News
Wednesday 17th July 2024.
July 16, 2024
In the midst of the struggle taking place in the National Assembly over the formation of the Budget Commission , Deputy Jorge Herrera , head of the Panameñista Party , admitted that if there were to be votes in the plenary session of the Legislature to form the commissions, the seats of the political parties would be put in danger.
“At the end of the game, the dispute between Vamos and the PRD will endanger the political parties (…) to the point that RM itself could lose one of the seats,” Herrera said on Tuesday, July 16, in an interview with Panama en Directo .
So far, there is consensus in 14 of the 15 working committees of the Assembly. This is not the case in the Budget committee, the only legislative body that has 15 members.
Why? The Vamos bench , which in this case negotiates based on a strategic alliance with its colleagues from the Movimiento Otro Camino (MOCA) and Patsy Lee , from the Partido Popular (24 votes), claims that it has the right to five seats on that commission.
But the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) , which has 13 deputies, says that Vamos is not entitled to five seats on that commission, but four, so that seat in dispute belongs to them.
Article 43 of the Organic Regulations of the Internal Regime (RORI) of the National Assembly states the following: When the presentation of consensus lists is not possible, the members of the permanent commissions will be elected through the following procedure:
- The total number of deputies shall be divided by the number of members of the committee to be elected, the result of which shall be called the election quotient.
- Each deputy will vote on a single ballot for his or her candidate, and those who have obtained a number of votes not less than the electoral quotient will be declared elected.
- If, after the representations have been awarded based on the electoral quotient, there are still vacancies to be filled, those who have obtained the highest number of votes shall be declared elected to fill them. In the event of a tie, luck shall decide.
The ruling party’s choice to chair the Budget Committee is the controversial deputy Sergio Chello Gálvez.
Herrera, who in the last period, wearing the hat of mayor of Aguadulce, Coclé, received at least $2.7 million from the parallel decentralization, does not recognize the strategic alliance of Vamos with MOCA and Patsy Lee. “If Vamos had managed to register the three votes of MOCA and that of Patsy Lee, they would have the right to have one more seat in the Budget Commission. By not doing so, they were left out of the equation (…)”, he said.
Herrera was one of the six deputies of the Panameñista Party who voted on July 1 for Dana Castañeda , candidate of the ruling party Realizing Goals (RM) for the presidency of the Assembly. On Panama Live, the mayor of Aguadulce, did not explain his vote. He limited himself to saying that since his party did not reach a consensus, they decided that each person should vote for “the candidate they believe in.”
The former general manager of the Colon Free Zone (ZLC), Giovanni Ferrari , defended the granting of land from this entity to a company in which his children are beneficiaries and assured that the award was approved by the board of directors and the executive committee of the free zone.
“The ZLC law establishes that the agreements and resolutions of the board of directors and its executive committee are mandatory for the general manager, so the allegations of conflict of interest are unfounded,” Ferrari said in a written clarification sent to La Prensa .
He insisted that as general manager, it was not his responsibility to vote or decide, “neither in this nor in any other lease contract.” The president of the board of directors of the ZLC at that time was the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Jorge Rivera Staff ; while Carlos Castillero presides over the executive committee.
On this matter, the Presidency of the Republic described it as a “ land deal ” and announced that audits would be carried out.
Ferrari added that the concession in favor of Concesionaria ONX, SA of the two pieces of land owned by the ZLC is “a consequence of the process developed by Tocumen for the reactivation” of the Enrique Jiménez airport in Coco Solo.
In February 2024, Concesionaria ONX obtained a contract to commercially exploit the Colon airport. Ferrari says that this “renewal” plan was conceived in 2013, without the participation of the ZLC.
“As a result of the concession granted by Tocumen, the consortium requested a lease from the Colon Free Zone so that the land already included in the Enrique Jimenez Airport concession could operate under the characteristics of the Colon Free Zone and thus comply with the logistical and commercial development required in Tocumen’s specifications,” it stressed in its explanatory note.
However, Raffoul Arab , who at that time was the general manager of Tocumen International Airport, SA (Aitsa), warned that the contract with the air terminal has not yet been drawn up and that relevant details are being “verified.”
“It is the power of the new general manager and the new government administration to make changes, investigate, adjust or suspend the process initiated, based on all the information that has been provided in a timely and transparent manner,” Arab told La Prensa .
If the concession with Tocumen is not firm, how was it used to obtain the lease of the lands of the ZLC adjacent to the airport?
The owners of the registered shares of Concesionaria ONX, SA are three companies: Corporacion ONX , Sky Cana SRL and Carga Transístmica, SA . In the latter, Marco, Bruno, Giovanni Lucca and Melania Luisa Ferrari Maruri are the final beneficiaries.
The former manager of the ZLC wrote that he valued and applauded the efforts of the government of José Raúl Mulino to ensure that state resources are managed with transparency, “so I am fully prepared to provide any additional explanations that may be necessary in what concerns me.”
The Presidency has already announced the suspension of contracts with Aitsa and the ZLC in favour of Concesionaria ONX, as well as the start of investigations, “the results of which will be transferred in due course to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine responsibilities”
Former deputy Zulay Rodríguez filed an appeal before the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) against the decision of the Second Administrative Electoral Court that nullified the challenge filed against the proclamation of Omar Ortega as deputy of circuit 8-2, San Miguelito.
The appeal, which was filed on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 16, by Herbert Young, Rodríguez’s attorney, is based on numeral 2 of article 465 of the Electoral Code , which details that any claim for nullity must be based on “that the vote count recorded in the minutes of the voting tables or in the general scrutiny minutes contains errors or alterations . ”
Young also cites Article 497 of the same legal body, which details that “partial elections will be held when, for any of the reasons provided for in this code, the nullity of the elections has been declared in one or more constituencies or voting tables, provided that such tables affect the result of the election.”
According to the appeal filed by Young, the contested minutes and the call for new by-elections are limited to nine minutes that, due to the errors or alterations they contain, affect the declared result.
At the same time, it is argued that the second administrative electoral judge, Edmara Lisbeth Jaén, when issuing her sentence did not assess the fact raised during the appeal hearing that there were errors or alterations in the counting of the minutes of voting tables 4662, 4682, 4757, 4815, 4818, 48944, 4902, 4915 and 5114.
And that, on the contrary, the judge deviated from these facts and resolved the controversy with a true “legal gibberish” that violated electoral regulations and attributed more than 1,000 votes in some records, and above logic and common sense.
On July 12, Judge Jaén dismissed the request for partial annulment of the election, in relation to the counting of votes recorded in the minutes of nine voting tables and the proclamation of Omar Ortega.
In her ruling, Judge Jaén determined that it is undeniable that the Circuit 8-2 Scrutiny Board fell into situations that led to inaccuracies being observed when reviewing some of the voting table records, as indicated by the public accountants who assisted said board.
The Second Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime, headed by Isis Soto, based its appeal against the ruling of the Second Liquidation Court of Criminal Cases that acquitted the 28 defendants in the Lava Jato and Panama Papers cases.
In his 486-page brief, Soto alleges that Judge Baloisa Marquínez failed to properly assess the evidence, financial activity reports and legal assistance obtained from various countries that demonstrate the involvement of members of the Mossack Fonseca firm in money laundering activities.
Among this evidence, he cited the testimony of María Mercedes Riaño, who reported that at the Mossack Fonseca law firm there was a corporate department in which about a hundred people worked and corporate documents were drawn up to incorporate Panamanian companies, as well as for the preparation of minutes, powers of attorney and certificates.
Soto alleges that this statement also states that the documents were prepared in this department, which were then signed by very humble collaborators, who appeared as the directors of the companies that were created.
The prosecutor also cites evidence obtained in Brazil, which shows that one of the companies investigated in that country, used to hide properties in order to avoid any action on them, was linked to companies registered in Panama, in which several of those investigated in this case appeared as directors.
It argues that the director service offered by Mossack Fonseca consisted of an extra fee paid by clients for the firm to provide the names of Panamanian citizens who were “front men” of the companies being marketed.
She also cites as evidence not valued by the judge the statement of Lurys Madrid, a former Mossack Fonseca collaborator, who said that blank documents were signed at the firm and then filled out when the company was sold.
In her brief, prosecutor Soto asks the magistrates of the High Court for the Liquidation of Criminal Cases to revoke Judge Marquínez’s ruling and issue a guilty verdict for the 28 defendants in the Lava Jato and Panama Papers cases, including Jürgen Mossack. She also requests that the acquittal verdict in favor of Reina Raquel Chong, Hilda Soto, Marisabel Robles, Isabel Fonseca Franco, Itzel Fuentes, Zaggary Lundgren and Reina Chong be upheld. In this case, the criminal prosecution of Ramón Fonseca Mora was declared extinct after his death.
The United States Embassy in Panama has warned about possible scams in the visa application process to that country, using intermediaries and intermediaries.
In a statement, they urged citizens to personally complete the visa application process through the official website ustraveldocs.com .
“Each visa applicant must have full control over their application profile, to protect their personal data and receive messages from the consular section of the U.S. Embassy directly to their personal email,” the embassy said in a statement.
They say they have received reports of people and companies offering visa “processing” services online and in the vicinity of the consulate.
“We inform the public that no company or agent is authorized by the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Panama.