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Gandásegui, Trump’s phone calls

March 2, 2017

"no anchovies on that pizza" — **Trump on the phone at the golf course. State Department photo.**

Trump’s calls

by Marco Gandásegui, hijo

Last week the president of the United States, Donald Trump, made a phone call to his Panamanian counterpart, Juan Carlos Varela. Varela said that Trump “congratulated him for his administration” for the “good that’s coming to the country” and that soon he wanted receive him in Washington.

According to other sources, Trump also spoke to Varela about Venezuela. The relations between Panama and Caracas are good. Everything indicates, according to those who analyzed the phone call, that the US president wants to change this tie, which is above all based on commercial interests. In the case of relations between Panama and the United States — and with the rest of the region — in the backdrop there is the ever-present analogy of the carrot and the stick. The United States may offer a “carrot” in exchange for some favor by the country in question. The carrot may be in kind, in cash or, usually, a promise not to use the ‘stick’ against the interests of the affected.

Trump still hasn’t stated in any explicit way his policy toward the Latin American region. However, his denigration of Mexican leaders (and in passing that country’s people) was expressed in his first campaign speech in 2015, when he announced his decision to build a wall. Although all of the oligarchies of Latin America think that they have “special relations” with the United States, all are seen with disdain by the North American establishment. Trump makes this explicitly known. Trump speaks not only in his own name or in the name of an extreme sector of public opinion. He speaks for the ruling class of his country, as its founding fathers clearly expressed it almost 250 years ago.

Trump’s calls to his colleagues around the world follow a very clear pattern. It helps to refer to the analysis of Cuban journalist Néstor García to follow the chronology. The pattern — probably designed by Trump’s advisers — first of all, privileges the rulers of countries with Anglo-Saxon’roots: Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Followed by Japan, the honorable ally of the Anglo Saxon countries. He called rulers who are sitting on huge oil fields in Africa and the Middle East. It would have to be added, then, calls to to India, South Africa and Israel (the US aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean). In Latin America, he contacted countries with policies closer to US interests. It seems that the intention is to build a ‘political’ wall around Venezuela. Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Colombia are the closest points to the Bolivarian homeland. He also called the president of Argentina and sat in the White House with the president of Peru, both considered an important part of the ‘rearguard’ of a future offensive against Caracas.

He had a one-hour conversation with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and another more formal talk with the leader of China. His apparent admiration for the Russian leader has often been publicized. He called the president of France and the chancellor of Germany, with whom he exchanged diplomatic greetings. He also called European leaders in Spain, Italy and Ukraine. He ignored the rest of the members of the European Community and of NATO.

In Latin America he initially did not call the leaders of Mexico, Central America or supposedly allied countries like Chile, Brazil, Paraguay or Uruguay. Nor did he make any effort to build a bridge — even if symbolic — to the ALBA countries.

The direction that Trump’s foreign policy will take is not based on his phone calls. They may, however, reflect a trend. He has his inclinations, the powerful American establishment has others. Trump wants to see China’s “containment” and an “alliance” with Russia. He wants to destroy the Islamic state and “take oil from Iraq,” as well as collect what he considers to be old debts owed by Europe.

In the case of Latin America, Trump’s policy is reflected in his campaign against Mexico, which continues despite his already having occupied the White House more than a month ago. Perhaps it will focus its attention on Venezuela, due to the oil reserves beneath its soil. He has already accused the vice president of that country of being a drug trafficker, without evidence. (It’s a formula widely used by Washington to discredit). The United States has the OAS as a tool to activate the “Charter for Democracy.” But it needs the support of President Varela and the other leaders in the region to first strike the diplomatic blow, and then to deploy military force if necessary.

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Were I John Podesta…

March 2, 2017

idiot trap — **A trap that might have been set by a hardened international mobster, the spy agency of a hostile power or a 14-year-old kid.**

Were I John Podesta, I might just click on that link.

Were I one of the techies who came to the Democratic National Committee with Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s entourage, I might tell Podesta that it’s OK for him to to that.

Bear that in mind as the investigations of the Russia scandals unfold.

they're on the loose — **A bipartisan statement from the House side of Capitol Hill.**

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The Panama News blog links, March 1, 2017

March 1, 2017

A jam session in Boquete

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

Port Strategy, Corozal bid deadline pushed back

La Estrella, Alemán Zubieta formará parte de Junta Asesora del Canal

TradeWinds, German shipping faces ongoing upheaval

La Estrella, CNA pide revisar integrantes de la Autoridad del Canal

Prensa Latina, Bolivia to define partners for railroad

Sports / Deportes

SD Union-Tribune, Bethancourt to pitch

Telemetro, Panamá en el Grupo C de la Copa Mundial de Beach Soccer

SB Nation, CONCACAF U20: Honduras beats Panama, 2-0

Prensa Latina, Fiscalía allanó instalaciones de la Federación Panameña de Fútbol

Economy / Economía

ANP, Panamá aumenta aranceles a productos colombianos

E&N, 72% del software en Panamá es ilegal

La Estrella, Campesinos reclaman tierras en la comarca

Vice news, Unauthorized immigrants paid $100 billion into US Social Security

ALAI, Trump dismantling Dodd-Frank

EFE, Chile y Argentina piden integrar Mercosur y la Alianza del Pacífico

ECNS.cn, China’s relations with Latin America near turning point

Science & Technology / Ciencia & Tecnología

STRI, Lianas can suppress tree growth in young tropical forests for decades

Scientific American, Dispute over first land bridge from North to South America

Canada Free Press, Corals more resilient than thought

Inside Climate News, EPA removes mentions of climate change

Latin American Herald Tribune, Summit Zoo awaits makeover

Indo Asian News Service, Dogs have social skills similar to toddlers

Smithsonian, Score one for insect intelligence

TVN, ¿Qué hacer si es atacado por abejas africanizadas?

Genetic Literacy Project, World’s largest flower: parasite swaps genes with host

Engadget, YouTube TV is Google’s live TV service

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Plastic bags — real problem, odd legislation

February 28, 2017

sea trash — **A jellyfish shares the marine environment with plastic bags. Photo by the US National Institutes for Health.**

Two real problems: plastic bag pollution and bad legal drafting

by Eric Jackson

Yes, it’s true. You don’t have to go too far to see the mess that plastic bags have made all over Panama. You can even be blind, sitting in your home in many parts of Panama and smell it, via the distinctive stench of burning plastic. There ought to be a law. In a growing number of places there are laws.

So, as a member of the National Assembly’s third-largest caucus, the Panameñista Party, perhaps Florentino Ábrego figures that it’s his big chance to do something that might make his constituents think of him as a wise statesman, perhaps even worthy of re-election. Et voila:

Ábrego law — **So WHAT does the title of this proposed law suggest is to be done?**

Actually, the law does not, as its title suggests, propose to REQUIRE the use of non-degradable plastic bags in supermarkets. Deputy Ábrego would like to, over a two-year period, mostly PROHIBIT the distribution of these materials. As published on the legislature’s website, it’s one of the classics of incompetent legal drafting in an institution renowned for its sloppy work.

Ábrego might reasonably argue that the errors will be corrected in the legislative process, but meanwhile he has raised an issue that needed to be raised in the hallowed halls of the legislative branch of government. Fair enough.

However, there a some questionable premises embedded in his proposal.

Is “the culture of recycling and responsible use in full development” in Panama? It may seem that way to Panamanians who have never been anywhere else, or have only been to places even more backward on this subject than we are. But try to recycle your steel fish cans — the metal truck only wants aluminum. Recycling is in its infancy in Panama and is anything but systematic. To the extent that reuse comes into the equation, plastic bags do get reused, especially during rainy season, by people who want to make sure that certain things in their knapsacks, purses or chacaras stay dry in a tropical cloudburst.

And is a biodegradable plastic bag that decomposes in a few months, or another sort of degradable bag that dissolves over the course of about a year, therefore harmless when it’s part of the debris clogging an urban storm drain or covering a coral reef?

In many jurisdictions, the biggest of them China, there are full or partial bans on the free distribution of plastic bags at stores. The Chinese boast of how much petroleum that would otherwise go into the production of such bags is saved. Some US jurisdictions that require a charge of a few cents for each bag justify it in terms of how much litter is reduced.

A lot of the plastic bags given away in Panamanians stores are already of the biodegradable or degradable sorts. Toss a bit of baking soda into the plastic-making mix and the bags will decompose much more quickly. You will see the effect in disintegrating plastic bags along the footpaths of small-town Panama. But you won’t be able to smell the difference when people are burning their garbage, much of which will be plastic.

When — and if — Ábrego’s proposal is the subject of public hearings, perhaps the interested parties who show up to testify will include those who would limit or ban plastic bag distribution, so as to restore the old culture of people bringing their own more durable bags or baskets when they go shopping. Perhaps Panama City’s street sweepers or parks maintenance people might be there to weigh in. Perhaps someone who thinks that the shift to degradable plastic bags is a good idea, and who is more competent at legal drafting than the scrivener of Ábrego’s proposal, would have some proposed amendments.

In any case, it does seem that the plastic bag issue is about to become the subject of public debate in Panama.

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WHO issues urgent list for new antibiotics

February 27, 2017

AB bad guy — **Acineotobacter baumannii — a usually benign microbe that grows on your skin, which is the stuff of deadly hospital infections that present antibiotics can’t treat.**

Bacteria for which new antibiotics are urgently needed

by the World Health Organization

On February 27 the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens” — a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

The list was drawn up in a bid to guide and promote research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics, as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.

The list highlights in particular the threat of gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. These bacteria have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.

“This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent public health needs,” says Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation. “Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.”

The WHO list is divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.

The most critical group of all includes multidrug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care requires devices such as ventilators and blood catheters. They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus). They can cause severe and often deadly infections such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia.

These bacteria have become resistant to a large number of antibiotics, including carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins — the best available antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria.

The second and third tiers in the list — the high and medium priority categories — contain other increasingly drug-resistant bacteria that cause more common diseases such as gonorrhoea and food poisoning caused by salmonella.

G20 health experts will meet this week in Berlin. Hermann Gröhe, Federal Minister of Health, Germany says “We need effective antibiotics for our health systems. We have to take joint action today for a healthier tomorrow. Therefore, we will discuss and bring the attention of the G20 to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. WHO’s first global priority pathogen list is an important new tool to secure and guide research and development related to new antibiotics.”

The list is intended to spur governments to put in place policies that incentivize basic science and advanced R&D by both publicly funded agencies and the private sector investing in new antibiotic discovery. It will provide guidance to new R&D initiatives such as the WHO/DNDi Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership that is engaging in not-for-profit development of new antibiotics.

Tuberculosis — whose resistance to traditional treatment has been growing in recent years — was not included in the list because it is targeted by other, dedicated programs. Other bacteria that were not included, such as streptococcus A and B and chlamydia, have low levels of resistance to existing treatments and do not currently pose a significant public health threat.

The list was developed in collaboration with the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tubingen, Germany, using a multi-criteria decision analysis technique vetted by a group of international experts. The criteria for selecting pathogens on the list were: how deadly the infections they cause are; whether their treatment requires long hospital stays; how frequently they are resistant to existing antibiotics when people in communities catch them; how easily they spread between animals, from animals to humans, and from person to person; whether they can be prevented (e.g. through good hygiene and vaccination); how many treatment options remain; and whether new antibiotics to treat them are already in the R&D pipeline.

“New antibiotics targeting this priority list of pathogens will help to reduce deaths due to resistant infections around the world,” says Professor Evelina Tacconelli, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tubingen and a major contributor to the development of the list. “Waiting any longer will cause further public health problems and dramatically impact on patient care.”

While more R&D is vital, alone, it cannot solve the problem. To address resistance, there must also be better prevention of infections and appropriate use of existing antibiotics in humans and animals, as well as rational use of any new antibiotics that are developed in future.

WHO priority pathogens list for R&D of new antibiotics

Priority 1: Critical

1. Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
2. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
3. Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing

Priority 2: High

4. Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
5. Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant
6. Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
7. Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
8. Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant
9. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant

Priority 3: Medium

10. Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
11. Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
12. Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant

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Editorials: The Tonosi case; and In the USA

February 25, 2017

them

The high court rejects the Tonosi irrigation case

Why complain about what’s likely to be a temporary insult?

At the bottom line, it’s about an expensive irrigation project that the Panamanian people paid for but didn’t get. Go one step deeper and it’s about an international financial crime that involved former Vice President Felipe Virzi and the now closed Banco Universal that he ran. Look at the threads and the individuals involved — more than 30 in this case alone — and you are led to the Financial Pacific stock swindle and money laundering combine, which in turn involves the disappearance and probable murder of Securities Markets Superintendency investigator Vernon Ramos and international networks of computer crime. The Supreme Court’s decision to reject the irrigation project fraud case as to Ricardo Martinelli, announced during Carnival so that few would be paying attention, was because some of the papers were said to be improperly collated and not dated correctly.

It is and was an easily fixable error, but in a political caste and among economic elites who disdain and just don’t do work, the decision to reject the case will be readily understood. To all of the rest of us in Panama — the great majority — it’s a slap in the face. They are using a holiday to hide things from us and that’s conduct unbecoming of public officials of any sort.

The case can and probably will be brought back with papers in order but between now and then the anti-corruption movement that has focused on Odebrecht and the executive and legislative branches of government ought to turn its attention for a moment to the courts. This sort of brazen insult at a time of a great moral crisis in the nation is a good indication of why the best way to get out of the predicament is by way of an originating constitutional convention, an assembly that assumes the powers of all branches of national government while in session, including control over the judiciary. The system is broken and we can’t allow magistrates who pull these sorts of stunts to interfere in its reconstruction.

the fallen — **Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian engineer slain in the wave of racist hysteria whipped up by Donald Trump.**

This past week in the USA

The brains behind the Trump White House, Steve Bannon, proclaimed a New Order.

Immigration cops burst into hospitals and dragged away seriously ill patients who were in the country illegally. Immigration cops held Muhammad Ali Jr., son of the great boxer, the son who was born in Pennsylvania, of a father who was born in Kentucky, to interrogate him about being a Muslim. Immigration cops barged onto a domestic flight, checking everybody’s ID to look for non-citizens.

A white supremacist opened fire on an engineer from India and his Indian-American friend, shouting that they should leave his country. Federal authorities wouldn’t call it either terrorism or a hate crime.

The Trump White House banned nine media organizations from its press conferences, including the British state-owned BBC. Two other media organizations, Time and the Associated Press, refused to participate under such conditions. Trump, meanwhile, berated the FBI for not issuing him an “all clean” certificate with respect to his campaign’s ties with Russia, and said that he intends to criminalize the use on confidential sources in news reporting.

A New Order? Join The Resistance.

Bear in mind…

The constant development of unprecedented problems requires a legal system capable of fluidity and pliancy. Our society would be strait-jacketed were not the courts, with the able assistance of the lawyers, constantly overhauling the law and adapting it to the realities of ever-changing social, industrial and political conditions; although changes cannot be made lightly, yet law must be more or less impermanent, experimental and therefore not nicely calculable. Much of the uncertainty of law is not an unfortunate accident: it is of immense social value.

Sonia Sotomayor

I studied all about Gauguin. He was a banker. He was a banker who — he used to paint on Sundays. And one day he hated himself for painting on Sundays.

Anthony Quinn

If anything could justify insurrection in a free and constituted country, it would be precisely the caprice of the legislators who don’t make necessary reforms, after great defects in the constitution are proven.

Justo Arosemena

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March for Science, April 22 on Amador

February 25, 2017

Originally called by scientists in the United States to protest against gag orders that ban references to climate change issued by the new Trump administration and by various state and local governments and school boards, the March for Science coincides with Earth Day and has blossomed into a worldwide event.

March for Science in Panama

Plans are still being made and the coalition is still assembling, but mark your calendars for Saturday, April 22 if you believe that science is something worth defending. Already scientists of various nationalities who are working in Panama, health care professionals, advocates of secular government, environmentalists and proponents of sex education in Panama’s schools have joined to call for the local version of the March for Science. Details of the hour and specific assembly place are still being worked out, as will be speakers and other activities. Much depends on who else joins and what they have to offer.

For information on the event that is being updated between now and then, visit the march on Facebook. If you agree, help spread the word by the means at your disposal.

The first aim of the march is to connect people in Panama with the advances in science that are ongoing here. The particular goals are to:

Emphasize science for the common benefit of society;
Advance the state of scientific education;
Have more open and honest public discussion about science; and
Have government regulations and policies that are based upon sound scientific evidence.

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Martinellis’ lawyer busted for money laundering

February 25, 2017

take him away — **Wanted by Panama and Switzerland, he’s being harbored by the US government. The lawyer who allegedly helped him hide the millions in bribe money is not so lucky. From an INTERPOL document.**

Martinelli companies’ lawyer busted for money laundering

by Eric Jackson

Attorney Evelyn Ivette Vargas Reynaga was, as these words were written, being held in the DIJ jail awaiting a decision on whether she might get bail on money laundering charges. Ms. Vargas is the in-house lawyer for Ricardo Martinelli’s Ricamar company, which is mostly in the business of food packaging for items to be marketed at the former president’s Super 99 stores. (We might quibble about attributing ownership — said to have been transferred to other family members by the fugitive ex-president, Super 99 and other businesses were arguably the objects of fraudulent transfers to avoid justice and can arguably be set aside. It is a statement about the nature and motives of Panama’s executive and judicial branches of government that no serious move has yet been made to seize these assets.) On a Swiss complaint that Panama’s Public Ministry has embraced, Evelyn Vargas is accused of setting up transactions by which at least $22 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction-based conglomerate Odebrecht passed into the possession of the former president’s two sons, Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares.

It is said to have been a complex yet banal financial shell game. Constructora Internacional del Sur, a Panamanian subsidiary of Odebrecht, allegedly transferred money through another Odebrecht-owned company, Bakley Assets, into Swiss bank accounts in the names of two British Virgin Islands shell companies, Kadair Investment Ltd and Aragon Finance Corp, and a Bahamian shell, Fordel International Ltd. The recipient companies are said to be owned by the two Martinelli sons. Some of the transfers were said to be in US dollars and others in euros between 2009 and 2012. At current exchange rates they would be worth more than $23 million but that value has fluctuated over time. If they were actually conduits for the ex-president himself, any investigation into that would be outside of the jurisdiction of the courts and prosecutors handling this case, as the Supreme Court is the exclusive venue for any case involving the elder Martinelli.

Vargas is accused of setting up the Martinellis’ shells and signing some of the papers involved in the transactions. But she says that she was just an in-house lawyer for the Martinellis’ businesses — on the Ricamar payroll but also doing work for the former ruling family’s real estate company, Promotora Los Andes. She was arrested in Mexico on February 22 and without objection sent back to Panama to face legal proceedings. She had an INTERPOL “red note” arrest warrant out for her but she went to Mexico not to escape prosecution but to be at the side of her father, who was dying of cancer, and then making final arrangements after his death. Published reports, based on statements that lawyers for Vargas and the Martinellis have made to various media, have it that her defense is that her job was being given papers to sign by her bosses, which she signed but really had nothing to do. It’s a corporate lawyer’s version of the “I was only following orders” Nuremberg defense. Her defense lawyer also asserts that whether or not she set up companies, she played no role in actual money transfers.

During the course of three days of interrogation, police and prosecutors raided the offices of Ricamar and Promotora Los Andes. Documents taken in those raids are being compared with Vargas’s testimony and documents obtained from other jurisdictions before the prosecutors will make a decision about bail or preventive detention.

This case is one of at least six Odebrecht matters that the prosecutors of the Public Ministry are pursuing. In the event that they find evidence suggesting criminal activity by former President Ricardo Martinelli, they will have to hand that over to the Supreme Court and desist from any line of inquiry about his conduct. The cases against Vargas and the Martinelli sons, Attorney General Kenia Porcell has noted, relies in part from information obtained from authorities in Switzerland, Brazil and the United States. But legislator and PRD leader Pedro Miguel González says that the Odebrecht bribery inquiries with respect to Panama also involve information from Hong Kong, Andorra and Liechtenstein.

Following upon the recent money laundering arrests of attorneys Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, the Vargas case is part of a relatively new phenomenon of Panamanian lawyers being accused of complicity in financial crimes for which they set up the structures. It’s leading some legal professionals and many more of their clients to question to scope and value of attorney-client privilege in Panama. The norm in most countries is that the privilege ends when the attorney becomes an active participant in the crime, but that’s not always an easy distinction to make. Here lawyers have historically been unaccountable for most of what they do, whether for malpractice or for being accomplices in crimes. Even those caught, convicted and jailed for stealing from their clients generally do not get disbarred.

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¿Wappin? Carnaval bien panameño

February 24, 2017

nenito — **Nenito Vargas, de un video con La Maquinaria Plumas Negras.**

¿Wappin? Hoy empieza Carnaval

The Digger Descendants Calypso Band – Lady
https://youtu.be/-CT8kB9z5CI

Osvaldo Ayala Mix 2
https://youtu.be/ToIOHialYIM

Erika Ender – Masoquista
https://youtu.be/quaBlsJWcEI

Alfredo Escudero lo nuevo y lo mejor
https://youtu.be/bLZpAr9W8d8

Séptima Raíz – De frente con Jah
https://youtu.be/frTxQHpWpf0

Nenito y Los Plumas Negras mix 2017
https://youtu.be/lYKx_WQxno0

Joshue Ashby & C3 Project – Colón Surgirá
https://youtu.be/u4t_uOzc-84

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Gandásegui, La oligarquía panameña

February 23, 2017

lifestyles of the decadent and booshwah

La oligarquía panameña y sus maniobras

por Marco Gandásegui, hijo

La presidencia acusada

El gobierno panameño se encuentra metafóricamente en manos de un equipo de neurocirujanos que intenta mantener al presidente Juan Carlos Varela con vida política. El mandatario panameño sufrió su primer derrame con motivo de las declaraciones de Ramón Fonseca Mora que lo asoció con el Grupo Odebrecht y los sobornos que la empresa brasileña repartió en doce países.

Fonseca Mora es el mismo abogado especializado en abrir sociedades anónimas en ‘paraísos fiscales’ bajo jurisdicción norteamericana y británica. Se hizo notorio el año pasado cuando un grupo de investigadores en la capital de EEUU, Washington, divulgó miles de archivos comprometedores de la firma Mossack & Fonseca. En la jerga periodística internacional, creada en aquel momento, el caso se denominó los ‘Panama Papers’.

Como fichas de un dominó, han ido cayendo, país tras país (un total de 12), como consecuencia del escándalo asociado a los sobornos del Grupo Obebrecht. Las declaraciones de Fonseca Mora en Panamá comprometen al presidente Varela. Según el antiguo ‘ministro consejero’ del gobierno panameñista, durante su campaña presidencial (2013-2014), Varela habría recibido dinero oculto de la constructora brasileña Odebrecht.

Era un secreto a voces que los tres últimos presidentes panameños recibirían sobornos de la empresa constructora. De igual manera, se beneficiaban de otros negocios turbios que las autoridades han sido lentas en investigar. Sin embargo, las declaraciones de Fonseca Mora obligan a las fiscalías a realizar una investigación prolija. La Asamblea Nacional anunció que harán una minuciosa pesquisa en torno a las donaciones recibidas por el mandatario. La Asamblea se pronunció después que el presidente Varela hiciera público su declaración de donantes.

Los otros ramas del gobierno

Fonseca Mora involucró en sus declaraciones a los diputados panameñistas José Luis Varela (hermano del presidente) y Valderrama. Igualmente, mencionó al presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, José Ayú Prado, a quien caracterizó como ‘manipulable’.

Varela ha estado permanentemente negociando desde una posición de relativa debilidad para conservar su capacidad para gobernar. Al principio de su gestión (julio de 2014) logró reunir una mayoría de diputados en la Asamblea haciendo diferentes tipos de concesiones. Dividió el partido Cambio Democrático (del expresidente Ricardo Martinelli, autoexiliado en Miami, EEUU). También introdujo una cuña en el Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD), donde otro expresidente — Martín Torrijos — sigue con aspiraciones para repetir. La suma de su bancada (16 diputados) y las otras fracciones le garantiza una mayoría de diputados.

En la Corte Suprema de Justicia, Varela nombró dos magistrados que le dieron la mayoría para re-elegir a Ayú Prado como presidente. La Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP), empresa que maneja presupuestos de miles de millones de dólares y los sobre costos de otros miles de millones, producto de la construcción de la ampliación de la vía acuática, genera dividendos cuantiosos. Incluso, Odebrecht tiene contratos de miles de millones aún vigentes.

Las familias

Varela, a pesar de sus debilidades en el frente político, contaba con un sólido apoyo financiero y económico. Detrás de su campaña política, que lo llevó al triunfo electoral en mayo de 2014, dicen que estaba el grupo económico que encabeza Stanley Motta. Cuenta con fuertes intereses en la Zona Libre de Colón, Televisora Nacional, Copa Airlines y el Banco General. Sin duda, el grupo económico se benefició de su relación con el gobierno de Varela, especialmente después de la larga ‘sequía’ (2009-2014) que representó Martinelli.

Se asocia al grupo Motta con el Movimiento Independiente (MOVIN) que utiliza Televisora Nacional como megáfono para hacer su propaganda en torno a los proyectos económicos, que incluyen el proyecto de Corozal (puerto en el Canal de Panamá) y la Caja de Seguro Social, entre otros. Hace pocos meses MOVIN se distanció del gobierno, creando un vacío peligroso para la estabilidad del gobierno.

El otro grupo económico, vinculado a MEDCOM (conglomerado de medios de comunicación) que cuenta con el expresidente Ernesto Pérez Balladares entre sus filas, sufrió recientemente una derrota política en las elecciones internas del PRD. A pesar de ser menos poderoso sobre el terreno financiero que el grupo Motta, cuenta con una base social más amplia y sectores vinculados a la diezmada industria.

Por último, la tercera fracción de la oligarquía panameña de principios del siglo XXI, encabezada por Martinelli, observa activamente los traspiés de Varela para ver como ‘pesca en río revuelto’. La bancada en la Asamblea de Cambio Democrático puede convertirse en una pieza muy útil para Varela en esta coyuntura.

Varela agotado

La crisis gubernamental panameña es difícil de resolver en la medida en que el sistema político está diseñado para que funcione una especie de ‘alternabilidad’. Fue creado por EEUU después de su invasión militar a Panamá en 1989. Se supone que las fracciones de la oligarquía son estancos cerrados y que deben reemplazarse cuando la oferta del gobernante se agota. El problema de Varela es que se agotó muy temprano: Apenas por la mitad del camino (dos años y medio de un total de cinco).

Lo políticamente correcto en un sistema montado por la oligarquía, en un caso como éste, es que el gobierno busque reforzamiento entre los partidos políticos de la oposición. La fracción oligarca gobernante tendría que compartir los beneficios de su gestión con la fracción que se pasa de la oposición a las filas oficialistas. Todo indica que esta solución no es viable en estas circunstancias. Es todo o nada.

Desde hace 27 años la oligarquía panameña ha gobernado alternando el poder y excluyendo a los sectores populares. Los primeros 10 años (1990-1999) fueron de ajuste económico (bajo el binomio Pérez Balladares-Chapman). Después siguieron ocho años (2000-2008) de crecimiento económico (sin desarrollo) como resultado del traspaso de la administración del Canal de Panamá y el incremento progresivo de los peajes del Canal. Los últimos ocho años (2009-2016) fueron marcados por los años de más crecimiento (ampliación del Canal) y el declive al final. El ajuste económico premió a la oligarquía — en su conjunto — y castigó severamente a los trabajadores. Estos últimos perdieron muchos empleos, vieron deprimirse sus salarios y desaparecer sus beneficios sociales.

Cada quinquenio presidencial es recordado por los enfrentamientos sangrientos entre trabajadores, empleados públicos, estudiantes, indígenas y las fuerzas del orden. La desregulación y la flexibilización, así como los tratados comerciales, han arruinado el agro y la industria. Los gobiernos oligarcas desde 1990 han pregonado la falsedad de que Panamá es un país de servicios y no debe invertir en el desarrollo económico del país. Con el discurso de la posición geográfica y ‘pro mundo beneficio’, la oligarquía cooptó a las capas medias del país y desorganizó a sectores importantes de los trabajadores.

En el período mencionado, la oligarquía panameña ha contado siempre con la permanente intervención de EEUU en los asuntos de gobernabilidad, así como en la política económica (neoliberal) del país. En 2009 intervino para resolver un pleito entre dos fracciones oligárquicas. En esta coyuntura la estructura gubernamental está tan debilitada que una intervención es muy tarde. ¿Qué puede hacer el neurocirujano-jefe (la Embajada de EEUU)? Las Fuerzas del Orden, también corruptas — parte de la estructura gubernamental — cuentan con dos destacamentos (Policía Nacional y Servicio Nacional de Fronteras) que pueden dar una sorpresa siguiendo órdenes del neurocirujano-jefe.

La crisis actual

En la crisis actual hay sectores de las capas medias (denominadas sociedad civil), con niveles de consumo más altos que los trabajadores, que demandan un alto a la corrupción y un cambio de la ‘vieja guardia’ política. Ideológicamente, están atrapados porque no pueden luchar por un retorno al pasado (militar) ni a los discursos liberales y conservadores (agotados por la corrupción). Tampoco pueden levantar un discurso hacia el futuro que ideológicamente no pueden formular. Las capas medias son prisioneras de las promesas de la oligarquía. Agotadas éstas, la sociedad civil sucumbe ante sus propias limitaciones.

La promesa de los trabajadores también ha sido golpeada fuertemente. Hay sectores que añoran el retorno al ‘torrijismo’ u otras formas de populismo. Como todo sueño basado en el pasado es inútil, las propuestas se agotan rapidamente. Los trabajadores y sectores populares que levantan banderas ‘progresistas’ también se ven en una jaula con paredes muy angostas. Debido a la incesante propaganda — por más de un cuarto de siglo — contra cualquier proyecto que implique la construcción de un futuro que garantice bienestar social para los trabajadores, no se han podido levantar consignas que entusiasmen a la juventud.

A pesar de ello, Panamá cuenta con FRENADESO/FAD y el MIREN que son dos organizaciones político sindicales con fuerte presencia, también en sectores de las capas medias. La oligarquía panameña está conciente de esta realidad y prefiere entenderse internamente antes de cederle espacio a los sectores populares. La crisis de la oligarquía no puede resolverse con parches. Tiene que cambiar totalmente las reglas que se impuso en el período 1990-2015 o colapsa. Las alternativas no son muy claras en este momento.

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