Friday
Friday 28th February 2025.
February 27, 2025
A group of deputies from different political factions in the National Assembly presented a proposal to modify Organic Law 51 of the Social Security Fund (CSS) so that, in six years, an actuarial study is carried out to analyze whether it is necessary to increase the retirement age for the sustainability of the pension system.
If this analysis determines the need to increase the retirement age, it will not be more than three years.
If the study indicates that the State must make additional contributions, the government must make the disbursement, but without affecting the acquired rights of the members.
According to Deputy José Pérez Barboni, from the Otro Camino Movement, a consensus was reached between the benches, with the exception of the Democratic Revolutionary Party.
According to Pérez Borboni, this is a “technical and not a political” decision.
According to the proposal, the CSS must allocate funds to contract three actuarial studies, carried out by:
- An international firm specialising in social security.
- An academic entity or actuarial research center.
- An international organisation or entity with experience in pensions.
The CSS general management will select the first two entities, while the board of directors will appoint the third. If any of them decline, the next best-rated entity will be selected.
In addition, the document establishes that contracting decisions cannot be challenged through administrative channels and any claim must be submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice .
On Thursday, February 27, more than 250 amendments to Bill 163, originally submitted by the Executive to reform Law 51, were read.
However, the announcement of all the amendments that will be accepted and the vote in the second and third debates are still pending.
The legislature, chaired by pro-government deputy Dana Castañeda, will resume discussion of the initiative after the carnival.
A trial court sentenced Rodolfo Mena, former legal advisor to the Land Transportation and Transit Authority (ATTT) , to 10 years in prison, and lawyer Dionisia Moreno to 7 years in prison for the crimes of money laundering and embezzlement.
The investigation, which was conducted by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, determined the existence of serious irregularities in the allocation of operating certificates (quotas) to transporters.
The investigation began in 2021, when transporters from the province of Coclé reported the alleged collection of money for the allocation of operating certificates for taxis.
At the time, the complainants explained that ATTT officials charged them large sums of money for allocating the quotas, which they considered to be an illegal action.
During the investigation, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office carried out an inspection at the ATTT headquarters and in that process they managed to gather a large amount of information on the irregular allocation of quotas in the province of Coclé.
In an imputation hearing held on August 25, 2021, prosecutors Mirely Díaz, Jacinto Pérez and Ruth Morcillo achieved the legalization of the apprehension, indictment and detention of both suspects after presenting a series of evidence through monitoring and surveillance operations carried out by the National Police.
This is not the first case in which ATTT officials have been accused of irregularities in the allocation of operating certificates.
In July 2024, the First Liquidation Court of Criminal Cases held a trial against 169 people, including several former directors of the ATTT, for the alleged commission of the crime of embezzlement in the compensation process for Diablo Rojo type buses.
The American Louis Sola has lied “shamelessly” and the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino , is not willing to grant state concessions “to someone who attacks us miserably.”
To put readers in context: Sola is the chairman of the influential Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) of the United States and was the star witness at a hearing in the Senate in Washington, where he supported the theory of alleged Chinese influence in the operations of the Panama Canal . In parallel, he promotes the construction of a private marina in Amador , on state land, and this week he proposed the creation of a “sovereign fund” to finance American investments (like his) in the Canal.
The claim of Chinese influence has been repeatedly denied by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and also by Mulino, who on Thursday did not hide his displeasure with the maritime commissioner.
“Mr. Sola lied shamelessly. At some point in my life I met him, I am not a friend of his, and I know that he has done business in Panama. I don’t know if he is currently managing a marina… [But] we cannot be reciprocal with someone who is not reciprocal with Panama. It’s that simple,” Mulino said on Thursday, February 27, at his weekly press conference.
“You should see where you are going to do business, because we are not going to give important concessions to someone who attacks us miserably and falsely, as he did… The Canal Authority has already made a clarification denying this gentleman’s claims,” he stressed.
When Mulino was a month into his post, a delegation from the FMC made an official visit to Panama. Sola and fellow maritime commissioner Daniel Maffei , another witness at the Senate hearing on China’s alleged control of Canal operations, were there. They were met by Mulino; by ministers José Ramón Icaza (of Canal Affairs) and Juan Carlos Navarro (of the Environment), and by the administrators of the Maritime Authority (AMP), Luis Roquebert , and of the ACP, Ricaurte Vásquez .
All of these entities have some connection to Sola’s and his family’s marina, through state concessions and permits.
“He [Sola] does not enjoy any kind of privilege. He can come to Panama like anyone else. He runs an important institution in the area of maritime security in the United States and that is all. But he lied shamelessly,” Mulino said on Thursday.
Icaza and Vásquez have denied that Sola spoke to them about his private investments in Panama, although the ACP administrator has already warned of a possible conflict of interest in the management of the maritime commissioner.
In fact, Sola took advantage of the FMC’s official visit to Panama to participate (as a “guest”) in a meeting with the ACP’s Environmental Compliance Unit (in which Vásquez did not participate), convened to examine the compatibility of the Amador Marina, SA project (which is the name of the company promoting the project) with the operations of the waterway.
Sola was Amador Marina’s representative until 2018. The company is now headed by his children Carolyn and Anthony .
Regarding Amador Marina and the federal commissioner’s connections, La Prensa published an investigation entitled Land in Amador ceded to a private marina, without prior bidding , on October 1, 2024.
That same day, Sola addressed a letter (on official FMC letterhead) to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting action against the paper for allegedly violating federal laws on intimidation and threats in commerce, on obstruction of federal investigations, and on harassment, whether virtual or digital.
Blinken ignored him.
It is projected that around 112,018 passengers will travel through Tocumen International Airport during the carnival season, from Thursday, February 27 to Sunday, March 9.
This number of people will double the regular traffic at the airport, so travelers are advised to arrive up to three hours before their flight to check in at the airlines and go through immigration and customs security in time.
In addition, 56,009 passengers are expected to enter the country , while a similar number will depart for the main tourist destinations in the region, including Medellín, Cartagena, Punta Cana, Miami, Cancún and Rio de Janeiro , consolidating Panama as a key connection point for South America, the Caribbean and North America .
The busiest days for departure flights from the terminal will be Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February , as well as Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 March . As for return flights, the highest movements are expected on Tuesday 4, Wednesday 5 and Sunday 9 March .
The Electoral Court announced on Thursday, February 27, that it has enabled the portal Where is my ID? so that those who lose their personal identification document can locate it.
Likewise, the electoral entity announced that in several regions of the country, where large numbers of people gather for the Carnival, such as Las Tablas (Los Santos), Chitré (Herrera) and the Cinta Costera (Panama), they will also set up booths so that people can verify whether the document is in that place or in some other booth.
The Electoral Court explained that unclaimed documents will be placed in the ID bank and people will be able to consult the website https://donde-esta-mi-cedula to locate the document.
The Carnival celebrations will take place between Saturday 1st and Tuesday 4th March.
The United States Embassy in Panama announced on Thursday, February 27, 2025, that the visa expiration requirement to renew said nonimmigrant document without the need to appear for an in-person interview has been reduced to 12 months or less .
In a statement, the State Department explained that it had globally revoked the authorization issued during the COVID -19 pandemic in 2021, which extended the interview exemption to applicants whose visa had expired up to 48 months before the new application.
According to the recent changes, only those applicants whose previous visa, of the same category, expired less than 12 months prior to the new application will be eligible for the interview waiver program, the embassy noted.
The other requirements to be eligible for the interview waiver remain the same. According to the embassy, these are as follows: applying for a nonimmigrant visa in your country of nationality or residence; not having been previously refused a visa (unless such refusal has been overcome or waived); and not having any apparent or potential ineligibilities.
Consular officials may request interviews on a case-by-case basis, the embassy said.
“Those applicants who completed their application by February 14 and qualified to be exempt from the interview may be called for an in-person interview,” he added.
The consular section will also review visa applications on a case-by-case basis. “If an interview is required, the applicant will be notified directly through the contact information provided in the application,” he said.
For more information or to check the status of your application, the embassy has made the following website available: https://ais.usvisa-info.com/es-pa/niv .