News
Thursday 8th June 2023.
June 8, 2023
Augusto Antonio Robinson González, national secretary for international relations and regional integration of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was apprehended on Monday night, at the Tocumen international airport, for traveling using a passport that does not belong to him.
The arrest of Robinson, who now faces charges for allegedly falsifying documents, was legalized by guarantee judge Jossaira Rojas, in a hearing held this Wednesday at the offices of the First Judicial District of Panama.
Judge Rojas also issued the measure preventing him from leaving the country, without judicial authorization.
During the hearing, Robinson claimed that he is Grenada’s honorary consul in Panama. If this information is confirmed, the process must be transferred to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Furthermore, as a member of the PRD, he belongs to the Socialist International.
Robinson used the passport of a relative to travel to Mexico and thus avoid the arrest warrant of a civil court, which was issued in the midst of a liquidation process promoted against him by Metrobank .
It was last March 29 that the Fourteenth Civil Court, in charge of Judge Carmen Jurado, ordered the arrest, which in practice means that Robinson cannot leave the country without permission from the judge. This measure is applicable to Giovanni Ferrari, general manager of the Colon Free Zone (ZLC) , since the bank is also promoting the process against him.
Robinson, in addition to occupying a national secretariat of the PRD, is a member of the board of trustees of the Rod Carew stadium, at the express wish of President Laurentino Cortizo.
The National Immigration Service is aware of these precautionary measures, since the judge sent them an official letter to notify Robinson and Ferrari of the arraignment imposed.
In Order 821//45889-18 of March 28, the court declared Ferrari, Robinson and six companies “in a state of liquidation (for now)”, whose legal representative is the leader of the PRD: Inversiones Murcia , Pistar Holding, Harpel Industrial Corp., Delcamar Enterprises, Pistar Chiricano and Pistar Veragüense.
The court ordered the seizure and deposit of all movable and immovable property, money, books, papers and other documents, of all of them. The Order also warns “its debtors and the general public” that “payments should not be made to them” except to the liquidator appointed in the process.
Minutes before former President Ricardo Martinelli received his firm proclamation as presidential candidate of the Realizando Metas (RM) party, he was denounced by his co-partisan Félix Moulanier before the Electoral Tribunal (TE). Both politicians met at the TE headquarters in Ancón.
Moulanier, one of the directors of RM, denounced that his party’s presidential candidate, former president Ricardo Martinelli, has a call center on the 43rd floor of the Oceanía Business Plaza building, which is used to “discredit” journalists, media communication, judges, TE officials, magistrates, judicial authorities and other citizens who do not share their opinion.
“We came with a group of colleagues to sign the digital ethics pact and make a complaint so that some accounts of a call center related to Mr. Ricardo Martinelli, whose sole purpose is to insult, distort, attack anyone who considers themselves an adversary of Martinelli. If we aspire to a transparent election and a full democracy, the Panamanian people have to know what is behind all this”, he expressed.
He added that the call center is financed directly by the party leader. Despite this complaint, the politician assured that he will remain in the ranks of RM, where he has been threatened with an expulsion process against him. “The party was founded on good people who were deceived, I will fight from within,” he commented.
He insisted that if Martinelli wins the Presidency of the Republic again, “black days for Panama” will come, as he warns that within RM he realized that there are “people who want to come to power only to quench their thirst for revenge and bring to Panama dark days”.
The Public Ministry reported this Wednesday that the Specialized Homicide and Femicide Section of the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office managed to apprehend two people, who are allegedly related to the murder of a couple in the township of Alcalde Díaz.
The double homicide was recorded on Monday, and it was reported that the search procedures were carried out in coordination with the National Police and that the operations also seized illegal substances.
On the other hand, this dependency of the Public Ministry reported that in the first five months of 2023, 107 charges were made, a figure that exceeded the 99 made in the same period of 2022.
Regarding provisional arrests, it is specified that between January and May of this year there have been 100, a figure that exceeds that registered in the same period of 2022, when 85 measures were imposed, for crimes against life and personal integrity.
The Public Ministry reported that until May the victims of homicide totaled 74 and that within the actions for these events, 100 provisional detentions were applied.
In addition, that in the first five months of the year 55 sentences were obtained, 46 of which were convictions. The indictments also increased, from 71 in 2022 to 103 in 2023, representing 45% more effectiveness.
From June 13 to 16, the third regional disaster response and humanitarian assistance drill will take place in Panama. This is the first multi-threat drill in Panama and the third in the region, with the participation of invited countries such as: Canada, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Israel, South Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Regarding this event, the Ministry of Government (Mingob) clarified that this third regional drill “is a practical exercise”, that is, “it will not be a real situation”. In this practical exercise, the response capacity of Panama will be evaluated in the face of possible disaster events, said the head of the Government, Roger Tejada.
The official explained that this simulated exercise will take place in various scenarios in the provinces of Panama, Colón, Darién, Los Santos, Panama Oeste and Chiriquí, under the leadership of the National Civil Protection System, Joint Task Force and the technical cooperation of the Center of Coordination for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
During this drill, evaluation exercises will be carried out “in previously selected places”, starting at 12:35 pm on Tuesday, June 13, in schools, hospitals and public institutions that have been previously selected and trained.
Through a statement, Mingob stated that the days that this drill lasts (from June 13 to 16) will be regular work and class days, so there should be no affectations in the regular development of daily tasks.
Adolfo Fábrega, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama, informed that in a meeting of the board of directors of the business union, Mingob clarified that this activity has been coordinated only with public institutions, organizations and voluntary companies and that it will not affect the normal development of the commercial and economic activities of the country.
As of this month of June, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) clinic at Hospital Santo Tomás, Panama City, has the innovative therapy that combines two molecules in a single tablet (darunavir and cobicistat), commercially called prezcobix , facilitating adherence to treatment and improving the quality of life of patients.
The national head of the STI/HIV/AIDS program of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Carlos Chávez, reported that they bought approximately a thousand vials, which allows addressing more than 85 patients in this first year, but they have identified around 237 patients in the whole country, who can benefit.
He explained that prezcobix is a medicine that allows the infected person to stop taking four tablets a day.
The medication combines two molecules, darunavir, characterized by its high genetic barrier and efficacy in different scenarios and patient profiles, and cobicistat, a new enhancer with high tolerance.
In Panama, there are 22,283 people currently living with HIV, of which 15,580 are men and 6,703 are women, according to data from the Department of Epidemiology of the Minsa released on December 1, as part of the commemoration of the fight against HIV.
The HIV test is key in the prevention of this infection, since it allows the person to benefit from a medical follow-up as soon as possible and to adopt the necessary measures to avoid the transmission of the infection to other people.
An HIV test is the first step to combat and control acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in time.
In fact, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that prompt treatment for HIV can cause very low viral loads (viral suppression). Being virally suppressed means having less than 200 parts of HIV per milliliter of blood. That is, it can reduce the viral load to levels so low that tests cannot detect it (undetectable viral load).