Our friend Booger here is looking for a forever home.

Handsome, loving, playful and recently neutered.

Arrests Made in Human Trafficking

No Increase in Electricity Rates due to Low Fuel Costs

freetranslation.com

The clients of the electricity distribution companies will have no increase in the rate of energy during the second half of this year which starts on Friday 1 July, due to the fall in the price of oil.

"All clients will keep the same rate and those who consume up to 300 kilowatt hours per month will continue with the subsidy", explained the administrator of the National Public Services Authority (ASEP), Roberto Meana.

Oil prices from Texas exceeded the $48 per barrel yesterday, when investors took advantage of a fall of two days of crude oil after the vote in the UK in that the british opted to leave the Union.

Last January the oil registered the lowest price of the past few years, the trading to 33.15 dollars a barrel. During the following months the raw material has had a fluctuation upwards until you reach the 50 dollars a barrel.

The fall of oil benefit all clients, because they will not be increased in the electricity tariff, but also the State, because it should not give money to the subsidy that is maintained to the customers that consume up to 300 kilowatt hours per month (kwhm).

In addition, means more savings in the economy staff of those that have a car, because it represents a decrease in the cost of fuel.

Meana recalled that the base that has been maintained for the subsidy are those customers that consume up to 300 kilowatt hours per month, set amount since it was created the Tariff Stabilization Fund (FET) in 2004.

The customers of the distribution companies receive a credit of variation of fuel by the fall in the price of oil.

"By not having to pay subsidies to those that existed before, this fund is for the State to be able to make investments of a social nature", added Meana.

Electricity rates for the first half of 2016 showed a low that benefited a million 21 thousand 237 customers of electrical energy that were recorded at the national level.

In accordance with what was announced by ASEP, at that time, the 78.1 per cent of total residential customers who consume up to 350 kilowatt hours per month, i.e. 796 thousand 417 customers, maintained the contribution of the State through the FET.

For the rest of the clients (residential, commercial and industrial) of the electric distribution company Metro West S.A. (Edemet) and Elektra Noreste, S.A. (ENSA), which recorded a higher consumption to 350 kwhm, the electricity tariff registered a drop of between 4% and 18%.

Of the 1 million 21 thousand 237 customers across the country, 464 thousand 140 customers correspond to Edemet, i.e. a 45.4%; ENSA account with 421 thousand 491, which represents the 41.3%; while Edechi sum 135 thousand 607, for a 13.3%.

A client that consumes up to 300 kwhm pay approximately between 1157 dollars per 100 kwhm up to 42 dollars per 300 kwhm in its billing. This customer is one that has a small refrigerator, washing machine, fans, small tv and iron.

In the next rank is located the customers that consume between 301 and 700 kwhm and pay between 66 and $116, respectively. In addition to refrigerator, washing machine, fans, TV and iron, these customers have air conditioners, dryer, videogames and computers.

The authorities insist on the need for customers to keep saving practices of energy to reduce the pressure on the electrical system.

http://www.prensa.com/economia/Tarifa-electrica-mantiene_0_4516798414.html

If I run across reports of local or regional current events, I'm inclined to take a few minutes to share with others. It's information.

27 minutes ago, Bud said:

Keith,

Could you please clarify which "National Security Agency" that you refer to?

I hope you do not mean the US NSA.

No, that's the term in English that LaPrensa assigned to Panama's national security council.

After perusing some posts in the top topics on .ning I am glad there is little or no U.S. politicking on this site, and I sure hope it stays that way.

Instead of spirited debate or reasonable point and counter-point discussions taking place on the issues, it seems there's just continual one-upmanship of insults.

There's also the fact that we're here (PTY), not there. (U.S.)

$.02

On June 24, 2016 at 11:18 AM, Keith Woolford said:

Fitch Ratings has published a positive report on the benefits of the Canal expansion for Panama.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160621006075/en/Fitch-Panama-Canal-Expansion-Poised-Boost-Sovereign

21, 2016 10:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled to open on June 26 after eight years of construction, should be supportive of the country's 'BBB' sovereign rating, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. Fitch expects the expansion to have a favorable impact on macroeconomic performance, public finances and external accounts.

Since taking control 15 years ago, Panama has transformed the Canal into a profitable asset. The waterway's expansion will bolster its importance as an engine for Panama's dynamic economy through its direct contribution to economic activity and even larger spill-overs into the logistics sector. While higher fiscal transfers from the Canal will help reduce Panama's budget deficit, the current fiscal framework was set up in anticipation of a larger boost, and social pressures to spend some of the windfall exist.

Fitch affirmed Panama's rating at 'BBB' with a Stable Outlook in February 2016. Since its upgrade to 'BBB' in 2011, Panama's rating has been supported by its economic outperformance but constrained by the persistence of fiscal deficits that have lifted the debt burden despite robust growth in recent years. The Canal expansion represents an opportunity for the sovereign to address these fiscal issues, as well as reinforce the economic dynamism underpinning the rating.

The full special report, 'Panama: Canal Expansion Poised to Boost Sovereign' provides a more detailed description of the Canal expansion and potential implications Fitch believes it could have on sovereign credit metrics. The report is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.

ACP Contributions to Rise by 45%

Minister of Economy and Finance Dulcidio De La Guardia expects a 45 percent increase in contributions from the Panama Canal to the state in 2017, the first full year of the expansion.

He did not provide exact figures on contributions pending the presentation of the budget of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).

"There has not been any year the Canal contributions have not exceeded the budget," said the minister.

On previous occasions, the ACP and the Ministry of Economy and Finance have expressed that in 2017 the Canal contributions could be $400 million.

De La Guardia also noted that the enlargement will create a base for economic growth of at least 5 percent for the next 10 years, and there will be a 40 percent increase in investments in the logistic cluster around the Canal.

Recently, the agency Fitch Ratings said in a report that the Canal expansion would be an opportunity to improve the sovereign rating of the country.

http://m.prensa.com/in_english/MEF-aumento-aportes-Canal-ampliacion_21_4517008257.html

23 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

Supreme Court magistrate Harry Diaz, in his capacity as Prosecutor of the 'Wiretap' case, wants an Interpol RED Alert to be issued for former Presidemt Martinelli.

Prosecutor Harry Díaz has requested the preventive detention of former President Ricardo Martinelli as part of the investigation into the interception of communications by the National Security Council.

In a June 24 note to Judge Jerome Mejía, Diaz proposed that he proceed with a different mechanism than extradition, which is currently being pursued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that a "red alert" should be issued to locate and detain the former president with help from Interpol.

Martinelli left Panama on Jan. 28, 2015 and has never appeared personally in the case, which is being handled by the Supreme Court. He is thought to be living in Miami.

On Dec. 21, the court ordered the detention Martinelli on Dec. 21.

http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Magistrado-Diaz-Interpol-Ricardo-Martinelli_21_4516258334.html

Mejía sends red alert for Martinelli to Interpol

Judge Jerome Mejía, who is handling the case involving former President Ricardo Martinelli, sent a red alert to Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

This was confirmed by National Police Director Omar Pinzón and Harry Díaz, who is prosecuting the case.

Diaz sent a request for the red alert to Mejía Friday.

Diaz based the request on the order issued by the plenum of the Supreme Court on Dec. 21. The former president faces charges related to illegal surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency.

According to Diaz, the red alert is complementary to the request for extradition Mejia presented to the Foreign Ministry May 26.

http://m.prensa.com/in_english/Mejia-Interpol-solicitud-arrestar-Martinelli_21_4517008258.html

Supreme Court magistrate Harry Diaz, in his capacity as Prosecutor of the 'Wiretap' case, wants an Interpol RED Alert to be issued for former Presidemt Martinelli.

Prosecutor Harry Díaz has requested the preventive detention of former President Ricardo Martinelli as part of the investigation into the interception of communications by the National Security Council.

In a June 24 note to Judge Jerome Mejía, Diaz proposed that he proceed with a different mechanism than extradition, which is currently being pursued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that a "red alert" should be issued to locate and detain the former president with help from Interpol.

Martinelli left Panama on Jan. 28, 2015 and has never appeared personally in the case, which is being handled by the Supreme Court. He is thought to be living in Miami.

On Dec. 21, the court ordered the detention Martinelli on Dec. 21.

http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Magistrado-Diaz-Interpol-Ricardo-Martinelli_21_4516258334.html

Tanks very much Alison, we're monitoring.

If I'm not mistaken, the current outages are due to repair issues to the existing system.

There is a lot of work that can be accomplished by the contractor on the new systems without service interruptions.

https://www.facebook.com/Alcaldía-De-Boquete-2014-2019-566693683441469/?fref=nf

The comments by some locals aren't too flattering.

Media from around the world reflects on the opening of the Panama Canal expansion

Angel López Guía 26 jun 2016 - 14:06h

Temas: Ampliación Del Canal De Panamá ACP (Autoridad Del Canal De Panamá) Canal De Panamá

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Media from around the world has covered the first transit of the expansion of the Panama Canal.

+ info

• Spanish version

Below is a selection of some of these reports.

To read them, click on the names of the media.

La Nación, Costa Rica

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

El Tiempo, Colombia

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

Infobae, Argentina

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

Usa Today, Estados Unidos

 

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

BBC, Reino Unido

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

Al Jazeera, Catar

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

The Washington Post, Estados Unidos

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

South China Morning Post, China

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

 

 

Business Insider, Australia

 

Expandir Imagen Así reflejan medios de comunicación del mundo la inauguración de la ampliación del Canal de Panamá

http://www.prensa.com/in_english/reflejan-comunicacion-ampliacion-Canal-Panama_21_4515508407.html

This trend of charging fees to maintain accounts is not restricted to Panama.

Customers line up to close their accounts after RBC introduces new banking charges

Royal Bank is the only big Canadian bank that hasn't announced any personal banking fee hikes in this country this year. But it's still facing the wrath of customers — in the Caribbean.

Some RBC Caribbean clients are so upset over new monthly charges, they lined up for hours to close their accounts. 

"Customer exit continues at Royal Bank," read one recent headline on a local news story about a run on an RBC branch in St. Kitts. 

"RBC customer pull-out spreading throughout the region," announced another article.

RBC wouldn't confirm details to CBC News, but it appears that customers in at least seven Eastern Caribbean countries — including Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — are now facing a monthly charge of 25 East Caribbean dollars ($11.75 Cdn) for some personal bank accounts. 

Seniors with an RBC Sixty Plus account will be charged a $12.50 XCD ($5.88 Cdn) monthly fee.

Minimum wage in St. Kitts is $4.23 Cdn an hour, the highest minimum wage among the countries affected. 

The bank rolled out the new charges between May 23 and June 20 at a time when it's enjoying multi-billion-dollar profits. Numbers released at the end of May showed RBC boosted its second-quarter profit by three per cent to $2.57 billion Cdn. 

RBC posted notices in its Antigua branch warning customers of bank fee changes — though the notice does not specify what the changes entail. (Tameika Malone/Observer)

Fees that bite

So many people chose to close their accounts, police in St. Kitts and Nevis even sent out an alert, urging RBC customers to use caution when withdrawing their money.

"Keeping it around the home, office, under the bed, or on your person and not in another financial institution is not a wise choice," the alert said.

Melisa Boutin, an RBC customer who lives in New York but keeps some of her money in a branch in St. Kitts, says the new fee is just too high for the average customer.

"Going from zero to $25 XCD is too much," she said. "They should have expected this kind of backlash." 

Boutin says she plans to close her account the next time she visits St. Kitts, where she grew up.

She says she has spoken with friends on the Caribbean island who joined the rush to pull out of RBC.

One friend lined up for four hours, Boutin said. Another chose to avoid the crowds and withdrew all her cash from an ATM.

"People feel it's a money grab on the part of Royal Bank," said Boutin. "There's no better service coming with that."

Services such as online and mobile banking, for example, have been slow in coming for RBC's Caribbean customers, she claims.

The bank has branches in 17 Caribbean countries and territories, where it serves more than one million customers.

Prime Minister Timothy Harris of St. Kitts and Nevis issued a statement expressing concern over new RBC bank fees in the country. (Government of St. Kitts and Nevis)

The fees sparked such anger in the Caribbean, politicians even weighed in. Timothy Harris, the prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, said his government regretted "any inconvenience or hardship caused to our public" because of the charges.

He also urged the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to expedite its plan to examine commercial bank fees. 

RBC has acknowledged the backlash. 

"We recognize that recent changes to our service fees in the Caribbean are causing concern among some clients in the region," spokesman A.J. Goodman told CBC News in an email.

He said RBC adjusted some fees in parts of the Caribbean "to reflect the cost of doing business in these countries."

The bank continues "to deliver good value and competitive pricing" in the region, he said.

Some learned of fee on social media

RBC's explanation doesn't comfort Boutin, who works as a financial educator.

"If you have to introduce a fee to improve your bottom line, I can understand that. But I don't think that they have their customers in mind," she said.

Melisa Boutin in New York says she will close her RBC account the next time she visits St. Kitts. 'Going from zero to $25 XCD is too much,' she said. (Melisa Boutin)

She claims customers like her weren't properly notified about the charges. Boutin learned about the $25 XCD fee on Facebook, just days before it took effect.

A friend announced the news on the social media site after learning about the charge from an RBC bank teller.

"Please don't be a victim of this ripoff," the friend wrote on Facebook. "Spread the word!"

RBC says it notified customers through several channels, including by letter "in some cases," in branches and on its website.

Last year, new fees for Canadian RBC customers were also met with an outcry from the public and politicians — so much so that the bank axed them before they took effect.

The child's unintended murder in David was reported and discussed on chiriqui.life on June 9th and 10th, as was the slaying of a 15-year old boy in Dolega on June 16th. 

1 hour ago, Bud said:

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/embezzlement-suspect-seeks-political-asylum

This Press release clarifies that the Chancellor of Colombia is somewhat embarrassed by the way this whole thing was handled and confirms that Mr. Mizrachi will be turned over to Colombian Immigration for deportation as soon as he's located.

Almost lost in all the hub-bub about the Canal re-opening, Brexit, and the U.S. elections, there is terrific news that our next door neighbours in Colombia  have been busy finalizing the peace process to end over 50 years of war there.

Colombia and FARC sign historic ceasefire deal

Rebels agree to lay down arms after more than 50 years of conflict that left 220,000 people dead and displaced millions.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/colombia-farc-sign-historic-ceasefire-deal-160623182953458.html

The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have signed a ceasefire, which includes the armed group laying down their arms after more than 50 years of conflict.

Negotiators signed the ceasefire agreement on Thursday in the presence of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC commander Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono at a ceremony in Havana.

The historic event was also attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile and the Norwegian foreign minister.

The agreement is a final step in peace negotiations which have been going on since 2012.

READ MORE: Colombia's challenging peace process with FARC

Colombia's decades-long civil war has left more than 220,000 people dead and driven millions from their homes.

"Colombia got used to living in conflict. We don't have even the slightest memories of what it means to live in peace," Santos said on Thursday in Havana. "Today a new chapter opens, one that brings back peace and gives our children the possibility of not reliving history."

Santos has said a final peace treaty could be signed next month.

"It is truly a historic agreement and it shows the two sides were able to reach a deal on the most sensitive points still standing in the very long peace negotiations, Al Jazeera's Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, said.

The means of implementation of the final peace deal remains to be settled.

READ MORE - Colombia: FARC to remove child soldiers from ranks

The questions of disarmament and justice for victims make the road to peace and reconciliation a hard one.

The sides are discussing designating zones where the FARC's estimated 7,000 remaining fighters can gather for a UN-supervised demobilisation process.

The Colombian president wants a referendum to put the seal of popular approval on its peace effort. But it faces resistance from some political rivals.

To hold a plebiscite, it needs the country's constitutional judges to approve a law already passed in Congress.

Supporters of the peace process also fear that too many voters could simply stay home, threatening to leave the referendum below the participation threshold needed to be valid.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/colombia-farc-sign-historic-ceasefire-deal-160623182953458.html

Momentum had been building towards a breakthrough in negotiations after Santos said earlier this week that he hoped to deliver a peace accord in time to mark Colombia's declaration of independence from Spain on July 20.  But the agreement signed on Thursday went further than expected.

In addition to a framework for a ceasefire, both sides agreed on a demobilisation plan that will see rebels concentrate in rural areas under government protection and hand over weapons to UN monitors. The peace accord gives the disarmament process a six-month time limit. 

The deal also includes security guarantees for the FARC during its transition to a peaceful political party. A similar attempt in the 1980s led to thousands of rebels and their sympathisers being killed by paramilitaries and corrupt soldiers.

A peace deal won't immediately make Colombia a safer place. The cocaine trade remains a powerful magnet for criminal gangs operating throughout the country's remote valleys and jungles. And the National Liberation Army, a much smaller and more rebellious armed group, has not yet begun peace talks with the government. 

LISTENING POST: War and peace: Colombia's unreconciled narratives

A strong element within Colombia is opposed to a peace deal with FARC. They are led by popular former President Alvaro Uribe, who spearheaded the military offensive against the rebel group last decade.

"It damages the word 'peace' to accept that those responsible for crimes against humanity like kidnapping, car-bombing, recruitment of children and rape of girls don't go to jail for a single day and can be elected to public office," Uribe said on Thursday in reaction to the peace agreement.

But regional and international leaders were enthusiastic about the deal. 

"The peace process can't turn back," said Cuban President Raul Castro, whose country was one of the guarantors of the talks. 

In Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the "finish line is approaching and nearer now than it has ever been," but that "hard work remains to be done."

,http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/colombia-farc-sign-historic-ceasefire-deal-160623182953458.html

2 hours ago, John R Hampton said:

 

Our son who lives in the U.S. (and is also a British citizen) posted this on his Facebook page:

Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term from the dearth of jobs and investments.  They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another one.

Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries.  We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied.  Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors. 

Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy.  When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in an HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said "the British people are sick of experts" he was right.  But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has lead to anything other than bigotry?

This Brexit Comment Has the World’s Attention

It was written by a man who sees the decision as 'three tragedies'

In the wake of Britain’s vote to exit the E.U., those who wished for their country to remain—a view held by 75% of voters between the ages of 18 and 24, and 56% of ages 25 to 49, according to a YouGov poll—started to speak out about what they saw as a tragedy. One brief lament, written by a commenter named Nicholas on the Financial Times’ website, seems to have captured the core of that sentiment. It is being shared thousands of times across Twitter. It reads:

"A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted us to leave because they were economically disregarded and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term from the dearth of jobs and investment. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another one. Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors. Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When [British Conservative, pro-Brexit politician] Michael Gove said ‘the British people are sick of experts’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has lead to anything other than bigotry?"

http://www.doitcenter.com.pa/tienda/309POU6.html

http://www.doitcenter.com.pa/tienda/home.php?cat=3914003

https://www.novey.com.pa/category.php?id_category=411

Fitch Ratings has published a positive report on the benefits of the Canal expansion for Panama.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160621006075/en/Fitch-Panama-Canal-Expansion-Poised-Boost-Sovereign

The British citizenry's vote to leave the EU is having an impact on global financial markets which of course, affects almost all of us here in one way or another.

Global stock market indices are way down on the news, the British pound is at it's lowest point in over 30 years.

The Canadian dollar dropped a cent and a half at one one point, and is down about a penny now.

A broker reacts at the German stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday following the Brexit vote. German stocks plunged nearly 10 per cent at the start of trade as markets went into meltdown after Britain voted to leave the European Union. ( DANIEL ROLAND/AFP-Getty Images)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/brexit-vote-business-impact-1.3650553

Welcome to Panama  ..where the truth can be stranger than fiction.

According to Forbes magazine, Mr. Mizrachi has some legitimate smarts.

Meet The Entrepreneur Who Launched A WhatsApp Rival From A Colombian Prison

The view from Mayer Mizrachi Matalon’s jail cell is a fine one; clumped red-brick houses, the undulating emerald fields of Bogotá, Colombia, mimicked above by white furrowed clouds.

Inside the rusted bars of La Picota prison, reality bites. Small bunk beds, shelves cluttered with packets of assorted foodstuffs, buckets used to store water for washing, drinking, brushing teeth, cleaning the toilet.

His two roommates are wanted for aiding terrorists and drug crimes, typical of the inmates at infamous La Picota. Like Mizrachi, 28, they say they are innocent.

Outside his cell’s door are cold showers, non-kosher food that Mizrachi, who is Jewish, can’t eat. Inmates play table tennis and hang their laundry in a cloistered mess hall. They eye one another suspiciously. During his time here, Mizrachi has experienced threats of violence and rape from baying prisoners, many accused of helping run the drug trade that’s ravaged South America. Relentless fear. It’s been five months now.

Inside Mizrachi’s head, the awful, unanswerable question runs in a loop: How did I get here?

From party planning to prison

As the end of 2015 drew near, Mizrachi was burning out. His company, Criptext, had spent the year raising a small pot of money, $500,000 in a seed round all from uncle Joseph Matalon, as it tried to expand beyond its original tech: a plugin that allowed Gmail and Outlook users to recall emails and encrypt their messages. That tool garnered some press attention and, the company tells me, nearly 20,000 users (an official Google page reveals there are just under 11,000, some of whom clearly weren’t happy with the service judging by the reviews).

Mizrachi wanted a vacation before embarking on his next big project, the launch of a refreshed Criptext Messenger, a potential rival to Facebook-owned WhatsApp, currently the most popular cross-platform messaging app in the world. Rather than simply try to take on WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging apps, Mizrachi had bigger plans for Criptext, previously a business-focused app for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. He wanted customers, from hospitals to banks, to embed the tool in technology they already owned. In Mizrachi’s master plan, the technology would let patients interact securely with doctors online, or online bankers message customer service without fear of being snooped on. It would do the same between real people and chat bots, which mimic real-life company representatives.

The inspiration for the expansion of Criptext came from a contract with the government of Panama to provide secure communications. Unfortunately for Mizrachi, that 2014 deal went sour. In the end, rather than liberate his business, the Panama problems turned a vacation into an indefinite prison stay, where the young entrepreneur would oversee the launch of Criptext Messenger, far from the comfort of his New York office.

On December 29, the day Mizrachi was due to get on his flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he’d briefly visited family, to Cartagena, Colombia, his mother warned him not to go. “I didn’t have a good feeling. I said don’t go, let’s stay here together, please. Don’t travel,” Rebeca Matalon tells me. Mizrachi, a 28-year-old full of vim, ignored his mother, seeking a break from the madness of start-up life in New York. What better way to shed the stress than with a New Year’s blowout with friends in a city replete with beauty, with pre-internet history?

But when he landed in Cartagena, Mizrachi was pulled aside at customs. He was told he was wanted for extradition by the government in Panama, where he owned a business (Innovative Ventures, the parent to Criptext, is registered in Panama. Criptext is based in New York). Video footage shows the young entrepreneur as he’s escorted by officers of Colombia’s national police wearing Interpol jackets, out of Cartagena airport to a van, and then on to a local jail. He appears either surprisingly calm or shell-shocked in the face of an incomprehensible twist of fate.

A baffling case

Mizrachi’s case is, as one of his five lawyers Alexandre Vernot puts it, very strange, redolent of the Kafkaesque. Sometime last year, the Panama government put out an Interpol Red Notice for Mizrachi, claiming he was wanted for fraud against the government. According to his legal team, there are no official charges, but one of the few pieces of official documentation available online notes he is accused of breaching a contract to provide Criptext services to Panama, awarded in March 2014, though it doesn’t specify how that deal was broken. A Panamanian government statement, on the postponement of a court hearing in February, explains that Mizrachi and unnamed “others” had been called before the country’s criminal courts “for the alleged commission of crimes against the public administration.” Panama, which has an extradition treaty with Colombia, applied for his extradition on January 6.

Speaking to FORBES from his confines, Mizrachi tells me the investigation relates to a contract with the Autoridad Nacional Para La Innovación Gubernamental (AIG), the Panamanian department for innovation and technology, to provide secure alternatives for email and WhatsApp (which has just become significantly more secure with its own end-to-end encryption). Court dockets from Panama show the AIG as the complainant in the case against Mizrachi.

There’s much conflicting information about the nature and alleged breach of the contract. Rather than being accused of fraud, Mizrachi says the state alleged he embezzled money. Panama media reports indicate that is indeed one charge levelled by the government, though the chief complaint is that the software was not fully rolled out. Mizrachi describes both claims as absurd, as he was never a government employee, but a contractor paid by the AIG. He says he provided 100 licenses, which the government chose not to fully use. An audit ordered by Panama’s government, he argues, was inadequate as it looked at the number of devices using Criptext, rather than the number of licenses provided.

“They’re accusing him of a criminal act when basically it’s an administrative situation. It shouldn’t be a criminal act. It’s a dispute about a contract, which was just a license for nine months,” Rebeca Matalon says.

Colombian police, according to a Reuters report from December, claimed the contract was worth $13.3 million, though there was no official comment from Panama. Mizrachi says the deal was worth just under $200,000 and only covered 100 employees. He claims the technology was delivered but stopped being used after just four months after the transition to a new government, led by Juan Carlos Varela.

Mizrachi provided FORBES with an email to a newly-appointed AIG director, Irvin Halman, dated October 28, 2014, in which he asked the director why the product wasn’t being used. Mizrachi claims he was repeatedly ignored by Halman and had flown to Panama in July 2015 to speak with government investigators about their probe into the deal, only to be told he was not needed. He claims to have provided ample evidence to prove the contract was delivered. Though he knew about the government investigation, he had no idea they’d go as far as issuing a Red Notice that would lead to his precarious situation. (Halman had not responded to FORBES’ inquiries at the time of publication. Former AIG director Eduardo Jaen is also under investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors in Panama).

If there are no charges and close-to-zero information on how the contract was breached, why the five-month long stay in a maximum security Bogotá institution? Mizrachi’s family ties may provide a clue. Reports from December claim Mizrachi, a dual Jamaican and Panamanian citizen, is the nephew of ex-Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, but that’s not quite true. His father is, in fact, in a relationship with the sister of Martinelli. In rather public spats, President Varela has accused the Martinelli regime of corruption, leading to the launch of an official investigation at the start of 2015. A week before Mizrachi’s detention, Panama’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Martinelli, who is believed to be living in Miami.

“He’s been caught up in some kind of web following the change of government. That’s no reason for him to be languishing in a Colombian jail,” says Lord Anthony Gifford, an attorney specializing in human rights, working out of Jamaica and the UK.

The entrepreneur’s representation believes egregious human rights violations have occurred. First, they claim Interpol did not carry out adequate checks before issuing a Red Notice, failing to check whether any charges had been filed. Second, he should not be incarcerated over what is essentially a contract dispute. Third, they claim to have paid the bail to have him released. Mizrachi provided a document that appears to show a $100,000 payment to Panama’s justice division, dated February 23rd 2016. Panamanian media reported on January 19 a court had granted a petition for bail for that amount in January before he’d even reached La Picota, and yet he remains there. The justice department had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Getting any full comment from those responsible for Mizrachi’s detention is akin to talking to robots whose speech is limited to bureaucratic platitudes. “Unfortunately, I can’t answer your questions,” Panama government spokesperson Sandra Sotillo told FORBES. “That case was already sent to the Supreme Court to process his extradition.” Sotillo would not say when Panama asked Interpol for a Red Notice or provide any more detail on the crimes Mizrachi is supposed to have committed. Panama may well have a case against Mizrachi, but it’s refusing to elaborate.

The Colombian police did not respond to enquiries, though La Picota confirmed Mizrachi has been incarcerated there since January 20.

Interpol distanced itself from all responsibility. A spokesperson told FORBES over email: “Interpol cannot insist or compel any member country to arrest an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. Nor can Interpol require any member country to take any action in response to another member country’s request. Each Interpol member country decides for itself what legal value to give Red Notice within their borders, including whether or not to arrest an individual and also whether to extradite or not.

“Interpol’s role is not to question the criminal proceedings initiated against an individual, nor to gather evidence, so a Red Notice is published … based on a valid arrest warrant or judicial decision having the same effect issued by the relevant national judicial authorities.” They could not comment on Mizrachi’s specific case, but noted his legal team could appeal to the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files, an independent body created to address such requests. Mizrachi’s team has not gone down that route, instead appealing to bodies in Panama and Colombia.

Thus far, his team’s petitions have achieved little. Vernot says appeals to Colombia’s minister of justice and Panama’s foreign office have been fobbed off, both sides stating the decision on his extradition would eventually be made by the Supreme Court at an as-yet unspecified date. Appeals to criminal courts in Panama have yielded just as little.

The most recent attempt to get some kind of official recognition was a request for assistance from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. It’s unclear how the group could help. And like Interpol, the IACHR said it could not comment on the matter, other than to confirm it had received the petition from Mizrachi’s lawyers.

Life inside

Mizrachi tells me he went through two different prisons before his long stay in La Picota commenced. One sleepless night at the police station in Cartagena’s old town was preceded by three weeks at a small detention center in Bogotá. The first thing they did when he arrived at La Picota was shave his head, his already trim ochre hair reduced to dark stubble, though it’s now growing back.

The walk to his temporary holding cell was worse. “I could hear noise, so much noise, of people shouting and screaming. It sounded like a jungle. And it was scary, it was scary,” he tells me from the prison. “I was disappointed in myself. I thought I got myself into this position, I let down my family and everyone that loves me, everyone around me.” For a third time since his arrest, he cried.

Then the trip up to the top floor, where extraditable prisoners are kept, was similarly unpleasant, inmates shouting “nuevo,”, the new boy was in town. “When I’m taken up, I’m paraded around,” he adds. “They’re telling me everything that’s going to happen, who’s going to rape me, they’re screaming at me … it was just mental torture, emotional torture.”

Criptext CEO Mayer Mizrachi in the La Picota mess hall. His lawyers say egregious human rights violations have been perpetrated against him and his health is at risk.

Conditions at La Picota are favourable compared to some other institutions, like the deadly La Modelo in Bogotá. But there are just two showers for 80 inmates on his floor, running water available just three hours a day: one in the morning, one at midday, one at 2 p.m., he says. One particularly grim anecdote: though water can be purchased in bottles from a kiosk, for a two-week period they ran out, leaving no option but to drink from the faucet. “Everyone got sick … That was really shitty because right at the same time was Easter. It was an entire week-long event, and no one worked, so we couldn’t get a doctor that entire week. My family tried to send in medication and they wouldn’t accept it.”

There’s no heating. Constant searches of persons and their cells. No outside area to roam, to taste emancipation. “It’s kind of like a Las Vegas casino, you go into the casino at 2 a.m. and at 2 p.m. and it looks exactly the same.”

But he continues to work. The new consumer version of Criptext Messenger launched this month, though to little fanfare. Through various forms of communication, Mizrachi has managed to work on his business plan, review and test software, even make changes to Criptext Messenger from within the prison walls. That has provided some measure of sanity. Not shy of spinning his imprisonment into a PR opportunity, he wears his Criptext t-shirt when he needs to, as in the photos taken on inmates’ smuggled mobile phones for this article.

“As long as I have Skype and I have a keyboard and email, I can communicate with my team… This is limited, it has limited what I can do but it hasn’t stopped me from doing anything.”

Contact with his family has also provided some succour. His mother, who is temporarily residing in Bogotá, visits once a week. Other family members fly down when they can. His twin brother Mark, meanwhile, is running Mizrachi’s Twitter account, occasionally tweeting Panamanian officials, calling for justice.

But there’s a pressing concern about Mizrachi’s health. At a young age, he was diagnosed with a rare disease, a form of vasculitis known as polyarteritis nodosa (PAN). Usually seen in the middle-aged and elderly, it causes inflammation of veins, causing blockages and lack of blood supply to organs. Medication is limited to steroids, immunosuppressives and chemotherapy. If Mizrachi’s illness returns whilst inside, his life may be at risk.

“He has flare ups, then it goes into remission,” mother Rebeca Matalon says. “[It's] an autoimmune condition, you always get ill from it, especially under stress and under abnormal conditions.”

Dr. Vas Novelli, who treated Mayer Mizrachi at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London from 1998 to 2007, tells me excessive stress certainly could lead to a return of symptoms, which include fever, swelling and seizures. If left untreated, they could lead to a heart attack or stroke, he warns. Dr. Novelli has compiled a report for Matalon to be included in the various petitions.

Rebeca Matalon, who moved to Colombia in January to provide her son with support, is worried but remains upbeat. “Mayer for me is a miracle,” she tells me. “We have to be positive, we have to make good things happen to him.”

What hope?

When they might happen is impossible to judge. At some point in the next few months, Panama will provide Mizrachi’s lawyers with a full list of accusations. Vernot says the team has 10 days to reply. Then comes a period of limbo, which Vernot says could last another six months, until Colombia’s Supreme Court makes a final decision. If that goes Mizrachi’s way, he’ll likely walk free, head home to New York and continue promoting Criptext.

The company, a small team of 16 working out of New York City and Ecuador, needs to prove a lot. It currently has no paying customers it can name. (Loaiza tells me one customer was a Brazilian firm called Shippify. He neglects to tell me he ran the company, later apologizing).

Criptext’s cryptography is also unproven. Any encryption product worth its salt is subjected to rigorous independent testing from an unforgiving crypto community. Criptext will have to go through such an audit if it wants to compete with the Signal protocol, the underlying code behind WhatsApp’s encryption. Loaiza provided FORBES with a brief paper on the company’s method for providing secure transfer of data, which seems unremarkable.  In fact, the technology, looking at the limited information available, is similar to other encryption systems, according to University of Surrey cryptography expert Alan Woodward.

He’s already noted one issue: “The idea is that their server is the honest broker that issues keys to smaller systems wanting to send each other encrypted data. These types of key management services are not uncommon but they do have a vulnerability – they know the key used by each party and so theoretically could leak that key if compromised.”

Regardless of the quality of the tech, Mizrachi and his lawyers are optimistic about his personal wellbeing. They believe that not only do they have a rock solid case, they have the backing of the Panamanian people. Over Criptext, the CEO adds: “People in Panama have gone mad about this. They see it for what it is: a sleazy banana peel.”

If Panama prevails? A fourth prison beckons. Whether Mizrachi is guilty of any crime, his incarceration for a breach of contract is, at the very least, baffling. At worst, it’s illegal.

Additional reporting by Dan Alexander

CORRECTION: This article previously stated Mizrachi’s father was married to Martinelli’s sister. They are not, but are in a long-term relationship. The article was updated to represent that fact.

The article was also updated to note his uncle Joseph Matalon was the sole investor in the seed round.

UPDATE: The Panama Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a statement through to FORBES on May 22 to explain the situation with Mizrachi’s bail. The government department said the bail only applied in Panama. This meant that if he returned to the country he wouldn’t be jailed, but would be required to remain there for as long as the investigation into his contract with the innovation department continued.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/05/19/mayer-mizrachi-criptext-ceo-in-prison/#2c8254092b15

Take a ride through the Canal locks at Cocoli?

Six murders in the last week in Chiriqui?  There have been no reports corresponding to that statement.

Something is not right here.

The body of the young man was recovered late Tuesday morning.

http://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/Hallan-cuerpo-desaparecido-Playa-Barqueta_0_928107801.html

B&A would know for sure, but I think there is a greater risk of riptides after big rainfalls.

Interesting stuff which Mr. Gant lectures about, but theoretical beyond me.

Tectonic Geomorphic and Paleoseismic Investigations for the Panama Canal: This talk summarizes five years of geological exploration in Panama to quantify the fault hazards to the Panama Canal and the Canal Expansion Project, using tectonic geomorphic mapping and analysis, paleoseismic trenching, and seismic hazard analysis. Faults that were investigated include the Gatún, Limón, Azota, Pedro Miguel, Miraflores, and Agua Blanca. The talk will illustrate techniques of field reconnaissance, trench site selection, 3-D trenching of strike slip faults, and how to assemble into a seismic hazard model. If extra time is available, an overview of the Panama Canal and the Canal Expansion Project can also be presented.

Quantitative Kinematic Investigation of the AD 1621 Pedro Miguel Fault Rupture for Design of the Panama Canal’s Borinquen Dam: This talk focuses on a detailed analysis of the AD 1621 Panama Viejo earthquake, how the source fault was identified using archeoseismology along the Camino de Cruces (Spanish trail), and how several quantitative 3-D paleoseismic trenching studies of the Pedro Miguel fault were used to quantify the coseismic displacement kinematics of that earthquake for design of a major Canal expansion project dam across the fault. The talk presents a successful case study of the use of tectonic geomorphology, paleoseismology and archeology to advance the awareness of earthquake risk for a globally important infrastructure project – the Panama Canal. Portions of the talk are based upon the paper: Rockwell, T., E. Gath, T. Gonzalez, C. Madden, D. Verdugo, C. Lippencott, T. Dawson, L.A. Owen, M. Fuchs, A. Cadena, P. Williams, E. Weldon, and P. Franceschi, 2010, Neotectonics and Paleoseismology of the Limón and Pedro Miguel faults in Panamá: Earthquake Hazard to the Panama Canal; Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 100, No. 6, pp. 3097-3129, doi: 10.1785/0120090342. [Received the 2012 Claire P. Holdredge Award from the Association of Engineering Geologists for a publication that is judged to be an outstanding contribution to the Engineering Geology profession.]

The leaked cable suggests that Mr.Harris had hired Mr.Gant who provided the opinion.

Oddly enough, Mr. Harris' own CV on Linkedin says that during the 2003-2010 time frame he was working as a consultant and PM for Quest Energy Services. It doesn't mention a VP position at CH2M Hill.

This guy just doesn't want to come home.