MESOAMERICA
VOLUME 20, NUMBER 4, APRIL 2001
PANAMA
Debate Over U.S. Sovereignty
of Cemetery
Though Panama recovered sovereignty over the Canal Zone more than a year
ago, some Panamanians remain discontent because of continued U.S. occupation of
the Corozal cemetery. Currently,
lawyers Ana Belfón and Diógenes Arosemena are working to use the national
courts to force the government to rescind the treaty signed with the U.S.,
which allowed for the cemetery to remain in foreign hands.
On 11 Jun ’99, the administration of then President Ernesto Pérez
Balladares negotiated an agreement allowing the U.S. to maintain sovereignty
over the Corozal cemetery, because of the number of U.S. citizens interned
there. Belfón stated that this pact is
a violation of the sovereignty that the country has paid for with “many years
of struggle and death.” Similarly,
Arosemena believes that it is his “civic and patriotic obligation” to bring the
suit to the Supreme Court against the acts of “Panamanian traitors that turned
over the lands of the Corozal cemetery.”
Opponents of the ’99 agreement also claim that most of the North
American bodies have been repatriated by family members, and that the cemetery
is now being maintained by the U.S. military for less noble reasons. According to Arosemena, the U.S. uses the
cemetery as a base for intelligence operations; and, on 20 Feb, the newspaper El
Siglo reported that sources in the Ministry of Government and Justice
indicated that Panamanian victims of the ’80 U.S. invasion may be buried there
in common graves.
Journalists Protest
Government Persecution
About 200 reporters and editors from newspapers and television channels
held a public demonstration on 19 Mar against what they consider increased
government persecution of journalists.
Concerned by the libel and slander cases currently pending against 60 of
their colleagues, the journalists demonstrated outside the Supreme Court.
According to La Prensa, a local newspaper, seven
journalists have been convicted on charges relating to their work in recent
years. Two of the most recent guilty
verdicts involve journalists Juan Manuel Díaz of the daily El Panamá América
and Rainer Tuñon of El Universal.
Each received a sentence of more than a year in prison for publishing an
investigation about Panamanians who had obtained fraudulent diplomas from the
University of Puebla in Mexico. They
had included Dr. Samuel Osorio Caicedo on the list, but he later demonstrated
that his degree was legitimate, and filed a defamation suit against the two
journalists.
PRD Criticizes New
“Anti-Corruption Czar”
President Moscoso’s appointment of a former president of the Lawyers’
Association, César Guevara, as the new anti-corruption director of the Ministry
of Economy and Finances faced immediate opposition from Revolutionary Democratic Party leader
Balbina Herrera, who complained that a person closely linked to the governing
Arnulfista Party could not objectively investigate corruption within the
government.
Moscoso said that “where he comes from does not matter” and lawyer
Rogelio Arosemana expressed his belief in Guevara’s competence for the
position, saying that he is an “irreproachable man capable of independent
work.”
While Herrera hails the reactivation of the anti-corruption position,
she believes that the position would be better filled by a more politically
neutral person. Herrera also said that
it is “irregular” for a President to make an appointment to this sort of
position and announced her plan to demand that Guevara be disqualified as the
anti-corruption czar.
Canal Workers Demand
Severance Pay from U.S.
An association comprised of 30,000 current and former Panama Canal
workers made their way to Miami last month to demand $1.2 billion in severance
pay from the U.S. The workers claim
that their right to a “13th” month of salary, as guaranteed in the Panama Labor Code and in the
Torrijos-Carter Treaty, was not recognized between the years of ’79 to ’99,
just before operation of the canal was ceded to Panama. The workers demanded $300 million in lost
wages and $900 million for psychological suffering.
—Talise Dow and Jeremy Turner