanzada del EEUU. Pero Howard también es ahora un centro de abastecimiento regional de ayuda humanitaria de varias agencias, que las fuerzas estadounidenses podrían usar en una situación de desastre. Podría presumirse que se trata de un movimiento militar dirigido a Venezuela, en cuyo caso destruiría aún más el principio de neutralidad panameña y tal vez haría de Panamá o su canal objeto de ataques.

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April 2014: former miners from Richard Fifer’s and Ricardo Martinelli’s Petaquilla Gold swindle block the road over unpaid wages and Seguro Social contributions. Nowadays what are left behind are toxic holes from which water leaks in the rainy season and dust blows in the dry season, plus many legal and financial messes. Photo by Radio Temblor.

VP picks: Nito goes with gold scheme lawyer, Roux with reporter, FAD with economist

by Eric Jackson

Once upon a time there was an environmental crime, labor law violation and pump and dump insider stock trading swindle known as Petaquilla Gold. Its locus of activity was in the mountains between northern Cocle province and the western part of Colon’s Costa Abajo, but it was registered in Canada as Petaquilla Minerals. At one relatively brief moment it spread to Spain, promising to reopen a gold mine in Andalusia that dates back at least as far as ancient Roman times. Eventually it all fell apart. The Andalusia regional government kicked them out and Canadian stock exchanges de-listed their shares. However, Petaquilla lives on in a plethora of criminal and civil cases in Panamanian courts and prosecutors’ offices and as a stack of unpaid bills.

Now its attorney and legal representative, 35-year-old José Gabriel Carrizo, will be the PRD candidate for vice president. Presidential standard bearer Laurentino “Nito” Cortizo chose him over the weekend, talking about Carrizo’s wonderful family and membership in the next generation of politicians. Pundits noted that Carrizo is from Penonomé, seat of a Cocle province where the PRD is usually weak and which Cortizo would surely like to win this time.

Fifer, dubbed “the father of modern mining in Panama” by a gushy industry publication, is out on bail and facing multiple criminal charges. He has a June 1 trial date for allegedly defrauding the Social Security Fund. Ricardo Martinelli remains in jail — but might soon be granted bail — and has a March trial date on warrantless eavesdropping and theft charges. The former president argues that on procedural and treaty grounds he can’t be tried for an insider trading and money laundering scheme in which worthless Petaquilla stock was hyped as something valuable and sold through a chain of intermediaries, with the proceeds hidden via another chain of intermediaries.

Perhaps the most important thing about the stock swindle and money laundering case is that it’s most probably also a murder case — government securities analyst Vernon Ramos disappeared in 2012 while investigating the case. There is no statute of limitations on such cases and in the event of a procedural bar to prosecution here, by treaty there remains the opportunity to ship the accused off to The Hague to be tried by the International Criminal Court.

By Electoral Tribunal records, Carrizo is one of Nito Cortizo’s main contributors, having delivered more than $90,000 to the PRD candidate’s primary campaign. Due to Electoral Tribunal practices, the record would not distinguish whether Carrizo was a fundraiser and bundler of other people’s donations or whether that was his own money. A 10-year member of the PRD, Carrizo has held no public office. His living has been made in the practice of law — of which being legal representative of Petaquilla was — and in his family’s real estate business. He is a graduate of the USMA law school.

The other VP hopefuls

Meanwhile Cambio Democratico presidential candidate Rómulo Roux has tapped former Telemetro reporter Luis Casís as his running mate. Casís comes from the tradition of journalists who deny having a point of view, is unaffiliated with any political party, has never held any public office and says that he has no politics.

The leftist Broad Front for Democracy — running to advance a cause rather that seriously contending for the presidency — has collectively chosen University of Panama economist Maribel Gordón as the running mate of its presidential candidate, labor leader Saúl Méndez. Gordón has been one of the principal thinkers behind the left wing of the Panamanian labor movement and its CONUSI labor federation. That the militant SUNTRACS construction workers’ union has consistently had a very good tactical sense of what the market will bear in its contract negotiations can in part be attributed to her.

The independents have already chosen their running mates — Ricardo Lambana recruiting former Electoral Tribunal magistrate Guillermo Márquez Amado, Ana Matilde Gómez running with former agriculture minister Jorge Arango, and Marco Ameglio having chosen former diplomat and legislator Mario Boyd Galindo. The Panameñista nominee, José Isabel Blandón, has yet to announce his choice.

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These are hellburners in one of the naval battles of the Reformation. Fire ships — originally burning vessels directed at an enemy ship to set it afire — go back to the ancient Greeks as far as we know, and probably before that to the dawn of naval warfare. With the importation of explosives from China starting in about the 10th century AD, the fireship was revolutionized into a floating bomb to kill and destroy with a blast, shrapnel and flaming debris. Perhaps the best known of these was a huge fire ship used in the siege of Antwerp. In modern times we had the suicide launch that al Qaeda used against the USS Cole. Panama Canal defenders surely must think about biological, chemical, nuclear or electronic varieties of fire ships. If Panama goes making enemies in the world, we have a uniquely vulnerable principal industry.

Panama is not well defended when it
takes sides in regional or world conflicts

So how does the relatively tiny Panama defend itself in world of great power rivalries and asymmetrical warfare by which great powers are frequently defeated?

We have the 1977 Permanent Neutrality Treaty that on its face allows the United States and other signatory parties to militarily intervene in order to keep the canal open. The way Washington has twisted it, the word “neutrality” means nothing, and the stricture against intervention in Panama’s internal affairs is likewise disregarded. It’s about Panama being a US protectorate of sorts.

The original sense of it, however, is that Panama stays neutral. It means that the canal is open for everyone without regard to global political alignments, so that nobody has a reason to attack it.

The Martinelli administration took a dangerous detour with its security alliance with Israel. That included photos of Israeli trainers flaunting anti-Arab stereotypes in the training of Panamanian presidential guards, and the use of Israeli surveillance technology against Panamanians and Americans. In a spectacularly stupid and ultimately unsuccessful legal action, Martinelli himself as much as admitted that a known or believed Israeli connection could attract attackers to the canal.

So, should Panama be seen to align itself with Israel against the Palestinians? Or with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in thier Sunni jihad against Yemen and the Shiite branch of Islam generally?

Or, if Latin America is to be split into left and right blocs as US neoconservatives would like, should Panama line up against Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Suriname and Venezuela?

Panama should avoid such alignments because they might give some country or organization a motive to attack the Panama Canal, or at least lower inhibitions against such a thing.

At a glance, rating the VP picks

In a seven-way presidential race at a time of great public disillusionment and battered democratic institutions, perhaps vice presidential nominees will matter more than they usually do. Perhaps on the campaign trail some of the apparently dismal ones will rise and shine, and some of the apparently brilliant ones will fade and fall. But to the editor, this is how the VP picks – apart from all the other factors in making a choice – look at the outset, in this order. A vice president needs to be ready to step up to the presidency in an instant if fate calls and it’s that, not some identity that might grab some segment of the vote, that matters.

Ricardo Lombana – Guillermo Márquez Amado: SERIOUS
José Isabel Blandón – Nilda Quijano: SERIOUS
Saúl Méndez – Maribel Gordón: SERIOUS
Ana Matilde Gómez – Jorge Arango: THE USUAL
Marco Ameglio – Mario Boyd Galindo: THE USUAL
Rómulo Roux – Luis Casís: NOT SERIOUS
Nito Cortizo – José Gabriel Carrizo: NOT SERIOUS

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Practice your second language / Practica tu segunda lengua

The Panama News blog links

a Panama-centric selection of other people’s work
una selección Panamá-céntrica de las obras de otras personas

Canal, Maritime & Transportation / Canal, Marítima & Transporte

Seatrade, Panama Registry expels 60 Iranian ships

TVN, Fallece trabajador de la ACP tras accidente en esclusas de Cocolí

Seatrade, Higher fuel prices could shift traffic back to US West Coast ports 

gCaptain, Scientists update world magnetic model as North Pole shifts

Sports / Deportes

EFE, Brillan estrellas en el Rod Carew

Economy / Economía

Global Banking & Finance, Liberty Latin America op center here

El Economista, Telefónica negocia venta de bienes en Panamá etc.

Basu, The sorry state of the world economy

Adler, A radical vision for a new Bretton Woods

Marketplace, Ever heard of modern monetary theory?

SCMP, Modern Monetary Theory is an illusion

The Intercept, Google hired gig economy workers for drone project

Reuters, Germany ready to buy company stakes to protect core industry

Science & Technology / Ciencia & Tecnología

STRI, When does noise become a message?

Reuters, Siberian cave findings shed light on extinct human species

Mongabay, El oceano se ahoga

Reuters, Legacy of contamination at old US naval base

The Guardian, George Soros: China uses tech advances to repress its people 

Mongabay, Maya revive native bees and ancient beekeeping

Gizmodo, New star map reveals warped Milky Way

News / Noticias

EFE, La reforma de la Constitución sin futuro en Panamá a corto plazo 

La Prensa, Martinelli seguirá preso

Newsroom Panama, Plea deal in Blue Apple bribery scam

La Estrella: José Gabriel Carrizo, la apuesta de ‘Nito’ para la vicepresidencia

TVN, Nilda Quijano como compañera de formula de Blandón

La Estrella, El FAD concluye su propuesta electoral

AFP, Trump reafirma que la opción militar en Venezuela está sobre la mesa 

AFP, Salvadorans react to the election of Nayib Bukele

The Hill, Puerto Rico statehood supporters pin hopes on House action

Second Nexus, Merkley: “This is what evil looks like”

Opinion / Opiniones

Greenwood-Nguyen & Roth, Ocean plastic isn’t the fault of the global south

Gessen, The Trump-Russia investigation and the Mafia state

Heide, Inside the mind of an opioid addict

Kiriakou: Torture, murder and misconduct under color of law

Sanders, Now is not the time for compromise on Medicare for All 

Font: Venezuela, antesala hacia la guerra

Blades, Sobre Venezuela

Gandásegui, Venezuela continues to resist US aggression

Sagel, De vuelta a la realidad

Culture / Cultura

Sagel, A un siglo de J. D. Salinger

AOC: Getting famous overnight, social media strategy and more

NACLA, Una entrevista con Simón Mejía de Bomba Estéreo

Reuters, “Boy Erased” erased from Brazilian cinemas

Crusells, Medio siglo del último concierto de los Beatles 

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GOP voices

voces de Republicanos

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Photo from the congressional web page of US Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL).

Dem voices

voces de Demócratas

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Manifiesto, por el cantautor chileno Victor Jara. Fue torturado y ejecutado como parte del golpe chileno de 1973 que orquestó la administración de Nixon.

La soberanía de América Latina otra vez en peligro

por Marco A. Gandásegui, hijo

¿Qué tienen en común Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson y Richard Nixon? Los tres siendo presidentes de EEUU organizaron campañas para derrocar gobiernos democráticamente elegidos en países latinoamericanos. En el caso de Eisenhower, organizó la invasión contra el gobierno de Jacobo Arbenz en Guatemala en 1954. Johnson envió tropas a República Dominicana para derrocar a Juan Bosch en 1965. Nixon y su asesor de Seguridad Nacional, Henry Kissinger, intervinieron en Chile en 1973 para poner fin al gobierno de la Unidad Popular y asesinar a Salvador Allende.

Son tres ejemplos de una larga lista de invasiones e intervenciones por parte de EEUU para interrumpir procesos políticos democráticos en la región latinoamericana. Hay que agregar a la lista a los demás países –con unas pocas excepciones-– que han sufrido invasiones, golpes o intervenciones a lo largo de más de un siglo. En el siglo XXI se pueden agregar los golpes ‘parlamentarios’ contra presidentes electos democráticamente en Paraguay y Brasil, así como el caso de Honduras.

En la actualidad, Washington tiene tropas en la frontera de Colombia con Venezuela mientras trata de estrangular económicamente al gobierno del presidente Nicolás Maduro, electo democráticamente en 2018. Además del bloqueo, EEUU ha reclutado una docena de países latinoamericanos y otros 4 gobiernos de Europa occidental en una ofensiva diplomática contra el gobierno bolivariano. Las tropas en la frontera colombo-venezolana responden a las amenaza del presidente Donald Trump de mantener sobre la mesa la opción militar de una invasión.

Sería la primera vez en la historia de las relaciones entre EEUU y América latina que Washington lanza una invasión terrestre utilizando un país latinoamericano. La modalidad siempre ha sido marítima o aérea. EEUU siempre ha utilizado – previo a sus invasiones o golpes de Estado – un sofisticado operativo de propaganda a escala mundial para legitimar sus acciones. En la mayoría de los casos sólo han servido para dar el golpe inicial y después se desmoronan. En Guatemala Arbenz fue descrito por Eisenhower como un dictador sanguinario que seguía órdenes del comunismo soviético. En realidad, Arbenz era un abogado de la burguesía nacional quien quería que la United Fruit (bananera) pagara sus impuestos. En Dominicana, Juan Bosch era un intelectual nacionalista que llegó al poder después de la larga dictadura de Trujillo apadrinada por EEUU. Bosch prometía una reforma agraria que afectaría a los grandes cañaverales propiedad de los monopolios norteamericanos. Salvador Allende, a su vez, era un socialista que creía en la democracia y en la posibilidad de poner al servicio del desarrollo de Chile las enormes riquezas minerales (cobre). El error lo pagó con su vida y Chile fue sometido a la barbarie más espantosa durante 20 años de dictadura militar.

En Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro es sometido a una campaña de propaganda feroz a escala internacional que impregna todos los medios de comunicación masivos y las redes sociales. Según la máquina de propaganda de Washington, que reproduce los ‘fake-news’ diarios en EEUU, América latina y el mundo entero, Maduro es un dictador, sanguinario, que hace pasar hambre al pueblo y tiene las cárceles llenas de prisioneros políticos. En realidad, Maduro fue elegido presidente, no reprime a sus adversarios políticos ni tiene prisioneros políticos, tampoco hace pasar hambre a los venezolanos. Al contrario, la oposición política se reúne en la Asamblea Nacional y moviliza a los sectores opuestos al gobierno bolivariano en las calles. Incluso, permite que un diputado de la Asamblea se auto-proclame presidente ‘interino’ con el apoyo de EEUU.

Hace 17 años el entonces presidente de EEUU, George W. Bush, avaló un golpe de Estado contra el presidente Chávez que fracasó. Desde entonces, hasta la fecha ha gastado ingentes recursos en poner fin al gobierno bolivariano. Trump y sus asesores han puesto en marcha un operativo ideado por el ‘establishment’ norteamericano hace un par de décadas: la guerra humanitaria. Aunque suene contradictorio, la idea es hacer la guerra con un manto humanitario. El primer paso consistió en bloquear económicamente a Venezuela creando caos en el mercado nacional. Segundo, promover una campaña de ‘fake-news’ que creara un país no existente. Tercero, ante el caos económico creado y la propaganda, levantar una supuesta crisis humanitaria.

La respuesta sería enviar ‘asistencia’ humanitaria a Venezuela disimulando la presencia de tropas norteamericanas y mercenarios de toda clase. Trump se agregaría a la nefasta lista de presidentes norteamericanos que han violado una y otra vez la soberanía de toda América latina.

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Now comes CUCO

by Miguel Antonio Bernal

This past Wednesday, February the Movimiento Constituyente Va, which has for the past three years been promoting a call for a Constitutional Convention by way of diverse activities, presented its “Conceptual Document and Principles” as in initial proposal that can go on to be improved, as a contribution to the national debate about the need to move toward a constitutional process.

We start from the basis that the only sovereign power to make constitutional changes is the citizenry: “This leads us to distinguish between the original power and constituted power, understanding that the first is the one that makes the Constitution and the second is a power regulated and determined by the Constitution itself. From this it is understood that the original power is superior to that established or constituted by the Constitution itself. With this clarification, which explains that the original constituent power does not derive its powers from the current Constitution and, in any case, Article 2 of the current Constitution recognizes that ‘Public Power only emanates from the people.’ Therefore, one need not act according to the procedures that have been established to modify it. It is an unlimited constituent power, which can not be conditioned by any other pre-established norm or existing legal limitation.”

With this statement of principles in hand, a group of citizens has decided to establish the Citizens Movement United for a Constitutional Convention (Movimiento Ciudadanos Unidos por la Constituyente, or CUCO) and begin the necessary steps to get a new Constitution, which would be drafted in a Constitutional Convention. CUCO is not looking for reforms – what it wants it a change of the present Constitution rather than its continuity.

Its proposal seeks to replace the 1972 Constitution with the aim of surmounting the serious and obvious gaps between that Constitution and the demands of large sectors of Panamanian society that advocate a refoundation of the Panamanian government.

We invite all citizens who share our sense of the need for a Constituent Assembly and for a new Constitution, to join us and participate in CUCO.

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A National Police trophy photo, posted on their Twitter feed after five people were shot to death in less than three days, four of them undoubtedly gangland hits and the other one perhaps that but maybe something else. Gang shootings wax and wane with shifting drug smuggling routes, but on the margins domestic violence shootings are largely a function of the number of guns in households, most of which were not acquired for the purpose of committing crimes but for “protection.”

Proposed Law 716 — passed in committee, not available for the general public to read

by Eric Jackson

So what IS this Proyecto de Ley 716? Panamanian law already provides that if you kill someone while legitimately defending yourself — NOT ‘I was robbing his store and the guy pulled a gun on me’ — it is justifiable homicide. So what do the PRD and Cambio Democratico members of the National Assembly’s Government Committee mean when they propose that a person would be exonerated?

It’s hard to say specifically what, because the proposal was brought up, debated, amended and passed in committee on January 31 without having been previously published and without having been published since. What kind of committee hearing was THAT? Those of us who have been the victims of firearms violence in our homes or otherwise were not invited. Isaac Brawerman, who imports things from Israel and represents himself as the head of a gun enthusiast group, was.

So we get partial second-hand accounts of what the proposal is. According to President Varela’s brother, Panameñista legislator Popi Varela, the proposal would repeal Decree 422, last year’s version on the nation’s basic gun regulations. Under that decree, to get a permit for a firearm, one must:

So, get rid of those regulations and you can go to a gun store and tell the owner that you’re a wanted hit man and ex-convict from Mexico, you need a gun for this one job and  you’ll be leaving the country right afterward — and you get the weapon over the counter right then and there?

You might see how some of these legislators, who have been cited by the Comptroller General for stealing millions, might like THAT idea.

By other versions the proposed law would also end the moratorium, in place by a series of decrees for about eight years now, prohibiting the importation of firearms except for the police.

But it’s hard to know, because the legislature won’t post the proposal on its website.

It is a difficult and lengthy process to legally acquire a gun permit and with that the weapon you might want to buy. For Panamanian citizens it takes months to years. The bottom line interest is that the police have something to say about it and generally like delays because more guns in circulation increases the deadly risks of their occupation.

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Destroy All Monsters: 1970s Detroit area punk rock band.

Stop that man! He’s a fiend!

¡Detén a ese hombre! ¡Es un demonio!

Grace Slick & Paul Kantner – Sunrise
https://youtu.be/sa5yFYyZuSg

Iggy – Some Weird Sin
https://youtu.be/CGDhwTIWUcg

Wendy & Lisa – Fire and Regeneration
https://youtu.be/o2eQH6ICwyc

Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves
https://youtu.be/ehYqIR1kqKo

Velvet Underground – Heroin
https://youtu.be/1hQSCJ6ynk0

Los Chabelos – Beso Negro
https://youtu.be/Gt50ua_9y3I

X – Los Angeles
https://youtu.be/Exs-mcKApxI

Cienfue – Mi Colombiana
https://youtu.be/W5gSHpWE5A0

MC5 – Motor City’s Burning
https://youtu.be/-y871cCYOyU

The Cure – Friday I’m I Love
https://youtu.be/mGgMZpGYiy8

The Tubes – Don’t Touch Me There
https://youtu.be/KyQnIUq5xzQ

National Lampoon – Deteriorata
https://youtu.be/D1NAwlepnSs

Destroy All Monsters – Make Mine Japanese
https://youtu.be/r2Y-TI47X4s

Las Ultrasonicas – Que Grosero Sin Censura
https://youtu.be/Vuef_naWywQ

David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World
https://youtu.be/HSH–SJKVQQ

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A Yellow Backed Oriole enjoying a water sprinkler in Panama City’s Parque Natural Metropolitano. ~ Un Bolsero Dorsiamarillo disfrutando un rociador de agua en el Parque Natural Metropolitano de la Ciudad de Panamá. © Kermit Nourse. Larger image / Imagen más grande.

Yellow Backed Oriole ~ Bolsero Dorsiamarillo ~ Icterus chrysater

This oriole ranges from Mexico to Venezuela but is not found in Costa Rica and most of Nicaragua. In Panama they live from Veraguas east and particularly in the canal area. There are several subspecies. It is the only oriole with a yellow back. Males and females have the same general markings, but with the male plumage a bit brighter. These birds are common in many habitats, but most often are found in dry scrublands, forest edges and forests. A few are found on slopes up to 3,000 feet but generally they are more numerous on lower Pacific slopes and in lowlands. They sometimes travel in family groups of up to eight, and sometimes are found flocking with birds of different species. They mostly eat insects.

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Este bolsero abarca desde México hasta Venezuela, pero no se encuentra en Costa Rica y en la mayor parte de Nicaragua. En Panamá viven desde Veraguas al este y particularmente en el área del canal. Hay varias subespecies. Es el único bolsero con dorso amarillo. Los machos y las hembras tienen las mismas marcas generales, pero con el plumaje masculino un poco más brillante. Estas aves son comunes en muchos hábitats, pero la mayoría de las veces se encuentran en matorrales secos, bordes de bosques y bosques. Algunos se encuentran en pendientes de hasta 3,000 pies, pero en general son más numerosos en las pendientes más bajas del Pacífico y en las tierras bajas. A veces viajan en grupos familiares de hasta ocho, y a veces se encuentran en bandadas de aves de diferentes especies. En su mayoría comen insectos.

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Sobre Venezuela

Nos dominan más por la ignorancia que por la fuerza.
Simón Bolívar

Los abajo firmantes rechazamos el involucramiento de Panamá en el Grupo de Lima, no representativo de la OEA, que abanica los planes intervencionistas de Estados Unidos en los asuntos internos y externos de Venezuela.

Exigimos que Panamá se retire de dicho Grupo y abjure de ese indigno compromiso que rechazamos porque está de espaldas a nuestros intereses nacionales, al Derecho Internacional, a la Historia y al rol que nos toca jugar más allá del Tratado de Neutralidad.

La legitimidad del gobierno de Venezuela es asunto que compete exclusivamente a su pueblo según su Constitución Nacional y conforme a la Carta de la OEA, la Carta de la ONU y el Derecho Internacional.

Citemos el Artículo 19 de la Carta de la OEA:

‘Artículo 19: Ningún Estado o grupo de Estados tiene derecho de intervenir, directa o indirectamente, y sea cual fuere el motivo, en los asuntos internos o externos de cualquier otro. El principio anterior excluye no solamente la fuerza armada, sino también cualquier otra forma de injerencia o de tendencia atentatoria de la personalidad del Estado, de los elementos políticos, económicos y culturales que lo constituyen’.

El gobierno de Panamá ha tomado una decisión inconsulta e inconstitucional porque el Órgano Legislativo es el único competente para decidir si nuestro pueblo desea participar o no en conflictos bélicos internacionales. El Órgano Ejecutivo solamente está facultado para declarar la paz. El Artículo 4 de nuestra Carta Magna obliga a Panamá a acatar las normas del Derecho Internacional, la más importante de las cuales es la NO INTERVENCION en los asuntos internos de cada Estado.

La participación de Panamá (país sin ejército) en acciones bélicas, salvo en legítima defensa o protección del Canal, no está permitida a nuestro país por el régimen jurídico de la neutralidad al margen del Tratado perpetuo de 1977.

Los panameños no olvidamos que fue precisamente la intervención de la OEA en asuntos internos y externos de Panamá en mayo de 1989 la que abrió el camino de las sanciones, la desestabilización, la intervención y la invasión de EE.UU. a nuestro país el 20 de Diciembre de 1989, que nos dejó decenas de miles de muertos y heridos además de incalculables perjuicios materiales y económicos. Dicha invasión nos concita a rechazar toda agresión armada en la región.

El gobierno de Panamá nos aparta de nuestro rol como país neutral, cuyo deber es apoyar la paz y la seguridad internacionales y no ser cómplices del régimen más violento y agresivo del mundo, dado que la intervención en Venezuela puede ocasionar una guerra mundial o nuclear que destruiría al planeta.
El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU ratificó por mayoría que la no intervención, el diálogo, la concertación y la paz entre venezolanos — sin descartar mediaciones internacionales – es el único camino para abordar legítimamente los problemas de Venezuela.

Estados Unidos interviene en asuntos del país bolivariano y la bloquea por múltiples canales comerciales, económicos, financieros, monetarios y diplomáticos y, en forma por demás ilegal, expropia y se apropia de miles de millones de dólares de PDVSA, ordenando a otros países (la Unión Europea) a cautelar el oro y activos venezolanos bajo un régimen ilegal de sanciones que el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU no aprueba.

En esas condiciones de asfixia económica, artificialmente producida, ¿cómo no habría una “crisis humanitaria”? Frente a la escasez inducida, los poderes de Washington pretenden invocar otra falsa “responsabilidad internacional de proteger” al pueblo de Venezuela para edulcorar una inadmisible agresión.

Exhortamos respetuosamente al gobierno de Venezuela a solicitar una Opinión Consultiva a la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya — conciencia jurídica del planeta — para que responda si las intervenciones de Estados Unidos y el Grupo de Lima violan o no el Derecho Internacional.

Estados Unidos pretende dividir al mundo en dos campos: uno, liderado por dicha superpotencia; y el otro, sometido al primero, cuyos países deben ser saqueados y destruidos, sin soberanía ni posibilidades de salvación nacional. Nuestro país, incluido el Canal, está condenado al segundo grupo.
Los regímenes beneficiarios de la invasión a Panamá (1989-2019) han suscrito diversos acuerdos con Estados Unidos (Salas-Becker) que la Asamblea Nacional jamás aprobó y que nuestro pueblo desconoce. Dichos acuerdos nos mantienen atados a la carreta del imperialismo, nos convierten permanentemente en país ocupado y nos hacen cómplices de sus fechorías. En consecuencia, reiteramos nuestra convicción de que los acuerdos post invasión son inconstitucionales, jurídicamente nulos y los rechazamos.

A estos acuerdos se suman los vergonzosos e ilegales manejos entre el Comando Sur y el Órgano Ejecutivo Nacional para operaciones militares en nuestro territorio (Darién) de cara a Venezuela que violan nuestra soberanía y el Tratado de Neutralidad.

Repudiamos la reciente orden de Washington para que Panamá expulse a Irán de nuestra Marina Mercante y tome acciones contra dicho país, lo cual revela la ninguna neutralidad de Panamá y el Canal y nuestra total falta de independencia.

Rechazamos tajantemente la violación rampante de la Convención de Viena sobre Relaciones Diplomáticas en virtud de la bienvenida del gobierno nacional a la ilegítima representante del autodesignado presidente (títere) repudiado por el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, así como la participación ilegal de la embajada de Estados Unidos y ciudadanos extranjeros en manifestaciones públicas contra el pueblo de Venezuela.

Afirmamos que el actual gobierno de Panamá no nos representa y que ha perdido toda legitimidad; que debe adoptar una política exterior independiente y participar en la solución pacífica y negociada que respete la soberanía de Venezuela.

Abogamos porque se le abra paso a un gobierno independiente que defienda los derechos históricos y soberanos de nuestro pueblo y consagre nuestro rol universal como Zona de Paz y libre de armas nucleares.

¡POR UN PANAMA NEUTRAL, INSUMISO Y SOBERANO!

FIRMAS:
1. Julio Yao, Analista Internacional, ex Agente de Panamá ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya, Universidad de Panamá (UP).
2. Juan Carlos Mas, médico, CONADESOPAZ, UP.
3. Marco A. Gandásegui, sociólogo, CELA, UP.
4. Anayansi Turner, docente, Facultad de Derecho, UP.
5. Leopoldo Santamaría, médico patólogo.
6. Guillermo Pérez Silva, médico.
7. Nils Castro, analista político.
8. Olmedo Beluche, sociólogo, UP.
9. Alma Montenegro de Fletcher, Comité Panameño “Salida de Bolivia al Mar”, ex Procuradora General de la Administración, UP.
10. Walid Zayed, Coordinadora Palestina para Latinoamérica y el Caribe (COPLAC).
11. Rebeca Yanis Orobio, Socióloga, Docente y Dirigente de ASSEUP, UP.
12. Jorge González, Movimiento Patria, UP.
13. Roberto Montañez, Analista Internacional, UP.
14. Julio Bermúdez Valdés, periodista.
15. Gisela Pérez Polo, Administradora de Empresas, ex Coordinadora de Alianza Estratégica Nacional.
16. Franklin Ledezma Candanedo, periodista y escritor, Asociación Americana de Periodistas Bolivarianos, Red Bolivariana “Victoriano Lorenzo”, Comisión Anti Bélica de Panamá.
17. Manuel F. Zarate P., Ambientalista y analista político.
18. Juan Carlos Calzadilla, ingeniero.
19. Gilberto Solís, Movimiento de la Juventud Popular, Facultad de Derecho, UP.
20. Moisés Carrasquilla, Coordinador del Partido del Pueblo.
21. César Barsallo, activista ambiental y comunal.
22. Miguel Ramos, economista.
23. César Del Vasto, historiador.
24. Trinidad Ayola, Ingeniera Civil, AFAC 20 de diciembre.
25. Amparo Testa, Profesora de Relaciones Internacionales, UP.
26. Otto Ríos, abogado.
27. Cecilio Simons, Bayano Digital, docente universitario, UP.
28. José De la Rosa Castillo, Bayano Digital, profesor de Relaciones Internacionales, UP.
29. Celia Sanjur, socióloga y periodista.
30. María Muñoz, Coordinadora Campesina por la Vida
31. Roberto Bruneau, pastor, Defensor de Derechos Humanos.
32. Francisco Herrera, docente universitario de Historia y Antropología.
33. Moravia Ochoa, poeta.
34. Consuelo Thomas, escritora.

ADHESIONES INTERNACIONALES:
Stella Calloni – periodista, escritora, presidenta del Frente de Comunicadores Sociales por la libre Expresión de los Pueblos y otros organismos humanitarios, Argentina.
Olga Benário De Sousa Pinheiro – Liga Latinoamericana Los Irredentos.
Pablo Ruiz Espinoza – periodista, School of the America’s Watch (SOAW), Chile.
Robert Austin – Profesor, Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Sidney Australia.
Winston Worrillo – poeta, Premio Nacional de Cultura, Perú.

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The biggest regime change disaster that’s too politically incorrect to discuss

by Eric Jackson

Well, yeah. The lies are always annoying, and those who tell them should be run out of public life forever. Now we see convicted liar Elliott Abrams in charge of ginning up “regime change” in Venezuela and that appointment ought to be one more count in articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.

But let’s step back from the partisan and “safe” takes on regime change operations and recognize how central the 2014 US-promoted coup in Kiev is to today’s US politics. Let’s take a sober look at what a disaster it has been.

Yeah, yeah. It’s a betrayal for a Democrat to say these things because it happened on Obama’s shift. Maybe it’s even a sellout to Putin, as some will surely allege. But understand the Russian predicament. Understand the US predicament. Understand the Ukrainian predicament.

Is the truth to be told? In the chain of events set off by US-promoted “regime change,” Ukraine has lost much of its territory and and much of its population. How much is hard to determine.

Certainly the government in Kiev lost Crimea, a known geographical quantity which had more than three million people at the time. But some of those folks fled to what’s left of Ukraine, while other ethnic Russians fled from Ukraine to a Crimea newly and democratically annexed to Russia.

In the Donbass region, the secessionist warfare and population movements are not over. There, it was difficult to describe who was ethnic Russian and who was ethnic Ukrainian in the first place, with an awful lot of people with Ukrainian surnames who speak Russian as their first language, for example.

The census figures for the Ukrainian population are down, and were going down before the coup due to a low birth rate and increased death rate in the wake of the former Soviet Union’s collapse. But millions of citizens were lost in the breakup of what was Ukraine before the coup. When a huge minority – upwards of 40 percent – of the country was ethnic Russian and the coup was specifically anti-Russian, what could anyone expect?

But the regime change wonks believe in magic wands, which are waved in some situation room in Washington and produce neat and desired results in far corners of the world. That it never ends up that way is of course, blamed on the ignorant savages who live in these places.

The 2014 Ukrainian coup deeply affected two sleazy mobbed-up politicians.

One was Vladimir Putin, who rose to power in Russia on the shoulders of the “oligarchs” – glorified mobsters whose fortunes derive from the looting, or politely described as “privatization” – of the public assets of the former Soviet Union. He could not stay on as leader of Russia without taking a hard line about the coup in Kiev. He also needed to politically cover his ass by showing up the Americans after that.

Imagine the Chinese People’s Liberation Army setting up a base in Mexico, within sight of the US border, and he possibilities of political survival for the American politician who gets blamed for letting that happen and you begin to see Putin’s dilemma.

The other was Donald Trump, then and now and for a long time before deeply engaged in business relations – if the truth is to be told, money laundering transactions – with the Russian or otherwise former Soviet oligarchs who are Putin’s power base. Many parts of that story are being doled out in paragraphs of Mr. Mueller’s indictments and we have not heard the whole story. The Trump Ocean Club in Panama was largely marketed to Russian oligarchs, in part via mafia lawyers with US or Canadian passports.

Increasingly corrupt, increasingly plutocratic US politics gave Trump the opportunity he needed — and foreign interlopers, not just the Russians, to play the Trump card to put their man in the White House. It’s a malady that has been brewing through Republican and Democratic administrations alike for decades.

(By the way, do you want to look at the opioids epidemic and increasing death rates in many areas of the United States? THOSE are chillingly like what happened to Russia and the other former Soviet republics in the wake of that empire’s dissolution.)

A Russian leader talking and acting tough as a matter of survival in his post? Is it that hard to understand? Isn’t a cornered Donald Trump playing many similar cards?

But pity the poor Ukraine — all of the people there, whether loyal to Moscow or to Kiev.

The shooting is not all over in the Donbass. Photo by Marco Fieber.

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11th Portobelo Congos & Diablos Festival

The Fundacion Portobelo and the Grupo Realce Historico announce that on Saturday, April 27 they will hold the 11th PORTOBELO CONGOS AND DIABLOS FESTIVAL. This is the main event for Panamanian Afro-colonial culture. Without a doubt it’s a major cultural and tourist attraction for locals and foreigners, who fill the streets of the historic town to enjoy the autochthonous manifestations of this area of the province of Colon.

This important folkloric meeting has been confirmed the support of of the Tourism Authority of Panama and the National Institute of Culture, institutions that are once again joining this cultural effort. The festival arose from the concern of local residents to maintain their traditions, and brings indisputable cultural, economic, tourism and image gains for the community of Portobelo, Colon province and the country in general.

This 11th festival is celebrated within the framework of the recent recognition of the Congo culture as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The distinction is not only a matter of national pride: it gives a definitive accolade to a culture previously denigrated and marginalized. Thanks to the persistence of its cultists of all the peoples of the coasts of Colon and beyond, it has remained alive and powerful.

For more information go to Festival de Diablos y Congos and Fundación Portobelo on Facebook, on Instagram and Twitter at Congos y Diablos, by calling (507) 6949-0414 or sending an email to festivaldiablosycongos2017@gmail.com

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VIENE EL FESTIVAL DE CONGOS Y DIABLOS DE PORTOBELO

La Fundación Portobelo y el Grupo Realce Histórico anuncian la realización el sábado 27 de abril próximo del 11° FESTIVAL DE CONGOS Y DIABLOS DE PORTOBELO, el máximo evento con que cuenta la cultura afrocolonial panameña, que se ha constituido en indiscutible atractivo cultural y turístico para propios y extraños, que abarrotan las calles de la histórica población para disfrutar de las manifestaciones autóctonas de esta área de la provincia de Colón.

Este importante encuentro folklórico cuenta con la confirmación como principales aliados gubernamentales de la Autoridad de Turismo de Panamá y del Instituto Nacional de Cultura, instituciones que vuelven a sumarse a este esfuerzo cultural que surgió de la inquietud de sus propios moradores por mantener sus tradiciones, y que deja indiscutibles ganancias culturales, económicas, turísticas y de imagen para la comunidad de Portobelo, la provincia de Colón y el país en general.

Este 11° FESTIVAL se celebra en el marco del reciente reconocimiento de la cultura congo como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (Unesco), una distinción que enorgullece al país y da un espaldarazo definitivo a una cultura antes denigrada y marginada, y que gracias a la persistencia de sus cultores de todos los pueblos de las costas de Colón y más allá, se ha mantenido viva y potente. Más info en redes en Facebook: Festival de Diablos y Congos y Fundación Portobelo y en Instagram y Twitter en Congos y Diablos, al 6949-0414 o festivaldiablosycongos2017@gmail.com

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In reality, a Panameñista campaign ad. But because it’s posted on the president’s Twitter feed instead of on billboards, the Electoral Tribunal will see it otherwise.

At long last, it comes to this

President Varela took farms and homes from people and gave them to the subsidiary of US-owned Dole. The people evicted were offered irrisory compensation, nothing all close to replacement value.

Ancient petroglyphs considered holy to many of the Ngäbe people were flooded over and destroyed, as a gift to Honduran hustlers, European investors and a rabiblanco law firm who got a dam concession with a fraudulent environmental impact  statement. Varela said that foreign interests trump those of Panamanians.

Panamanian neutrality as our main defense of the Panama Canal? Varela takes orders from the Pentagon, takes sides with the most atrocious human rights abusers in the Middle East and has given an excuse to a wide variety of fanatics in many places to see Panama as an enemy power. So of course his administration ends with the overt return of US forces to the isthmus.

Look and listen carefully to the candidates. Is there someone who will lead Panama back toward independence?

This raucous, squabbling party will have a crowded 2020 presidential primary field. That’s not a bad thing. Those who are busy trying to “clear the field” by defaming candidates do neither America nor the Democratic Party any service.

The “killer” Bs…

Enough of the dangerous fiend imagery.

There is all the time in the world for things to change but polls suggest that the GOP base is sticking with Donald Trump and that any of the many candidates of possible candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination would beat Trump. Alarmist stuff about how the Democrats die if they go to the left, or go to the right, or try someone new, or get stuck on someone old – that’s just nonsense.

Are there foreign voices in the crowd? Perhaps, but surely this is mainly homespun by operatives and pundits, or wannabe operative or pundits, looking for advantage in what will be a large crowd of candidates.

Speculation about the so-far undeclared ones is more interesting than the vilification of those already announced. Will Biden run? Will Beto jump in? Will Bernie take the plunge?

Could be that we get these three men in the race, in a year when Democrats are looking for a woman. Could be that anyone with any sort of record in public life gets it cherry picked for that one obscure datum that can bludgeon a campaign to death. Perhaps….

If any or all of these guys decide to run for president, they should be welcomed and respectfully heard. If anyone runs a “Stop B…” or stop anybody else campaign, the purveyors of that are the ones who ought to be outed and stopped. This time Democrats should get to vote for whom they want without threat or stigma.

The mortal threat to Democrats this time around is the possibility of would-be power brokers rigging or appearing to rig the primaries. That could leave people whose votes the eventual Democratic nominee needs unenthusiastic about voting in the fall.

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Hundreds of migrants, some sick, stuck in the bush at the border with Colombia

by Eric Jackson, from other sources

Local Colombian media report that on February 11 Panama’s SENAFRONT border police shut down crossings from Colombia in the northern part of the binational border. They report that at least 700 undocumented migrants, said to be mostly Africans but perhaps with Haitians or Cubans in the mix, had come into the town of Acandi via the waters of the Gulf of Uraba from the opposite shore in Turbo. They then set out by foot to Panama and by a few accounts some got over the border. 

But the main group was met by Panamanian authorities, who discovered that at least half a dozen were ailing with malaria. Was it of one of the deadlier African strains? So it was imprecisely reported. From Panamanian officials we are hearing nothing.

Noticias Uraba says that the Panamanian border guards used tear gas to turn the migrants back, with only partial success. Meanwhile the mayor of Acandi, Lilia Córdoba, told that medium that the migrants were not welcome back into town because of the health risk posed by the several reported malaria cases. So at last word there are hundreds of people stranded in the bush along the border.

Both sides of the so-called Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia are pretty remote — rough, forested, roadless terrain and not well served by media and telecommunications services. It has historically provided many hiding places and obscure routes for smugglers, guerrillas and paramilitary groups. During Colombia’s long and only partially ended civil conflict the part around the Gulf of Uraba, opposite Puerto Obaldia and beyond that Guna Yala on the Panamanian side, was the turf of the AUC paramilitary that was in that area funded in part by the US-based Chiquita Brands. Since then that particular right-wing private army has gone through various changes and morphed into the Clan Usuga, a violent drug smuggling gang that operates in Panama now. Other criminals operating in the area now dedicate themselves to the smuggling of other cargoes — human beings, seeking to slip into Panama en route to the United States if they can make it.

Until last year Panama had a policy of letting undocumented migrants pass through the country so long as they did not stay more than 30 days here. However, Costa Rica and the United States in particular objected to that policy and the Varela administration agreed to take stronger steps to stop migration without visas.

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