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Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Cinta Costera Mirador — folks who have little more in common than a distaste for the corruption with impunity that we see will gather. One demand will be “civil death” for companies and people caught in the corruption scandals — denial of the legal standing to do business or hold public office. Varela’s call centers, social media trolls and speech to the legislature are pleading for the interests of the families that own the family businesses that have stolen from us.
Panama flies in the dark
At least three witnesses and a paper trail show that the Varela campaign took money from Odebrecht. Minister of Canal Affairs and Metro secretary Roberto Roy is accused of taking Odebrecht money via its partner FCC, which Roy denies but which is circumstantially suggested by how the Odebrecht / FCC consortium got the Metro Line 2 contract despite a lower bid from a very well qualified Chinese group. “Show your proofs,” we hear, from people who expect that those whose job it to investigate will not investigate. And thus the president’s curious speech to the legislature, wherein the word “Odebrecht” was not mentioned as he railed against his predecessor’s corruption.
Is Ubaldo Davis’s usually lowbrow, sometimes reactionary, generally adolescent male humor the burning issue of the day? Is his problem that he’s not under somebody’s Marxist-Leninist discipline so has no right to speak of corruption?
It the problem that Miguel Antonio Bernal is a persistent and annoying gadfly? Or is it that, as polls are banned in the run-up to the 2019 elections, his independent campaign might take off and steal a surprise march on the severely discredited political parties?
The purported bans on polls and campaigning, the latter until two months before the election, do not make politics go away. They just force it underground or into euphemisms, or reserve the field to the protected statements of those already holding public offices. Panama is in a severe and dangerous predicament, with all of the branches of government afflicted by multiple scandals. In our relatively short history as an independent republic, such times have often presaged police or military coups. The perhaps well meaning attempt to shorten the extremely expensive perpetual campaigning just has us flying blind. It’s not a shorter and more elevated debate, but a rumble in the dark.
The problem is not a few extremists who glommed onto the Trump entourage. It’s a prolonged embrace by the Republican Party of far-right racist politics in other countries and easy acceptance of similar foreign entanglements in US politics as well.
Washington in disarray
Let’s see if the US federal government can get through this winter without a shutdown. Let’s see the next cards that Donald Trump and Robert Mueller play.
When a party controls everything, but people in prominent positions with it are in panicky flight toward the exits, you know that something extraordinary is underway. The outlines of what that is are emerging:
Was the special prosecutor’s job to investigate Trump’s ties with “The Russians?” The man, and members of his family, have been laundering money for Russian thugs for decades and some of those thugs’ common ties with the Putin entourage bring those situations within the purview of the investigation. Whether or not some collusion with the Russian government to the extent of a case of conspiracy to violate US election laws is there to be made beyond a reasonable doubt, the Trumps are very likely going down for money laundering and other financial crimes. The lies and obstructions of justice are just the low-hanging fruit for the prosecution team to harvest.
The extremely wealthy got the huge tax windfall they wanted, there’s no lipstick that they can put on that pig to fool enough people about the nature of it, and to some of those who had thought of politics as a career it now seems to be the time to take the money and run.
There are some hardcore committed neofascist militants — like the Charlottesville death driver — who are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause. That sort of commitment is not found among the selfish rich and wannabes in the Trump entourage. They will turn on Trump or on each other before broaching the prospect of spending even one night in jail. Team Trump are wimps and it has been easy for Mueller to break up their solidarity.
The GOP still holds power in the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government. They seem set to lose control of Congress in November. Might there be dramatic moves to head that off? That raises the prospect of a constitutional crisis. Perhaps to fanatics who believe in End Times religion that risk doesn’t matter, but to conservatives who still believe in conserving something Trump’s ego is not worth a constitutional breakdown. Which, then, calls into question the nature and extent of Republican control in Washington.
Such are the wages of broken solidarity among those who were insufferably selfish to begin with. It’s likely to be a terrible reckoning.
Bear in mind
The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
Thomas H. Huxley
They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.
Dorothy Parker
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Proverbs 11:14
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Juan Carlos Varela addresses the National Assembly of Deputies. Photo by the Presidencia.
The best war is the one not fought
President Varela’s address to the National Assembly
Good morning to all:
Fulfilling with the constitutional mandate, I come before this Honorable Assembly to present the annual report of the Government that I am honored to preside and I start my message by wishing all Panamanians a year 2018 full of peace and prosperity, inviting you to continue together to build a better future for all Panamanians upon the experiences, victories and defeats of the past.
On July 2014, when I took possession before the Panamanian people as President, I assumed with great humility the commitment to install an honest and transparent government that respects the balance by which the people had voted in the elections and invests the country’s wealth to improve the quality of life of all Panamanians without distinction of any kind.
So thanks to your support and that of the Panamanian people, I have governed Panama for 42 months with respect, dialogue, peace and transparency. I invite you to continue working for the next 18 months in the same way.
Six months ago in this Assembly I emphasized that I am a man of peace, aware that the best war is the one not fought, but that I am always willing to fight the necessary battles to advance in an agenda that brings social peace, progress and prosperity for all Panamanians.
Today I ratify my commitment to the balance that must be in a democracy that does not mean that I will accept disrespect or blackmail of senseless leaderships that led this country to confrontation.
We live in a new era of our democracy, where the strength of the State is only used to face the problems that affect the people. Persecution, the violation of privacy, of which I was a victim as well as my family, companies and followers, are part of the past.
In these 42 months there has been no repetition of the repression that occurred in Changuinola, San Felix and Colon, which left so much pain throughout the country. Now those who generated these clashes in effect try to promote discord, restlessness and pessimism in the population.
The opposition is important in any democracy, but it must understand that its main adversary is the problems that affect the people. The debate of ideas is constructive. All are in their right to disagree, but it is not right to attack the image of Panama every day.
Politics is not the dispute for power, it is the use of power in the pursuit of the common good.
I will not allow the ghosts of the narcopolitics and corruption to return and impede the future of Panama, nor leaders who face justice in cases of corruption or are fugitives from local and international justice, who want to take the country to the route of uncertainty in which they find themselves. I am ready to fight another battle if necessary to defend our democracy and our country.
I welcome the citizens who are now joining the fight against corruption, a battle that we started as a group of young leaders many years ago.
To paraphrase the message of a popular movie, I tell you: this war against corruption is not going to be won by destroying what we hate but by saving what we love, which is our Nation and our People.
Panamanian people:
In these three years and six months of government we have worked with delivery and vision of State looking for the welfare of all Panamanians, that is why we were able to increase the universal scholarship; take the benefit of the $120 Program from 70 to 65; doubled the salary of the teachers from $650 to $1,300; increased the salary of nurses, doctors and health personnel by 30%; increased the salary of the members of the Police Force and the minimum salary of the government officials to $600.
We have advanced in projects such as Techos de Esperanza, Basic Sanitation, new schools and construction of 2,000 kilometers of roads, $11 billion tendered and awarded with transparency, works that generate jobs and movement in the national economy in all provinces and comarcas of the country.
All this we have achieved without raising a single tax, lowering the deficit from 5.5% to 1.0%, complying with the fiscal responsibility law.
This is the value of an honest government.
The year 2017 was successful for Panama and the Panamanians, one of the most important international events and with positive consequences for our country is the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Another important achievement is the CEPADEM with which we are doing justice to 660,000 Panamanians, returning $360 million that correspond to the third part of the 13th month that was owed more than 40 years ago, that no post-dictatorship government dared to give back.
As of 15 January we will reactivate the massive delivery of CEPADEM throughout the country.
This return is made thanks to the tenacious work of the Public Ministry and those brave prosecutors who today are attacked for doing their job, which is to recover the people¿s legacy.
25,000 Panamanian families — 1,020 in Colon and 360 in Santiago de Veraguas — are moving into their new homes, and today Colon has a new marine promenade.
We will build 87,000 more houses and we will surpass the goal of 100,000 houses for Panamanians.
In Colon the condemned houses are disappearing and in Veraguas, the squatter settlements.
Techos de Esperanza continues to transform lives like the Archibold family in Colon and the Pinzón family in Santiago
In 2017, with an investment of $298 million, we completed the construction of 312 kilometers of roads throughout the country.
In an unprecedented measure, it was arranged in common agreement with the company Mi Bus to reduce the fare of the Metrobus in the north and south corridors, now it costs 75¢.
We tendered the construction of the 4th bridge over the Panama Canal, the Beaches Corridor, the expansion of the Bridge of the Americas Highway to the Arraijan – La Chorrera Road, the new Gamboa and Howard water treatment plants and the North and East Hydraulic rings. All these works begin construction this year.
We reactivated the economy of Baru with the installation of the Banapiña company, which will invest $100 million in seven years, generating 3,000 direct and 12,000 indirect jobs.
This is equitable distribution of the country’s wealth and social justice for those who had been forgotten for decades.
We have significantly reduced the surgical delay in the public health system. From July 2017 to date, the Social Security has made more than 11,700 operations that were pending and the hospitals of the Ministry of Health have reduced by 80% the surgical delay. We will continue working until reaching the goal.
Improving the supply and distribution of energy in the country we completed the construction of Line 3 of electric transmission and in 2018 we will tender line 4 and the development of Chan II.
The results of our government plan are being seen and this 2018 will be important in the delivery of works to Panamanians:
On January 11 we will inaugurate the expansion of the Santiago David road and at the end of the month the Inter-American Highway that runs from Agua Fria to Yaviza in Darien, which will consolidate Darien as this country’s agricultural reserve.
On March 5 I will inaugurate the new School Colinas of Pacora, starting the 2018 school year, it will be the first fully bilingual public school in the country.
On March 23 we will attend the novenas game between the Chiriqui and Herrera in the new Kenny Serracin stadium and very soon we will deliver the Calvin Byron stadium in Bocas del Toro, Flaco Bala Hernandez in Los Santos and Juan Demostenes Arosemena in Panama.
During 2018 we will witness the culmination of the Urban Renewal Project of Colon and the move of 5,000 families to their new home; the delivery of the Project Ciudad Esperanza of Arraiján and the last phase of San Antonio in Veraguas.
The gas plant located in Colon, which was tendered and built in this administration and which will generate 350 megawatts of energy, will start operations.
We will finish the construction of the Anita Moreno hospital in Los Santos and the ones in Colon, Meteti and Bugaba, we will have great advances in the City of Health and we will begin the construction of the National Oncology Hospital.
We will finish the Amador Convention Center, advance in the construction of the Cruise Port and we will deliver the new Tocumen International Airport.
We will tender the extension of line 1 to Villa Zaíta and of Line 2 to Tocumen Airport and line 3 to Arraiján and Chorrera.
The year 2018 will witness the culmination of Line 2 of the Metro which will benefit more than 500 thousand Panamanians.
In 2019, the company Minera Panama will begin copper production, generating significant revenues for the country.
Deputies and authorities present:
Peace, tolerance and respect are the main pillars of our growth and development as a Nation.
Our economy maintains a sustained growth, inflation is at 0.9%. This year the economy grew 5.6% and it is projected that by 2018 it will remain the same.
In this administration, economic growth is according to Panamanian purchasing power, not on the basis of speculation.
The Panamanian economy has been strengthened from its bases, so I call on the owners of the media: show respect and understand that if the screens reflect the problems of the country, it is also important that you also publish the positive results that are achieved thanks to the honest work of all Panamanians, which is also reflected in the results of your companies.
During the last 10 years the economy of the country has been driven by mega projects such as the expansion of the Panama Canal, the Donoso Mine, line 1 and 2 of the Metro; in the coming years, line 3 and the Fourth Bridge over the Panama Canal, works that will also be engines of growth.
We visualize the Panama – David train as another mega project that will be added to these, so this year we will begin studies for its design.
Panama continues to lead statistics as the safest country in the region. Despite the uncontrolled increase in drug production and trafficking, we had a record year of seizures and we were able to maintain a downward trend in crime, although I admit it was slight.
We will continue working with a firm hand against crime.
In 2018 we will see the positive effects of the Urban Mobility Plan, with the extension of corridors and implementation of inverted lanes during peak hours, the arrival of new buses and trains that will expand the capacity of the Metro; and the unification of the fares of the metro and metro bus.
I have presented before this Assembly the nomination of two honest, professionally and ethically solvent women to occupy the position of Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice. I know that they have the capacity to contribute to the transformation of the Panamanian judicial system. That, together with two judges with long careers in the system for Alternate Magistrates, guarantees high standards of professionalism, independence, technical and ethical capacity.
This will be a decisive year to get the administration of justice that Panama requires, to close this dark chapter of our history, that make those responsible accept their faults, to return the the people’s legacy they took and to move ahead — reconciled and united as a single people — towards the electoral contest.
The battle that is being waged against corruption in Panama will be a case study in recovering funds diverted from the Panamanian people, without affecting the works in progress, jobs or innocent people.
Law 4 of 2017, approved by you, opened the way for the recovery of assets and reconciliation in this country. Many have welcomed it, as it frees their families from being held hostage for the mistakes made and returns the ill-gotten money. To those who still defy the State, thinking that they will be able to buy justice or the elections I tell them they are wrong. In the end the State always wins.
Impunity is not an option. We cannot allow interests alien to those of the State to divert the mission of doing justice for the Panamanian people.
Corruption benefits the elite who steal the country’s future. An honest management of State resources allows people to progress, the middle class to grow and creates opportunities for all. Panamanians must define the path we wish to travel: return to corruption or continued construction of a country where honesty and transparency in the management of State resources is an unbreakable rule.
Panamanians all:
Our team managed to qualify for the World Cup 2018. In the month of June we will see our flag for the first time in a World Cup. We are proud, as are all Panamanians.
Nobody celebrates defeats, only victories. On the field battles are not celebrated — they only fight to win, like our national team did. I call them to once again put on our Panama jersey and continue working together for this beautiful country.
With the same courage with which our team qualified on October 10, 2017, I will fight until the last second of my mandate so that our country lives in peace and moves forward safely into the future that we deserve.
During this year 2018 we have to prepare for the most important global event in our history, the celebration of World Youth Day 2019. I invite all Panamanians to work in unity so that this event is the success of an entire nation.
The vocation of Panama, sealed by our geographical position, has been to unite the world with crossing roads: the railroad, the Canal, the ports and airports. The country that unites the world cannot have its people divided.
Our flag is a symbol of unity and peace. In 1903 our heroes put aside political differences and built this country. Let us follow their example.
I make a respectful and firm call to stay united to solve the problems that affect our people, as we have done in these 42 months.
Thank you very much.
Presidente Varela frente a la Asamblea. Foto por la Presidencia.
Discurso del Presidente
discurso del presidente Varela en la Asamblea Nacional
Buenos días a todos:
Cumpliendo con el mandato constitucional, vengo ante esta Honorable Asamblea a presentar el informe de gestión del Gobierno que me honro en presidir e inicio mi mensaje deseándole a todos los panameños un año 2018 lleno de paz y prosperidad, invitándolos a que sobre las experiencias, victorias y derrotas del pasado sigamos juntos construyendo un mejor futuro para todos los panameños.
El primero de julio de 2014, al tomar posesión ante el pueblo panameño como Presidente de la República, asumí con mucha humildad el compromiso de instalar un gobierno honesto y transparente, que respetara el balance por el cual el pueblo había votado en las elecciones e invirtiera las riquezas del país para mejorar la calidad de vida de todos los panameños sin distingo de ninguna clase.
De esa forma, gracias al respaldo de ustedes y del pueblo panameño, he gobernado Panamá por 42 meses, con respeto, diálogo, paz y transparencia; los invito a que sigamos trabajando los próximos 18 meses de la misma manera.
Hace seis meses en esta Asamblea recalqué que soy un hombre de paz, consciente de que la mejor guerra es la que no se pelea, pero que siempre estoy dispuesto a luchar las batallas necesarias para avanzar en una agenda que traiga paz social, progreso y prosperidad para todos los panameños.
Hoy ratifico mi compromiso con el equilibrio que debe haber en una democracia, eso no quiere decir que aceptaré el irrespeto o el chantaje de liderazgos insensatos que llevaron a este país a la confrontación.
Vivimos en una nueva era de nuestra democracia, donde la fuerza del Estado solo se utiliza para enfrentar los problemas que afectan al pueblo; la persecución, la violación a la privacidad, de la que fui víctima igual que mi familia, empresas y seguidores, son parte del pasado.
En estos 42 meses no se ha repetido la represión ocurrida en Changuinola, San Félix y Colón, que tanto dolor dejó en todo el país. Ahora quienes generaron estos choques intentan promover desacuerdos virtuales, desasosiego y pesimismo en la población.
La oposición es importante en toda democracia, pero debe entender que su adversario principal son los problemas que afectan al pueblo. El debate de ideas es constructivo, todos están en su derecho de discrepar, pero no es correcto atacar diariamente la imagen de Panamá.
La política no es la disputa por el poder, es el uso del poder en la búsqueda del bien común.
No voy a permitir que los fantasmas de la narco-política o la corrupción regresen y empantanen el futuro de Panamá, ni que dirigentes que enfrentan la justicia por casos de corrupción o son prófugos de la justicia local e internacional, quieran llevar al país por la ruta de la incertidumbre en que ellos se encuentran. Estoy listo para librar otra batalla si es necesario para defender nuestra democracia y nuestro país.
Doy la bienvenida a los ciudadanos que ahora se suman a la lucha contra la corrupción, batalla que junto a un grupo de jóvenes dirigentes iniciamos hace muchos años.
Parafraseando el mensaje de una película de moda, les digo: esta guerra contra la corrupción no la vamos a ganar destruyendo lo que odiamos sino salvando lo que amamos, que son nuestra Patria y nuestro Pueblo.
Pueblo panameño:
En estos tres años y seis meses de gobierno hemos trabajado con entrega y visión de Estado buscando el bienestar de todos los panameños, por eso pudimos aumentar la beca universal; llevar el beneficio del Programa de 120 a los 70 a 65 años; duplicar el salario de los maestros de 650 balboas a 1,300; aumentar el salario de las enfermeras, médicos y personal de salud en un 30%; incrementar el salario de los miembros de la Fuerza Pública y el salario mínimo de los funcionarios del gobierno a 600 balboas.
Hemos avanzado en proyectos como Techos de Esperanza, Sanidad Básica, nuevas escuelas y construcción de 2 mil kilómetros de carretera, son 11 mil millones de balboas licitados y adjudicados con transparencia, obras que generan empleos y movimiento en la economía nacional en todas las provincias y comarcas del país.
Todo esto lo hemos logrado sin subir un solo impuesto, bajando el déficit de 5.5% a 1.0%, cumpliendo con la ley de responsabilidad fiscal.
Este es el valor de un gobierno honesto.
El año 2017 fue exitoso para Panamá y los panameños, uno de los acontecimientos más importantes a nivel internacional y con positivas consecuencias para nuestro país es el establecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas con la República Popular China.
Otro logro importante es el CEPADEM con el que estamos haciendo justicia a 660 mil panameños, devolviéndoles 360 millones de balboas que corresponden a la tercera partida del décimo tercer mes que se les debía hace más de 40 años, que ningún Gobierno post dictadura se atrevió a devolver.
A partir del 15 de enero reactivamos la entrega masiva de CEPADEM en todo el país.
Esta devolución se realiza gracias al trabajo tenaz del Ministerio Público y esas valientes fiscales que hoy son atacadas por hacer su trabajo que es recuperar el patrimonio del pueblo.
25 mil familias panameñas, 1,020 en Colón y 360 en Santiago de Veraguas, se están mudando a sus casas nueva y Colón cuenta hoy con un nuevo paseo marino.
Construiremos 87 mil viviendas más y pasaremos la meta de 100 mil casas para los panameños.
En Colón están desapareciendo las casas condenadas y en Veraguas los asentamientos precaristas.
Techos de esperanza sigue transformando vidas como la de la familia Archibold en Colón y la familia Pinzón en Santiago
Aprobamos la Ley que reduce el impuesto de inmueble y ampliamos la cobertura de los intereses preferenciales a casas cuyo valor no exceda de los 120 mil balboas.
En el 2017, con una inversión de 298 millones de balboas culminamos la construcción de 312 kilómetros de carreteras en todo el país.
En una medida sin precedentes se dispuso en común acuerdo con la empresa Mi Bus reducir el pasaje del Metrobus en los corredores norte y sur, ahora cuesta 0.75 centavos.
Licitamos la construcción del 4to. Puente sobre el Canal de Panamá, el corredor de las playas, la ampliación de la Carretera Puente de las Américas a la Autopista Arraiján La Chorrera, las nuevas potabilizadoras de Gamboa y Howard y los anillos Hidráulico Norte y Este, todas estas obras inician construcción este año.
Reactivamos la economía del Barú con la instalación de la empresa Banapiña que invertirá 100 millones de balboas en 7 años, generando 3 mil empleos directos y 12 mil indirectos.
Esto es distribución equitativa de la riqueza del país y justicia social para quienes habían sido olvidados por décadas.
Hemos reducido significativamente la mora quirúrgica en el sistema de salud pública. Desde julio de 2017 a la fecha, la Caja del Seguro Social ha realizado más de 11,700 operaciones que estaban pendientes y los hospitales del Ministerio de Salud han disminuido en un 80% la mora quirúrgica. Seguiremos trabajando hasta alcanzar la meta.
Mejorando la oferta y distribución de energía del país culminamos la construcción de la Línea 3 de transmisión eléctrica y en el 2018 licitaremos la línea 4 y el desarrollo de Chan II.
Los resultados de nuestro plan de gobierno se están viendo y este 2018 será importante en la entrega de obras a los panameños:
El próximo 11 de enero inauguraremos la ampliación la carretera Santiago David y a finales del mes la Carretera Interamericana que va desde Agua Fría hasta Yaviza en Darién, que consolidará a Darién como la reserva agropecuaria del país.
El día 5 de marzo inauguraré la nueva Escuela de Colinas de Pacora dando inicio al año escolar 2018, será el primer colegio público totalmente bilingüe en el país.
El 23 de marzo asistiremos al juego entre las novenas de Chiriquí y Herrera en el nuevo estadio Kenny Serracín y muy pronto entregaremos el estadio Calvin Bayron en Bocas del Toro, Flaco Bala Hernández en Los Santos y el Juan Demóstenes Arosemena en Panamá.
Durante el año 2018 seremos testigos de la culminación del Proyecto de Renovación Urbana de Colón y la mudanza de 5 mil familias a su nuevo hogar; la entrega del Proyecto Ciudad Esperanza de Arraiján y la última fase de San Antonio en Veraguas.
Iniciará operaciones la Planta de Gas ubicada en Colón que generará 350 mega watts de energía, licitada y construida en esta administración.
Finalizaremos la construcción del hospital Anita Moreno en Los Santos, el de Colón, Metetí y Bugaba, tendremos grandes avances en la Ciudad de la Salud e iniciaremos la construcción del Hospital Oncológico Nacional.
Culminaremos el Centro de Convenciones de Amador y avanzaremos en la construcción del Puerto de Cruceros y entregaremos el nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen.
Licitaremos la extensión de la línea 1 hasta Villa Zaíta y de la Línea 2 al Aeropuerto de Tocumen y la línea 3 hasta Arraiján y Chorrera.
El año 2018 será testigo de la culminación de la Línea 2 del Metro que beneficiará a más 500 mil panameños.
En el 2019 la empresa Minera Panamá iniciará la producción de Cobre, generando ingresos importantes para el país.
Señores Diputados y autoridades presentes:
La paz, la tolerancia y el respeto son los principales pilares de nuestro crecimiento y del desarrollo como Nación.
Nuestra economía mantiene un crecimiento sostenido, la inflación está en 0.9%. Este año la economía creció 5.6% y se proyecta que para el año 2018 se mantendrá igual.
En esta administración el crecimiento económico va de acuerdo al poder adquisitivo del panameño no en base a la especulación.
La economía panameña se ha fortalecido desde sus bases, por eso hago un llamado a los dueños de los medios de comunicación, respeto y entiendo que las pantallas reflejen los problemas del país, pero es importante también que divulguen los resultados positivos que se logran gracias al trabajo honesto de todos los panameños, que también se refleja en los resultados de sus empresas.
Durante los últimos 10 años la economía del país ha sido impulsada por Mega proyectos como la ampliación del Canal de Panamá, la Mina de Donoso, la línea 1 y 2 del Metro; en los próximos años, la línea 3 y el Cuarto Puente sobre el Canal de Panamá, obras que también serán motores del crecimiento.
Visualizamos el tren de Panamá David como otro mega proyecto que se sumará a éstos, por lo cual este año iniciaremos los estudios para su diseño.
Panamá sigue liderando las estadísticas como el país más seguro de la Región, a pesar del aumento descontrolado de la producción y tráfico de drogas, tuvimos un año record de incautación y pudimos mantener, una tendencia a la baja en los delitos, aunque reconozco fue leve.
Continuaremos trabajando con mano firme contra el crimen.
En el año 2018 veremos los efectos positivos del Plan de Movilidad Urbana, con la ampliación de corredores e implementación de carril invertido en horas pico, la llegada de nuevos buses y trenes que ampliarán la capacidad del Metro; y la unificación de las tarifas del metro y metro bus.
He presentado ante esta Asamblea la postulación de dos mujeres honestas y solventes profesional y éticamente para ocupar el cargo de Magistradas de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, sé que tienen la capacidad de contribuir a la transformación del sistema de judicial panameño; que, junto a dos funcionarios judiciales de amplia trayectoria en el sistema para Magistrados Suplentes, garantiza altos estándares de profesionalismo, independencia, capacidad técnica y ética.
Este será un año decisivo para alcanzar la administración de justicia que requiere Panamá, para cerrar este capítulo oscuro de nuestra historia, que los responsables acepten sus faltas, devuelvan el patrimonio del pueblo que se llevaron y avanzar reconciliados, unidos como un solo pueblo hacia el torneo electoral.
La batalla que se está librando contra la corrupción en Panamá será un caso de estudio, se están recuperando fondos desviados al pueblo panameño, sin afectar las obras ni los empleos ni a la gente inocente.
La Ley 4 de 2017, aprobada por ustedes abrió el camino para la recuperación patrimonial y la reconciliación del país, muchos se han acogido a ella liberando a sus familias de ser rehenes de los errores cometidos y devolviendo el dinero mal habido; a los que aún desafían al Estado pensando que podrán comprar la justicia o el resultado de las elecciones les digo: están equivocados, al final el Estado siempre gana.
La impunidad no es una opción y no podemos permitir que intereses ajenos a los del Estado desvíen la misión de hacer justicia al pueblo panameño.
La corrupción beneficia a la élite que le roba el futuro al país; una administración honesta de los recursos del Estado permite a las personas progresar, a la clase media crecer y generar oportunidades para todos. Los panameños debemos definir cuál es el camino que deseamos transitar: volver a la corrupción o seguir construyendo un país donde la honestidad y la transparencia en el manejo de los recursos del Estado sea una regla inquebrantable.
Panameñas y Panameños todos:
Nuestra selección logró clasificar a la Copa Mundial 2018. En el mes de junio veremos por primera vez ondear nuestra bandera en una Copa Mundial de Fútbol. Nos sentimos orgullos, igual que todos los panameños.
Nadie celebra derrotas, sólo las victorias, en el campo no se celebran las batallas, sólo se lucha para ganar, al igual que lo hizo nuestra selección, los convoco a que una vez más nos pongamos la camisa de Panamá y sigamos trabajando unidos por este hermoso país.
Con el mismo coraje con el que nuestra selección clasificó el 10 de octubre de 2017, yo lucharé hasta el último segundo de mi mandato para que nuestro país viva en paz y avance seguro hacia el futuro que nos meceremos.
Durante este año 2018 nos toca prepararnos para el evento global más importante de nuestra historia, la celebración de la JMJ en el año 2019, invito a todos los panameños a que trabajemos en unidad para que este acontecimiento sea el éxito de toda una nación.
La vocación de Panamá sellada por nuestra posición geográfica ha sido la de unir al mundo con el camino de cruces, el ferrocarril, el Canal, los puertos y aeropuertos. El país que une al mundo no puede tener a su pueblo dividido.
Nuestra bandera es símbolo de unidad y paz, en 1903 nuestros próceres dejaron a un lado las diferencias políticas y construyeron este país, sigamos su ejemplo.
Hago un llamado respetuoso y firme a mantenernos unidos para resolver los problemas que afectan a nuestro pueblo, como lo hemos hecho en estos 42 meses.
Muchas Gracias
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photos by the National Aeronaval Service (SENAN), note by Eric Jackson
Perhaps it will be an interesting investigation. On the afternoon of December 31, two launches with 24 passengers aboard set out from Isla Colon for Cayo Zapatilla. They didn’t get there. By various sketchy accounts, the boats took on water in the heavy seasonal chop and ended up adrift. The National Aeronaval Service, essentially Panama’s combined air patrol and coast guard, was alerted and spent the night looking. In the morning a SENAN chopper spotted what looked like two beached launches and a group of people on the beach of a less populated part of Isla Colon. They checked it out and sure enough. Everyone was safe and sound, but they missed their party. They got back to from whence they started out after a night of some adventure but apparently little revelry. Surely SENAN had some maritime traffic cop sorts questions for the launch operators.
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The tradition is that they burn them around midnight of December 31 / January 1, often stuffed with firecrackers. / La tradición es que los queman alrededor de la medianoche del 31 de diciembre / 1 de enero, muchas veces rellenos con fuegos artificiales.
Feliz Año Nuevo, estilo Panamá Oeste Happy New Year, Panama Oeste style
fotos de muñecos por / photos of muñecos by Eric Jackson
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Those of us who fight for the future are always obstructed by those who try nothing
The arrival of a new year should strengthen our resolve to get Panama, once and for all, into a true process of convening a constituent assembly as an instrument of the people’s imperative democratic demands.
Panama is ever more socially fragmented, with an aggravated political incompetence on the part of the ruling cliques. The limitations on civic actions, the growing concerns and the political opportunism will continue to sink the existing constitutional norms. It’s reinforced by regressive election laws designed to favor party leaders and an oligarchic takeover of electoral politics.
It’s not easy for those who want to be everyday citizens. With the absence of common goals, in which the more power one has the more one can do, allows, by way of manipulations, them to steal our yesterdays, keep us from having to day and so they wish not allow us to reach tomorrow.
That is why, fed up as we are with traditional politics, in which corruption and impunity allow corrupt people to deny us the possible future to which we are entitled, we must act decisively to make the necessary changes outside of an environment of emergency and crisis. We cannot turn our backs to the globalized world, let alone condone the violence that the mediocre people who govern seek to impose.
In Panama democracy has not achieved the institutional performance necessary for a modern society. This is due to a desire to sink the elevation of the quality of our public life into the most despicable electoral criteria. This means that political patronage structures allow those in power to continue without being accountable, without being transparent and bereft of any democratic sense.
The future is possible if we divest ourselves, once and for all, of the persistent urge to introduce corrections, reforms, amendments, revisions and / or patches to a failed constitution.
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The National Assembly’s Credentials Committee, several of whose members are caught up in scandals of their own. The could not meet the president’s deadline to jam through two high court nominations before the year ended. Photo by the Asamblea Nacional.
Varela’s special legislative session fails
by Eric Jackson
On the afternoon of December 29 it became clear that there were more people who had registered to testify about the nominations of Zuleyka Moore and Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak to be magistrates on the Supreme Court’s penal and civil benches respectively than could be heard that day. The National Assembly’s Credentials Committee adjourned the hearings and the special legislative session that President Varela had called until the regular session begins on January 3. It probably was not just a matter of the deputies wanting to get out of town for the long New Years weekend. By most accounts Varela had not mustered the votes to ram through his nominations before the midnight December 31 expiration of the two outgoing magistrates’ terms. Panamanian history is full of legendary incidents in which legislatures were swung by bribery or blackmail, but Varela was pulling out all stops in the face of PRD and Cambio Democratico opposition to his nominees yet still did not have the votes. The indications were and are that Varela isn’t even close to mustering the majority he needs.
The basic dynamic was that the Varela camp, which can muster fewer than 20 deputies in the 71-member National Assembly, brought in government ministers and people who had worked in government with the two nominees, while virtually all of those who don’t depend on a public paycheck and virtually all civic organizations opposed the nominations. Most telling was a categorical rejection by the nation’s most important bar association, the Colegio de Abogados.
The nominees were blasted from left and right. The US-inspired Evangelican religious right tore into Tovar, a mother of four, for public expressions that gay people have rights. The fundamentalists accused her of wanting to “colonize” Panama with people who believe in a “gender ideology” about which one only hears in Panama from people who heard about it directly or indirectly from the likes of Alabama’s disgraced former judge Roy Moore. From the left, FRENADESO’s opposition researchers came up with an anonymous shell corporation that Zuleyka Moore organized as a lawyer back in 1990, said shell company then becoming the officer of record for another shell company that appears to have been used in Odebrecht’s chain of money laundering dodges. Ms. Moore is the anti-corruption prosecutor in charge of the main Odebrecht investigations, which have run into judicial roadblocks. The more mainstream arguments are that Tovar is by family and partisan ties an obedient creature of the Panameñista Party and that by kicking Moore upstairs all of the Odebrecht investigations may conveniently collapse just as it has become clear that President Varela was on the take from that Brazilian criminal corporation.
Hearings about what the record of the two nominees’ performance in public offices indicates about their philosophies of law, and about what they say they believe in general about the challenges facing a troubled justice system? The Credentials Committee did not get into those things. When hearings resume in January it is unlikely that they will proceed to such matters.
The game is not over. Varela has activated call centers to spread unflattering talking points about those who have opposed his nominees. However, he’s losing at the moment. His special legislative session failed. PRD and CD deputies are more or less on notice that a vote to ratify these appointments likely means the end of any hopes for a 2019 nomination that might get them re-elected. It would not be any great surprise if the Tovar and Moore nominations are withdrawn before the regular session begins.
The nominee retreats, after the religious right and others went through her social media profiles and posts to build their cases against her.
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Generals José de San Martín and Bernardo O’Higgins lead the Liberation Army across the Andes to take the battle to larger Spanish forces. ~ Los generales José de San Martín y Bernardo O’Higgins conducen al Ejército Libertador a través de los Andes para llevar la batalla a fuerzas españolas más grandes.
Birthday music at the edge of the apocalypse Música de cumpleaños al borde del apocalipsis
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Levantamiento de transectos de CARICOMP. Foto por Karen Koltes.
El Caribe está estresado pero el programa de
monitoreo de 30 años muestra que hay esperanza
por el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigación Tropical (STRI)
Algunas 2.5 mil millones de personas en el mundo, el 40 por ciento de la población total, viven en ciudades y pueblos costeros. Un equipo que incluye a biólogos marinos del Smithsonian acaba de publicar 30 años de datos sobre la salud de las costas del Caribe, recopilados gracias al Programa de Productividad del Mar Costero del Caribe (CARICOMP). El estudio proporciona nuevos conocimientos sobre la influencia de los factores estresantes locales y globales en la cuenca y algunos esperan que los cambios observados se puedan revertir con apoyo de una gestión ambiental local.
Siendo el programa más grande y duradero para el monitoreo la salud de los ecosistemas costeros del Caribe, CARICOMP reveló que la calidad del agua disminuyó en el 42 por ciento de las estaciones de monitoreo ubicadas a lo largo de la cuenca. Sin embargo, en ningun sitio se detectó un aumento significativo en la temperatura del agua, resultado esperado en el caso de un calentamiento global.
“Estamos observando cambios importantes en las condiciones locales, como la disminución de la visibilidad, asociada con la disminución de la calidad del agua y la creciente presencia de personas”, comentó Iliana Chollett, becaria postdoctoral en el Smithsonian Marine Conservation Program en Fort Pierce, Florida, “pero no estamos recogiendo datos de cambios a escala global, como indicaría el calentamiento del clima”.
“Nuestro conjunto de datos no reveló aumentos significativos en la temperatura del agua”, comentó Chollett. “Los satélites solo miden la temperatura en la superficie. Las temperaturas bajo el agua son mucho más variables, y puede tomar décadas de datos para revelar un cambio significativo, por lo que no estamos seguros si esto significa que aún no tenemos suficientes datos para detectarlo”.
Hace casi 30 años, en 1992, investigadores de instituciones de todo el Caribe comenzaron a establecer estaciones para recopilar datos ambientales sobre manglares, praderas marinas y arrecifes de coral en sitios costeros. Comenzaron a tomar mediciones semanales de la temperatura del agua, la salinidad y la visibilidad en estaciones cuidadosamente ubicadas para evitar la interferencia directa de ciudades, pueblos y otros impactos humanos directos.
El equipo recopiló datos de CARICOMP de 29 sitios en Barbados, Belice, Bermudas, Bonaire, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, México, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Saba, Florida y Venezuela y los organizó en un solo conjunto de datos. Esto incluye datos tomados por períodos de 3 años en estaciones agregadas a la red más recientemente, hasta datos tomados en otras estaciones hace ya 22 años.
A pesar de los intentos de localizar sitios de monitoreo en lugares que no se ven afectados por las actividades humanas, las estaciones están captando señales de la influencia humana en toda la cuenca del Caribe.
“Una implicación positiva de este informe es que las personas son capaces de lidiar con el cambio local, regulando la contaminación y la escorrentía”, comentó Rachel Collin, directora de la Estación de Investigación del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales en Bocas del Toro, una de las estaciones de monitoreo marino participantes. “Si las personas actúan juntas muy pronto, todavía hay esperanzas de revertir algunos de estos cambios”.
La Fundación MacArthur, la Iniciativa de Arrecifes de Coral del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU., La UNESCO y la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de EEUU respaldaron la red de CARICOMP al igual que las instituciones individuales que administran las estaciones de monitoreo.
Instituciones participantes en este estudio:
Smithsonian Marine Station, Florida, EEUU; Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, Panamá; Universidad Simón Bolivar, Venezuela; Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts; Universidad de las Indias Occidentales, Jamaica; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Oficina de Asuntos Insulares, Washington, DC, EEUU; Universidad de las Indias Occidentales, Barbados; Global Change Institute, Australia; Universidad de Puerto Rico, EEUU; Universidad de las Indias Occidentales, Trinidad y Tobago; Dirección de Medio Ambiente y Economía, RU; Brewster Academy, EEUU; American University of Sharja, EEAAUU.; Departamento de Medio Ambiente, Gran Caimán; Bangor University, RU; Universidad de Trinidad y Tobago, Trinidad y Tobago; El Museo y Zoológico del Acuario de Bermudas, Bermudas; American Bird Conservancy, EEUU, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Tomando lecturas Secchi en CARICOMP en el sitio de pastos marinos con condiciones turbias. Foto por Karen Koltes.
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