News
Tuesday 5th September 2023.
September 5, 2023
At the Miguel de la Borda community gym in Donoso, Colón province, citizen consultations continued on Monday, September 4, regarding the first debate on the bill of the contract between the State and Minera Panama.Hundreds of people have come to the sports venue, where more voices have been heard in rejection than in favor of the controversial project No. 1043.
The citizen Pedro Camargo said that the aforementioned project is leonine, and an “attack against Donoso and the entire country.” Camargo added that due to the shortcomings of the document, it is best to redraft it from scratch. “The project is an aberration to the country,” he said.
Others who oppose the project questioned the fact that within the contract-law proposal it is found that the mining company can request from the Civil Aviation Authority a temporary or permanent overflight restriction of up to 3,000 meters above the area. concession, as well as the port, the easement and the power generation plant.
There were also those who said that instead of mining activities, what they want is a supply of water.
“Down with the mining contract, down”, “A united people will never be defeated”, “The fight is fighting”, are some of the choruses that are heard in the middle of the session.
For his part, Fernando Johnson, representative of the township of Río Indio, requested that the contract and each of its clauses be reviewed so that it effectively “benefits our people.” The mayor took the opportunity to complain about the existing needs in this region of the country, such as the lack of schools, roads and hospitals. “There are still ranch schools…it is sad and unfortunate, there is no university extension,” he remarked.
“We are not against it, but rather that it be reviewed… we are going to do it but well and that the impact is minimal,” said citizen Felicito Terán.
The Committee on Trade and Economic Affairs has declared itself in permanent session to address this project.
The citizen consultations continue on Wednesday in the Casa del Pueblo, Coclesito, district of Omar Torrijos Herrera, Colón, and on Thursday in the community of Sabaneta, township of Llano Grande, district of La Pintada, Coclé.
Unlike last week, which broadcast the five days of consultation, the Assembly does not broadcast these consultations with the citizens live. This is due to the lack of technological equipment, the entity specified.
Through their social media accounts, the independent deputy Juan Diego Vásquez and the presidential candidate Ricardo Lombana share the activity that is taking place at the moment in the Miguel de la Borda community gym in Donoso.
University students partially closed this Monday, September 4, the Transístmica highway, at the height of the entrance to the University of Panama. Only two traffic lanes are enabled on this road.
The demonstration, which began around noon, is in rejection of the bill on the mining contract that is being discussed in the National Assembly.
“Mining leaves ghost towns, contaminated and in ruins” reads one of the banners.
Members of the Single Union of Construction Workers have joined this protest, which earlier closed several parts of the country, also to show their opposition to bill No. 1043 that is being debated in the Assembly’s Committee on Commerce and Economic Affairs National.
The arguments of three defense lawyers were evacuated on the morning of this Monday, September 4, in the Blue Apple case, in which they requested a verdict in favor of the defendants Melina Cano, Luis Alberto Arias, Octavio Samaniego and Marcelino Martínez on charges of illicit association. and money laundering.
The tenth day of the trial of the Blue Apple case began with the intervention of Arturo González Baso, Melina Cano’s lawyer, who served as secretary of the former Minister of Public Works, Federico Suárez.
González Baso alleged that his client does not appear in the scheme of corporations used to divert funds from contracts with the State.
The lawyer stated that his client is accused of crimes of illicit association and money laundering, but that in the development of the trial the prosecution has not been able to prove those accusations.
During his speech, González Baso stressed that his client was linked to the case for having allegedly participated in the process of acquiring some turbines from the El Síndigo hydroelectric project, related to former minister Suárez, but that this accusation is false, he no longer worked at the MOP. The transactions to acquire the turbines took place in November of that same year.
Then William Parodi, lawyer for Luis Alberto Arias, intervened, who assured that the prosecution links his client with the Blue Apple company through a transfer of $500,000 made to the company Inversiones y Servicios LJ, but that in reality the final beneficiary and responsible for that company was his brother Hernando Arias (RIP).
Meanwhile, Christian Ortega, lawyer for Marcelino Martínez and Octavio Samaniego, was the next to present his arguments. Regarding Martínez, for whom the prosecution requested an acquittal, he applauded the decision of the Public Ministry, since his client has no relationship with that investigation.
The alleged murderer of the Panamanian soccer player Gilberto Hernández (26 years old) was apprehended in the township of Cristóbal, province of Colón, after raids carried out in the last hours by the National Police and the Public Ministry.
This is alias “Chekiro”, who was arrested in one of the apartments of the Altos de Los Lagos multifamily, where he was notified of the court order and taken for the corresponding procedures.
During the diligence, several pieces of evidence were collected that will be contributed to this investigation.
Hernández, who was a player of the Club Atlético Independiente (CAI) of the Panamanian Soccer League (LPF), died on Sunday, September 3, in the middle of a shootout that took place in the township of Barrio Norte, province of Colón.
The event occurred specifically in the afternoon on Calle 5 and Avenida Herrera, where criminals aboard a vehicle shot at the victim and other people who were staying at the scene. At least seven people were injured, it has been reported.
Users of the National Post Office and Telegraph Service of Panama (Cotel) since April to date have been reporting to this medium that there are problems in the shipping service, since they owe money to the airline that transports the mail to the United States.
At the time, the director of Cotel, Julio Ramírez , acknowledged that they have had some problems with outbound correspondence for the United States, and that they were restructuring the contract with the Panamanian airline with which they have traditionally worked.
However, on September 1, the entity issued a statement informing all its users that they use the postal cargo dispatch service, which at the moment has problems with the international parcel service. That is, the problem is not yet resolved.
For this reason, they are taking the pertinent steps with the various airlines so that it can be reactivated smoothly over the next few weeks, the statement said.
Last June, the director of Cotel stated that the debt they maintain is an amount that they have generally managed over the years with this airline as a result of the service they offer. However, the official did not specify the amount of the debt.
For three months Cotel has been analyzing alternatives to solve the lagging dispatches that they maintain in order to gradually resume normality.
Cotel is an entity that is under the umbrella of the Ministry of Government and manages a budget for operation this year of $10,071,749, the figure is higher than the one the entity had last year, which amounted to $9,983,940.
Panamanian archery athletes continue to obtain good results at the international level. This time, they won 6 medals, 2 silver and 4 bronze, in the First Pan American Indoor Archery Championship, which ended this Sunday at the Tecnópolis Microstadium, in Argentina, reported Luis Barría, president of the National Association of Archery of Panama (Antap).
The president of Antap highlighted that these results, in such a high-level competition, are the result of a great teamwork effort, which shows that archery is one of the Panamanian sports that “when its athletes They represent in other countries, they return with a medal and a smile for Panama”.
In this championship, which brought together more than 300 archers from 14 countries in the Americas, 13 of them from Panama, they competed in the categories of Barebow, Compound and Recurve, in men and women in the categories under 18, 21, older and over 50.
The medals were won by Adriannis Caballero, who obtained a silver in compound bow for under 21s, when he fell in the gold dispute against the Argentine Guillermina Gonzalez.
In addition, in the composite team competition, the Panamanian trio made up of Edgar Barsallo, Bladimir Berdiales and Willie Chin brought the silver medal.
Barsallo also achieved a bronze medal in the compound bow; while Lineth Lou, added another bronze, by beating the Chilean Maria Vinench, in the women’s compound bow.
Also, in this category, but in Sub-21, Paola Coronas obtained third place, with which she is credited with a bronze. Also, in the women’s recurve team event, Emma Durán, Ana Pinzón and Miriam González from Chiriqui, won bronze.
It should be noted that Durán obtained 534 points in the women’s recurve, to be the highest score in the women’s classification; while Barsallo, with 578, was the third best in the qualifying rounds.
The Antap president was satisfied with the results of the Panamanian shooters in this high-level competition.
“We were very close to gold, but it was still a great effort, this shows that things are being done well in Panama, spreading this sport and supporting athletes,” he added.