News
Tuesday 22nd November 2022.
November 22, 2022
The authorities confirmed this Monday, the death of two people, a teacher and his son, due to a landslide on a house in the San Martín sector, Cativá, in the province of Colón. According to the reports of the security entities, one of the deceased is a 52-year-old mathematics teacher from the San Vicente de Paul School in Cativa. While the other victim was the teacher’s son, 15 years old. Earlier, the director of the National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc), Carlos Rumbo, reported that after receiving the emergency call, the personnel of the Joint Task Force arrived in the community of San Martín, district of Cativá and after the actions of search found two people dead. “These are houses that are built under hills, on slopes, and due to the large amount of water that we have had in the province of Colón, there is saturated soil. The landslide occurred in the early hours of the morning,” said Rumbo on TVN . Some 40 members of the Joint Task Force participated in the earth removal work to locate the victims. Three people were reported to have been rescued. Yesterday it continued to rain in the province of Colón and in other regions of the country. Given the forecasts of bad weather in the province, the Ministry of Education suspended classes in public and private schools for yesterday.
The fiscal balance of the non-financial public sector showed a deficit of $3,527.3 million in the period between January and September, according to a report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). This means that in the first nine months of the year the expenses exceeded the income collected by that magnitude. The deficit was reduced by $499.5 million or 12.4% when compared to the same period of the previous year, when the imbalance between income and expenses was $4,026.7 million. The reduction in the deficit is mainly due to the increase in income, which went from $7,677.1 million in September 2021 to $8,205.6 million in the same period of this year, registering an increase of $528.5 million or 6.9%. The MEF highlighted the growth in central government revenues, which rebounded by $460.9 million, due to higher tax collections driven by greater economic activity. Similarly, the income of the Social Security Fund (CSS) improved by $218.5 million, due to a higher collection of quotas due to the gradual recovery of employment in the private sector, the MEF said in its report.The boost in collection is mainly due to the performance of tax revenues, which increased by $736.9 million or 21.9%.
The Public Ministry (MP), represented by the senior prosecutor Ruth Morcillo, appealed on November 16 the decision of the third liquidating judge of criminal cases, Baloisa Marquínez, to declare the prosecution of the company Importadora Ricamar, SA “not viable”. , in the Odebrecht case. The 25-page appeal is addressed to the magistrates of the Superior Court of Criminal Cases of the First Judicial District. In the document, the prosecution presents the arguments by which it differs from Judge Marquínez on the procedural impossibility of prosecuting Importadora Ricamar, SA, due to a multiplicity of factors, mainly due to the absence of procedural rules that allow it. In the appeal, the prosecutor Morcillo uses a series of statements to refute Judge Marquínez. In the first place, it responds to Marquínez’s questioning about the MP’s lack of coherence, for not impeaching the current legal representative of Importadora Ricamar, citizen Alejandro Garuz Adames, indicating that he had already testified and that the link in the Odebrecht case was focused towards two of the previous legal representatives: former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal and his son Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares. Regarding the recognition of the principle societas delinquere non potest , a criminal law doctrine that affirms that legal entities do not commit crimes but natural persons do, the prosecution presented reasoning about the breach of this principle and how this breach was already part of the Panamanian legislation. The MP briefly discussed the lack of procedural rules for the prosecution of Importadora Ricamar, stating that the appropriate legal interpretation is that if article 97 of the Criminal Procedure Code establishes a rule for prosecuting legal persons, this rule should be read in conjunction with the Article 32 of the Civil Code, which says that the rules applicable to the process are those in force at the time of its completion, a principle valid only for procedural rules. Finally, in an argument supported by comparative law and judicial decisions on this same case, the MP strengthens its argument that Importadora Ricamar, SA can be prosecuted for its links to the Odebrecht case. One of the most striking examples, in support of the MP’s argument, is that of the Campos de Pesé company, which was tried and sentenced for an environmental crime related to the use of Atrazine. According to the MP, this would show that legal proceedings against legal entities are possible and can be carried out with the utmost respect for due process.
Osmiani Zurita, a former employee of the Banco Hipotecario Nacional (BHN), in Colón, was provisionally detained on Sunday, while he is being investigated for the alleged commission of crimes against freedom and sexual integrity, in the form of consensual relationship with a minor, corruption of minors and for promoting pornographic videos and child pornography. The decision was made by Ángel Santos, guarantee judge of the Colón Accusatory Penal System, in a hearing held on Sunday in Colón, after the Public Ministry requested it. The case came to light when the video of Zurita having sex with a 17-year-old boy was leaked. Last Friday, November 18, prosecutor Keyla Pérez, from the Colón and Guna Yala Primary Care section, reported that after a 24-hour investigation, they raided the person’s house and arrested him. “This person will be made available to a Guarantee Court for the respective hearings to formulate charges, legalize the arrest and precautionary measures,” she reported.
The fourth robbery at a jewelry store in the last two months was recorded last Saturday afternoon, when two men entered the Omega jewelry store, in the Multiplaza shopping center, located in the San Francisco township, in the capital, from where they managed to steal several watches to then run away. Jaime Toledo, chief of the San Francisco Police Zone, explained that the thieves entered the jewelry store wearing caps and masks. They broke the glass of the furniture where they were exposed and stole several watches, the value of which has not yet been determined. Preliminary reports indicate that at least 18 watches were taken. The perpetrators fled in a taxi. Criminalistics personnel located blood on one of the windows, which is supposed to have caused one of the criminals to suffer cuts when breaking it.
Almost two years after its debut, vaccines against the covid-19 disease have received an update, and bivalent vaccines are available . The two bivalent vaccines that have received authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are from the pharmaceutical houses Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Panama advanced negotiations with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer/BioNTech to buy this vaccine considered a booster, however, there is still no date for its arrival in the country, since it depends on the availability of doses that the company has. The Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported that it is taking steps with the pharmaceutical duo to define precisely the date of arrival of the vaccine, and once it is available, it will be announced to the country.