News
Tuesday 12th November 2024.
November 11, 2024
Guillermo Ferrufino , Giácomo Tamburrelli , Ramón Ashby, Pedro Sánchez Moró and Bosco Ricardo Vallarino have something in common: they are former high-ranking officials who, in recent months, have been in the news because the time has come for them to serve the sentences imposed on them for judicial causes derived from irregularities committed during their time in the public sector.
Ferrufino , former Minister of Social Development, turned himself in to the Judicial Investigation Directorate of the National Police on October 7, after a reward was offered for anyone who provided information about his whereabouts. Tamburrelli , former director of the former National Aid Program (PAN), had been arrested four days earlier, on October 4. Ashby , former representative of the Calidonia district, was captured on September 30 at a residence in Condado del Rey, in the capital.
Sánchez Moró , former mayor of Arraiján, was captured on October 12 in La Chorrera, and two days later, on October 14, Vallarino, former mayor of Panama, was arrested in an apartment in the district of San Francisco.
Where are they serving their sentences? This is one of the questions that has arisen since their arrests.
Ferrufino and Tamburrelli are serving their sentences at the El Renacer Rehabilitation Center , a prison that has housed prisoners who have held power: the dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega , former president Ricardo Martinelli , as well as former ministers and former heads of public entities.
Ferrufino has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption and unjustified enrichment. Tamburrelli faces sentences of 48 and 96 months in prison for embezzlement.
El Renacer also includes two other inmates who handled public funds irregularly: Charles Sadat Bonilla, sentenced to 80 months in prison for embezzlement and corruption of officials to the detriment of the PAN, through a contract for the purchase of tires for the defunct entity’s vehicle fleet; and Jorge Churro Ruiz, former contract administrator for the Ministry of Public Works, sentenced to 72 months in prison for the Blue Apple case.
Ashby, sentenced to 60 months in prison for embezzlement, is serving his sentence in the Tinajitas Detention Center. Sánchez Moró , sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzlement, is also serving his sentence in the same prison .
Meanwhile, Bosco Ricardo Vallarino won a victory in court. Judge Esther Hinestroza replaced the 48-month prison sentence imposed on him (corruption) with a fine of $12,000, which he must pay within eight months.
Vallarino has already left El Renacer prison.
The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) rejected an appeal for cassation for 10 people, including former officials of the Second Court of Justice and private individuals, sentenced to 6 and 4 years in prison for their participation in a corruption network that received money in exchange for granting precautionary measures and influencing juries of conscience.
With the report of Judge Ariadne García and the vote of her counterparts María Eugenia López and Maribel Cornejo, the Criminal Chamber decided not to admit the appeal, leaving in force the sentences imposed by the liquidated Second Deputy Liquidator Court.
The first instance ruling sanctioned those involved after it was found that court officials contacted jurors to influence their verdicts in homicide trials. Some officials also brought forward trial dates, granted measures other than preventive detention and arranged bail for release.
The investigation began in 2015, when the then president of the Court, José Ayú Prado, reported alleged bribes in the criminal courts of the Second Superior Criminal Court and the Office of Judicial Decongestion to free people linked to criminal proceedings and influence juries.
The Criminal Chamber of the CSJ authorized wiretaps requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which allowed for the collection of evidence of illegal activities. It was also discovered that an official charged money to lawyers to advance or delay trial dates according to his needs.
The scandal prompted the Second Tribunal to implement tighter controls on the inquisitorial system’s case processing system.
At least 5,000 people have been directly or indirectly affected by the bad weather that has been affecting the country in recent days. Various effects have been reported in the provinces of Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, Coclé, Los Santos and Darién, as well as in the Ngäbe Buglé region and eastern Panama.
In statements to TVN , the deputy director of the National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc), Malitzie Rivera , reported that as of the afternoon of Sunday, November 10, 25 landslides had been recorded in the Ngäbe Buglé region.
He added that there are about six communities in this region that are not accessible by land and that the rains make it difficult for machinery to enter safely to clear the roads.
“There are five people who lost their lives directly as a result of the bad weather. More than 5,000 people nationwide have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the bad weather systems that are being reported, by landslides, floods and people who are isolated,” Rivera said.
According to Sinaproc data, four of the deaths were due to immersion in rivers: two in the Ngäbe Buglé region, one in Bocas del Toro and another in Herrera. In addition, one death was recorded due to a landslide in the province of Veraguas. This occurred between November 1 and 3.
It should be remembered that on November 9, in a traffic accident in the province of Chiriquí, a vehicle fell into a ravine in Boquete and its two occupants drowned.
In the last few hours, more damage has been reported in different districts of Chiriquí, such as Boquete and Barú. The same has occurred in Veraguas, with landslides on the road leading to Zapotillo, in the district of Las Palmas.
The rain watch is in effect until 11:59 pm on Monday, November 11. Conditions are expected to improve slightly on Tuesday, November 12 and Wednesday, November 13, although scattered showers are forecast for those dates.
One of the most important blows to drug trafficking was carried out by the National Aeronautical Service (Senan) after confiscating 2,276 kilos in a boat near Jicarón Island, in the province of Veraguas.
During the operation, two Nicaraguans and one Costa Rican were arrested while transporting the drugs in a speedboat bound for Central America.
According to authorities, this is one of the largest drug seizures made by Senan so far this year. Preliminary investigations indicate that the vessel carrying the drugs may have made several stops to refuel on the high seas.
The Drug Prosecutor’s Office has established that drug trafficking networks use artisanal vessels to supply fuel and food to the boats that use the Pacific coast to transport drugs to Central America.
On November 7 alone, authorities seized a total of 2,000 kilos of drugs in two operations carried out on the islands of Taboga and Otoque; in both operations, the drugs were hidden in boats that were pretending to be fishing.
So far this year, authorities have seized some 97 tons of drugs in operations carried out on the high seas and in local ports, where the narcotics are introduced in containers destined for Europe and the United States.
Statistics from the Drug Prosecutor’s Office reveal that the months of September, with 18,565 kilos; June, with 13,361 kilos; and March, with 12,348 kilos, are those in which the highest number of drug seizures have been recorded.
A source from the Ministry of Security confirmed that the Punta Mala area in Los Santos and Coiba is one of the routes most used by drug trafficking networks.
In 2023, security forces seized 119.2 tons of drugs, while in 2022 seizures reached 137 tons of drugs.
A new measure will allow citizens who are usually required to have a tourist visa to travel to Panama, such as Venezuelans, Dominicans and Cubans, among others, to enter the country without having to process this document, as long as they have a visa from these countries:
- Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan. United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Countries of the European Union.
The Ministry of Public Security modified Article 2 of Executive Decree Number 521 of August 6, 2018, which required that these visas be multiple, have been previously used, that is, with at least one entry into the country issuing the visa and with a validity of at least six months.
The amendment to this decree now only states that ‘upon entering Panamanian territory, foreign citizens must maintain a valid visa issued by one of the aforementioned countries.’
The governments of Panama and Costa Rica agreed on Monday, November 11, 2024 , to establish a Maritime Boundary Commission , which ultimately aims to complete the dividing lines in the Caribbean.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the neighboring country reported that the foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Arnoldo André , and of Panama, Javier Martínez Acha , established the Maritime Boundary Commission, in order to begin the process of negotiating an amendment to the Treaty of Delimitation, Marine Areas and Maritime Cooperation with the Republic of Panama. This is the Calderón-Ozores Treaty of February 2, 1980 , with the objective of completing the dividing lines in the Caribbean Sea.
According to a statement from the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, this process will complete all of the country’s borders and is the only area that has not yet been delimited.
“This is an important step for Costa Rica. Having all borders delimited will strengthen national sovereignty, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the country and promoting maritime security,” said Foreign Minister André, according to the note.
Costa Rica also explains that this delimitation process follows up on what was agreed upon during the visit to Panama by President Rodrigo Chaves for the inauguration of the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino , on July 1, 2024, when both urged their respective foreign ministries to initiate bilateral coordination for this purpose.
On social media, the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry also published the information with the photo of both foreign ministers signing the agreement to create the Maritime Boundaries Commission.