Admin_03
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Panama first in Central America with “green” bus route
Posted 19/12/2021
Panamanian authorities have approved the purchase of five electric buses for Casco Viejo one of the principal tourist attractions in the country.
With the $1.3 million project it will become the first in Central America to operate a public transport green route.
The Old Town of Panama City was included in 1997 in the list of World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
The Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP) reported that the project for the purchase of buses and their chargers was approved by the National Tourism Council (CNT) and that it will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the framework of the Comprehensive Urban Development Program for Cities with a Tourist Vocation.
The fleet will be made up of five 9.5-meter-long units with a capacity of 45 people. It will be donated to Mi Bus, the company that manages the operation of public transport associated with the Metro of the Panamanian capital.
This green route can be used by the resident community, national and foreign tourists, and anyone who needs to enjoy the cultural-recreational activities offered in the place said the ATP.
Before the pandemic, Casco Viejo was visited each year by approximately 400,000 people, both nationals and touristshttps://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-first-in-central-america-with-green-bus-route
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1,146 complaints against private educators
Posted 19/12/2021
From 2020 to date, 1,146 complaints have been reported against different private educational centers in the country before the Authority for Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition (Acodeco).
Last year 709 complaints were received and to date 437 have been made Acodeco reported on Sunday, December 19.
In 2021 - according to the report - six private schools have been sanctioned $13,350 due to the breach of some norm of consumer protection.
This year there have been 24 complaints about private universities of which 22 have been reconciled (91.66%).
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/1146-complaints-against-private-educators
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Vaccination should be mandatory for teachers and school staff – science chief
Eduardo Ortega
Posted 19/12/2021
We are facing an imminent rebound in covid-19 Eduardo Ortega, secretary of the National Secretariat for Science and Technology told La Estrella.
Despite being one of the countries on the continent with the best rates of pandemic control, scientists are concerned about the arrival of the omicron variant that, added to the end-of-year parties and face-to-face classes, could cause pressure on the health system.
However, there is a significant percentage of Panamanians vaccinated with two doses (80%) that could cushion hospitalizations. Removing the mask, for now, is not an option. According to Ortega, we would repeat the European scenario.
There are 4,000 unvaccinated teachers and Ortega believes that anyone offering a service to the public should have both doses of the vaccine and the teachers and administrators, those who transport them in school buses, those who feed them and clean the schools should be vaccinated. The only barrier we have today to protect children, if they are not yet vaccinated, is that the adults around them are vaccinated.
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43% increase in covid cases with 4000 looming
9,000 tests a day.
Posted 19/12/2021
The epidemiological week (December 12 to 18 closed with 2,490 new infections of Covid-19, an increase of 43%.which represents 748 more cases compared to the previous one
Statistics from the Ministry of Health also indicate that the country is about to reach 4,000 active cases.
President Cortizo has called on the population to redouble prevention efforts and urged vaccination.
The epidemiological week closed with an average of 355 new cases of Covid-19, which represents 106 more infections than the previous one when the average was 249 per day.
There was an increase in deaths with an average of two per day when last week it was one death.
According to Minsa, the rebound in positive cases is still within the expected amount between November and December.
“During this pandemic, we have won some battles. There is still no victory cry. Let's double our guard. Last week, 117 vaccination centers opened. Please go to get vaccinated, ”Cortizo said.
The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, pointed out that being vaccinated is not a patent for breaching biosafety measures, so he suggested that the population continue to use masks, with frequent hand washing and cleaning. physical distancing, particularly in places where there are crowds.
The reports of Cortizo and Sucre occur at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) states that the Omicron variant has been detected in more than 85 countries, and the cases of Covid-19 related to this mutation are doubling between 1.5 and 3 days in places with community infections and not only for infections acquired abroad.
To date, no cases of the new variant have been detected in the country; however, health authorities are betting on epidemiological surveillance, as well as vaccinating the largest number of people throughout the country.
According to the Expanded Program on Immunization, 6.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been applied. In this context, the target population, from 12 years of age, is covered with one dose in 90.2% and with two doses in 80.9%.
In addition, 9,000 tests are carried out daily.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/43-increase-in-covid-cases-with-4000-looming
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Second son of former president Martinelli set for extradition to US
Posted 26/11/2021
Representatives of the United States Government went to the Mariscal Zavala prison in Guatemala on Friday, November 26 to take the photograph of Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares the youngest son of former president Ricardo Martinelli as a requirement for extradition.
The Third Criminal Sentencing Court of Guatemala approved the extradition of Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares to the United States, in a hearing held on November 8.
At the hearing, Martinelli Linares requested extradition, assuring that he would not file any type of appeal.
His brother Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares arrived in New York on November 15, after being extradited from Guatemala and remains in federal prison, after he was denied bail in two hearings.
The Martinelli Linares brothers face charges for alleged money laundering and for being intermediaries for alleged bribes from the Odebrecht construction company.
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OPINION: Impunity returns to the throne
Posted 26/11/2021
In the government of Ricardo Martinelli, irregular acts and corruption were notorious. The evidence abounds: verified overpricing, confessed bribes, money in banks without justification, unauthorized interceptions. The list of irregularities is long and the evidence tangible.
It is natural that those affected, united by a cause, now want to annul their cases on the grounds that they were "armed." And, indeed, the pieces that make up a criminal organization must be put together, like a puzzle. This is the only way to understand how a corruption scheme that seeks to hide its traces works. The investigations were made, but now, in a plot for which the prosecutor in charge has lent himself - and it would not be surprising if the lenders are government figures as well, since they are not very different from today's defendants -, Prosecutors who deciphered the puzzle of the organization that was put together in the government years ago have been removed from the files. Separating them is a dangerous precedent, since it is enough to file a simple complaint for the prosecutor - well commanded - to separate each prosecutor from their cases. Years of investigation will go to the pipe so that his majesty, impunity, returns to the throne. – LA PRENSA, Nov. 26.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/opinion-impunity-returns-to-the-throne
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One dead eight injured in team bus crash
Posted 22/11/2021
A 21-year- old soccer player was killed and eight players were injured on Sunday, November 21 when the driver of the coaster-type bus, transporting the BURI Fútbol Club team lost control and the vehicle overturned on the road to Chiriquí Grande, in the Rambala district, in the province of Bocas del Toro. The team was returning from a sporting event in Changuinola.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/one-dead-eight-injured-in-team-bus-crash
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Martinelli acquittal leaves doubts, thirst for answers
Posted 14/11/2021
Despite the fact that throughout the wiretap case the existence of a crime as serious as the violation of intimacy and personal privacy was revealed - and that there were people convicted - the justice system did not achieve the objective of clarifying what happened. For this reason, "society ended up restless, burdened with doubts and thirsty for answers," said Panama’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of (Cciap) on Sunday referring to the decision to acquit former President Ricardo Martinelli of political espionage.
The decision, announced November 9, also "undermined the little or no confidence that citizens have in the justice administration system and its components, the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch," the group said.
Once again, questions arose as to whether they have capable, effective, efficient, and endowed servants of the essential character to be able to dispense justice in an impartial manner, it said.
The Cciap emphasized that the case was important because “if there is respect for neighbor, life, laws, and nature, there will be a society free from injustice and, therefore, free from corruption. On the other hand, if these are lacking, we are faced with a country with weaker institutions every day, a country without a future to offer its best men and women ”.
For the organization, more than the ruling itself, what is of great concern is the lack of credibility, trust and respect of the citizens towards the judicial processes, “that almost generalized conviction that the decisions are the result of a transaction, not of a deliberation in law ”.
Faced with this reality, the Cciap insisted that this system is the cornerstone by which the process of change that the country requires should be started.
The judges Iveth Francois Vega, Jennifer Saavedra Naranjo, and Marysol América Osorio, considered, unanimously, that no evidence was presented to prove that Martinelli ordered the espionage that was carried out, between 2012 and 2014, by the National Security Council (CSN). from the 150 buildings in Ancón, The investigation did prove that the interceptions and monitoring of at least 150 businessmen, journalists, union leaders, diplomats, magistrates and politicians opposed to Martinelli were never authorized by the Supreme Court.
For these same facts, there are already two people convicted. They are Alejandro Garuz and Gustavo Pérez, who were directors of the CSN in the Martinelli government. Each was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/martinelli-acquittal-leaves-doubts-thirst-for-answers
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OPINION: Unacceptable Ineptitude
Posted 14/11/2021
Unlike the dialogue by the Social Security Fund - mired in sterile discussions of form - that of the Bicentennial Pact presents concrete and timely proposals. They are ambitious goals for a government that is distinguished by its ineffectiveness, lack of transparency, and an unacceptable ineptitude in the high command, not counting the enormous number of civil servants hired to fulfill clientelist commitments, functional ignorant who receive salary just for sitting in an office without work (and sometimes not even that). Thus, for example, citizens demand in the Pact greater efficiency in matters of citizen security. Delinquency and the high crime rate expose the lack of a serious and planned policy in this matter. The proposals show how expensive it is to maintain the security forces versus their poor and questionable results. And that is a fact, not a perception. Citizens also complain about the usual vices: opacity and lack of ethics and accountability in public management, for which they suggest drawing up a national plan for public ethics training and transparency, as well as creating a general law on public administration. If only some of these aspirations materialize, it will have been a good idea to have convened the Pact. as well as creating a general law of public administration. LA PRENSA, Nov. 14.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/opinion-unacceptable-ineptitude
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Deputy Director of public registry assassinated in broad daylight
Posted 14/11/2021
The deputy director-general of the Public Registry of Panama, Agustín Lara Díaz, was murdered in broad daylight on Sunday morning November 14, while he was participating in a registration process for the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) in San Miguelito).
According to preliminary reports, two hitmen arrived on a motorcycle at the sports complex where the political activity was taking place. One of them went to find Lara Díaz and pumped several bullets into his. The killers then fled.
Lara Díaz was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The motive for this murder is still unknown. “It is a case that is just happening. We are establishing the lines of investigation, ”said John Dornheim Castillo, director-general of the National Police.
It is the second assassination of a prominent PRD activist in recent months. The last one, also in broad daylight, was on the Corridor Sur.
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Security and transparency key issues in report to Cortizo
Posted 14/11/2021
Security and transparency are the principal issues in a report entitled “Closing Gaps” that will arrive on the desk of President Laurentino Cortizo in the coming days .
The report results from the dialogue of the Bicentennial Pact, in which 175,992 initiatives or ideas were analyzed.
Citizens demand more efficiency from the security forces in matters of crime and drug trafficking, since there is a "citizen dissatisfaction" in relation to the results obtained in the actions to contain delinquency and criminality, in proportion to "the costs and resources invested in the responsible institutions ”.
Among the 187 national consensus proposals accepted within the dialogue, there is one to comprehensively review the organic laws that govern the security estates and their management positions and human resources, in order to optimize the future projection.
Currently, the Public Force (National Police, National Border Service, National Aeronoaval Service, National Migration Service, and Institutional Protection Service) has more than 30,000 officials, of which about 25,000 are agents.
Top Heavy
The National Police alone has some200 commissioners (the highest grade in the hierarchy), 185 sub-commissioners, 313 majors, and 833 captains.The budget of the Ministry of Security, headed by Juan Pino, which does not include the Institutional Protection Service (SPI), is $847 million for 2022.
In recent months, a wave of homicides has unleashed, many in broad daylight in places where they were not seen before. On this issue, Pino said that since November 1 they have given clear instructions to the agents to "search and prosecute" organized crime.
Citizens, appeal for better public policies of comprehensive security since they consider that the strategy of prevention and detection of common crimes and organized crime, by the National Police, does not respond to the citizen clamor. Likewise, they ask to adopt -through legal mechanisms- a national strategy for citizen security and to link crime prevention strategies with sports programs.
Another aspect that citizens question is the weak prison system, since there is a limited capacity of penal centers for the prevention of criminal recidivism and the re-socialization of the population deprived of liberty. Added to this is judicial delay, the violation of human rights, and corruption in the prison context.
It is also proposed to establish a general plan for the construction, adaptation, and maintenance of functional prisons, in compliance with international principles and standards for the protection of human rights.
Transparency
On the issue of transparency, the criticisms are focused on public and private management, where there is a "public mistrust", as they warn about the lack of ethics in public and private entities, as well as poor accountability.To counteract this mistrust, a national training plan on public ethics and transparency and the implementation of a general public administration law is proposed to optimize the regulatory framework for transparency.
Likewise, they ask for institutional strengthening through accountability and open governments, because there are “weak institutions” that are not adequately accountable.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/security-and-transparency-key-issues-in-report-to-cortizo
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Protected witness in Martinelli trial fears for his life
Posted 24/09/2021
A protected witness in the retrial of former president Ricardo Martinelli, accused of illegal wiretapping, told the court on Thursday, September 23 that he feared for his life.
Earlier the defense cross-examined the Public Ministry expert, Luis Rivera Calle, who transcribed the audios and videos of compact discs with information on the interception of the victims' communications and the DVD with statements from the protected witness.
Ricaurte González, superior prosecutor, told the media stationed outside the facilities of the Accusatory Penal System, located in Plaza Ágora, that what was expressed by the expert Luis Rivera Calle was clear.
"He received three compact discs, made transcripts of audios and there is an element that is important, he says very clearly that they are audios of environment and telephone communications, which is what the theory of the Public Ministry has maintained, regarding which ones have been the crimes committed against the more than 150 victims of this process, "said González.
The protected witness of the Public Ministry appeared, who was sworn in and requested protection for himself and his family, indicating that he fears for his life. In addition, he asked that his name or voice not be disclosed and that he would only come to tell the truth about what happened in the Security Council.
The Trial Court of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama is made up of judges Iveth Francois Vega (president), Jennifer Christine Saavedra Naranjo (rapporteur) and Marysol Leyton Osorio (third Judge).
Judge Iveth Francois Vega, agreed to the request of the protected witness of the Public Ministry and decided that his image, his statements, such as his labor jurisdiction, may not be disclosed while the sentence is not final, as well as the restriction to the parties not to refer to the witness's statement before the media and anywhere else.
The hearing on Friday, September 24, will continue with the interrogation in a reserved manner, of the protected witness by the Public Ministry, who will come to disclose what he knows, about the National Security Council in 2012 -2014.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/protected-witness-in-martinelli-trial-fears-for-his-life
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Time running out for Martinelli sons
Posted 24/09/2021
Guatemala’s Public Ministry has rejected Panama’s request for the extradition of Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, which Panama presented in August.
The Panama petition was rejected, without holding a hearing, because the United States got there first and Guatemalan law dictates that the first request received,, must be resolved, and Guatemala doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Panama.
Panama's request came a year after the United States required Guatemala to capture and deliver the children of former President Ricardo Martinelli. The arrest took place on July 6, 2020 at La Aurora airport and since then they have remained in the Mariscal Zavala military prison, from where they have presented several legal appeals.
Panama’s Third Criminal Settlement Court , headed by Baloisa Marquínez wants the Martinelli Linares brothers in Panama to answer for bribes paid by state contractors to Panamanian officials ( Blue Apple case ). The court has yet to decide whether to call 51 people to trial, for alleged money laundering.
On August 9, Judge Marquínez sent to the Panamanian Foreign Ministry a request for preventive detention for the extradition of the “citizens” Martinelli Linares.
Delivery imminent
Although Panama's request was formally received, the Secretary-General of the Guatemalan Attorney General, Ángel Pineda, announced since August 30 that delivery to the United States was imminent."We know that it is in the final phase to issue the corresponding resolution for extradition," he said.
Recently, the First Court of Appeals of the Criminal Branch of Guatemala ruled against appeals filed by the legal defense of Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, which would give the final green light to move forward with the delivery to the United States. Meanwhile, the case of his brother, Ricardo Alberto, would continue to be suspended pending the resolution of two appeals.
The United States requested the capture and extradition of the children of former President Martinelli for the alleged commission of various crimes related to money laundering, before the Eastern District Court of New York.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/time-running-out-for-martinelli-sons
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Court rejects media blackout for Martinelli
Posted 24/09/2021
The Oral Trial Court of the illegal wiretap case denied on Friday a request from the defendant ex-president Ricardo Martinelli who wanted the media to be prohibited from mentioning his name, that of his family and that of his companies.
Judges Iveth Francois Vega, Jennifer Saavedra Naranjo, and Marysol Osorio concluded that the only thing that should be respected against the accused is the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.
Martinelli made the request on the afternoon of Thursday, September 23, after the presentation of the protected witness before the Trial Court.
He is a former agent of the National Security Council (CSN) , where the unauthorized interceptions were carried out between the years 2012 to 2014.
The judges did grant the protection measures that the protected witness had requested, for him and his family: prohibition to disclose his name, his voice and his testimony, as well as labor jurisdiction. However, on social media, Martinelli and his team have reportedly continued to refer to this person.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/court-rejects-media-blackout-for-martinelli
Traffic Accidents, and Death Toll [Ongoing]
in Automobiles / Vehicles (Dealers, Titles, Vehicle & Driver Licenses, Maintenance, Fuel, Roadway Carnage, etc.)
Posted
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/four-dead-36-injured-in-traffic-accidents