PANAMA POST: EDITION III

C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 001102 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV KCRM KJUS SNAR SOCI PM SUBJECT: PANAMA POST: EDITION III REF: PANAMA 1052 (NOTAL) Classified By: POLCOUNS Brian R. Naranjo. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) The following are the top stories for the third edition of the Panama Post: -- Attorney General names new acting head of FBI-equivalent; -- Fifth candidate announces run for presidency of governing Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD); -- Insights into why Panamanians join political parties; -- A PRD women's advocate handicaps the race for the PRD presidential nomination; -- Sports corruption affects Panama's participation in Pan-America Games; and -- A cheat sheet of Panamanian political nicknames. End Summary. -------------- -------------- Attorney General Names New Head of FBI-Equivalent -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) Attorney General Ana Matilda Gomez named prosecutor Jose Ayu Prado to be the acting head of the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ) on June 25. Gomez named prosecutor Jose Almengor to replace Ayu Prado as the head of the PTJ's counternarcotics unit. Ayu Prado and Almengor will hold these position at least through December 2007 pending resolution of PTJ reform legislation. Increasingly, the PTJ has been under fire and under investigation, for example, in the wake of revelations of efforts to promote PTJ officials who were subject to disciplinary actions and the discovery that weapons were being "leased" from the PTJ's ballistics lab. ¶3. (C) Comment: Ayu Prado now has perhaps the most unenviable position in the GOP, Panamanian law enforcement, sources tell the Panama Post. Inheriting an organization that has been under fire and is experiencing collapsing morale, Ayu Prado will be expected to review all internal affairs investigations, follow up on disciplinary actions and ensure that the troubled PTJ is as administratively pure as possible. Absent a series of successful, well publicized cases, Ayu Prado faces rough seas ahead of him. For her part, Gomez succeeded in doing two things that she had wanted to do for some time: she put a prosecutor in charge of the PTJ and moved Ayu Prado, with whom she often had contentious relations, out of her office. To the outside world, however, naming the highly capable and respected Ayu Prado to the PTJ appears to be an astute step to fixing this troubled organization. -------------- -------------- And Then There Were Five: Race for PRD President -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) Former Minister of Labor Laurentino Cortizo launched his campaign for President of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) on June 24. Laurentino -- the only minister to have resigned from President Torrijos' cabinet -- broke with Torrijos over the TPA negotiations and is a long shot candidate. Other announced candidates include: former President Ernesto "El Toro" Perez Balladares, Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera, Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, and Alfredo Oranges. ¶5. (C) Comment: Cortizo has no chance of victory, but may provide an opportunity for disgruntled cattlemen and rice growers who are party members, primarily in Chiriqui and Azuero provinces, to cast a protest vote. The Panama Post understands that the fix for the top three internal PRD positions is already in: Herrera for President, Torrijos to remain Secretary General, and Navarro to be the First Sub-Secretary of the PRD's National Executive Committee (CEN). Indeed, Perez Balladares appears to have already packed in his campaign for PRD President and has claimed publicly that he is looking down the road to securing the PRD's presidential nomination. Others in the race for the PRD's presidential nomination include: Navarro, First VP and FM Samuel Lewis, and possibly Herrera. -------------- Why Join a Political Party? -------------- ¶6. (U) The majority of Panamanians joined a political party to secure an economic benefit, according to a Dichter and Neira poll, a portion of which was published June 24 in Panama City daily La Prensa. Only 9.4 percent said they joined a party because they liked politics, and 16.9 percent said they joined because of ideology. In contrast, 37.8 percent told pollsters they joined a party to secure employment, and 15.4 percent said they did so to secure economic benefits such as scholarships or social benefits. Slightly over one in five voters -- 20.5 percent -- had no idea why they joined a party. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: These poll results are not surprising, but rather underscore the relative unimportance of ideology in Panamanian politics. Instead, highlighting the "transactional" nature of politics in Panama, Panamanian voters ask themselves, "What's in it for me?" This phenomenon helps explain the massive turn-out of over 60,000 voters over three days to register for the governing PRD: they expect personal economic gain. It also explains why most Panamanian voters do not belong to any party: they haven't found what they are looking for or do not believe that they will benefit from membership. -------------- -------------- PRD Women's Advocate Handicaps Internal Race for President -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) "There are many problems and a lot of uncertainty" inside the PRD with respect to the race to secure the party's presidential nomination, PRD activist and the President of the Forum of Women in Political Parties Irasema de Ahumada told the Panama Post on June 26. "El Perro (First VP and FM Samuel Lewis (see para 12)) will never get traction in the polls; that helps (Panama City Mayor) Juan Carlos Navarro." She asserted though that Navarro was not paying any attention to his municipality's services: trash was not being collected, there were many rumors of bribes being passed to secure construction permits, and kiosk tenants in the popular markets were irate that the city was not attending to the up-keep of the facilities. "The upper and upper-middle class do not see this deterioration in public services, but the lower-middle class and poor know that Navarro is not collecting trash in their neighborhoods," de Ahumada said. ¶9. (C) Returning to Lewis, de Ahumada said, "He is my candidate, but he is not going anywhere." "What's up with this guy?," she complained, explaining that he attended a PRD political event in Herrera Province with Minister of Health Alleyne, the most unpopular member of Torrijos' cabinet. "How could he do that! Doesn't he realize that nobody wants Alleyne?" Asked who his political advisors were, de Ahumada said that presidential foreign affairs advisor (and former Noriega era FM and UN PermRep) Jorge Ritter and her brother-in-law (Lewis' closest advisor at the MFA and former left-wing radical) Adolfo Ahumada. "They are intellectuals. What do they know about getting votes? When have they dirtied their shoes during a campaign?" de Ahumada asked sarcastically. -------------- -------------- PanAm Games: Panamanian Flag Banned -------------- -------------- ¶10. (U) The Pan-American Sports Organization (ODEPA) ordered June 27 that Panamanian athletes would compete under the "umbrella of the organization" at the Fifteenth Pan-America Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro. ODEPA assumed control of the management of the Panamanian team; announced that Panama's team would compete under the ODEPA's flag, not the Panamanian flag; and banned the playing of the Panamanian national anthem. Any medals won by Panamanians would also would not be recorded as having been won for Panama. ODEPA said it would also ask the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to sanction the Olympic Committee of Panama (COP) with a temporary suspension of its recognition until it was proven that "interference in the internal affairs of the COP had ceased." The Chairman of the COP's board of directors, Roger Moscote, promptly resigned. ¶11. (SBU) Comment: ODEPA's unanimous expulsion of the COP and appeal to the IOC is but the latest and loudest vote of no confidence in the COP, an organization riddle with corruption. Recently, Panama's national baseball team struck in protest of Panamanian Baseball Federation's President Franz Wever's habit of skimming significant sums from the travel stipends each player receives for meals and incidental expenses when the team is on the road. Also, the Panama Post has learned from its sources in Major League Baseball (MLB) that, contrary to First VP and FM Lewis' June 27 announcement, MLB would not be undertaking any activities with beyond periodic baseball clinics. Concerned with the level of corruption and mismanagement in Panama's baseball federation, MLB corporate headquarters told the Panama Post that it would not be investing in a baseball academy as Lewis had asserted. Lewis appeared to have overstated agreements that Panama's Embassy in Santo Domingo reached with MLB Commissioner for Latin American and the Caribbean Ronaldo Peralta. -------------- -------------- What's in a Nickname? A Political Gossip Column Primer -------------- -------------- ¶12. (U) Each of Panama City's newspapers -- broad sheets like La Prensa, Panama-America, or La Estrella and tabloids like El Siglo or La Critica -- has a political gossip column. These columns -- religiously read by Panamanians -- offer up snippets of political gossip, but are written in often utterly impenetrable code replete with Panamanian-Spanish colloquialisms, obscure references to current events and pop culture, and nicknames. La Estrella publisher Avraham Musvat explained to the Panama Post that the papers use these gossip columns to stir the pot by offering tidbits to see who reacts in the hopes of filling out stories for which they only have partial information. Musvat also said that the nicknames helped protect the papers from libel and slander accusations as they obscured the target of the gossip. To aid our readers, the Panama Post provides the following cheat sheet to decipher the nicknames of key political leaders: -- President Martin Torrijos: El Mister, Chiqui (Chicky),El Muneco or El Mune' (boy doll),or El Muneco Que Pasea (the boy doll that struts) -- First Lady Vivian de Torrijos: La Jefa (the boss),La Mandamas (the one who orders somebody around the most),la Presidenta (the female president) -- First VP and FM Samuel Lewis: El Perro (the dog),Wataco (nonsense nickname),El Compadre or El Compa' Casimiro (the godfather or buddy; Casimiro is Lewis' middle name; also a reference to Lewis' loyalty and affable nature) -- National Assembly Deputy Hector Aleman: HB (Aleman's middle name is Bolivar),Norieguita (Little Noriega, a reference to this former Noriega aide's resemblance to the dictator as well as his conspiratorial, strong arm management style),or Pina 2 (Noriega was known as the pineapple, so Aleman is pineapple 2.) -- Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera: Lady B, La Chola (half-civilized, peasant-like person) -- Attorney General Ana Matilda Gomez: Didi (reference to the mother of the popular cartoon Dexter who routinely destroys everything),La Chica Superpoderosa (the super powerful girl) -- Former President Ernesto Perez Balladares: El Toro (The bull, a reference to Balladares size and brash manner.),Mr. Bull, -- Former President Mireya Moscoso: La Dona (the titled Lady) -- Former President Guillermo Endara: Chuchungo (nonsense nickname acquired in grade school),Pichulo (nonsense nickname given by the press),or Pan de Dulce (Sweet bread, a reference to Endara's rotund figure and jovial nature.) -- Former FM and Patriotic Union (UP) leader Jose Raul Mulino: Stalin (Reference to his thick brushy mustache, stalinesque haircut, and leadership style) -- Democratic Change (CD) Party President Ricardo Martinelli: Ricky Casi Cien or Casi Cien (Almost One Hundred, a reference to the name of this supermarket magnate's chain: Super99.) -- Panamenista Party President Juan Carlos Varela: Seco Varela, Juan Seco, Johnny Dry (Varela's family owns Panama's largest distillery, the best-selling product of which is seco, a liquor distilled from sugar cane. "Seco" also means dry.) -- Tia Josefa -- This literally means "Aunt Josefa." There is no Aunt Josefa, however, rather this nickname refers to whomever leaked information to a columnist. Aunt Josefa is the proverbial know-it-all aunt who sees, hears, and passes on everything. LATTIMER