Keith Woolford

Some people seem to enjoy fear mongering. There is an article out there today stating that several Panamanian banks have lost their U.S. correspondent status. Nothing has been posted on the Superintendent of Banking's website, or reported in the Panamanian press that would indicate this to be valid information. In the first paragraph of yesterday's press release, the Superintendent advised that spreading unfounded rumors is an illegal act.

http://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/gas-prices-edge-up-11-stations-found-overpricing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newsroompanama+%28Newsroom+Panama%29 FRIDAY MAY 13 will see gasoline prices edging up again with 95 Octane adding 5 cents a gallon to $2.76 ($.716The National Secretariat of Energy reported that a gallon of 95 octane gasoline will increase by five American cents, and will cost $2.76 a gallon ( $0.716 a liter). Meanwhile, 91 octane gasoline will rise one cent to $2.59 a gallon Diesel will increase 7 cents a gallon, to a maximum selling price of $ 2.09. The new prices remain in effect until May 27 Eleven gas stations have been detected with ” anomalies””in their pricing.

The boquete.ning site seems to have disappeared.

If I'm not mistaken the bond issue was postponed, not cancelled. The original story from LaPrensa is above.

A lower deficit is always good news and additional revenues generated by the expanded Canal will further improve the Panamanian economy, imo. Government Records a Deficit of $217 million in First Quarter The fiscal deficit at the end of the first quarter of 2016 was $217 million, representing a decrease of more than $100 million from the $338 million deficit recorded in the first quarter of 2015. The fiscal deficit represented 0.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), down from 1.1 percent the previous year. Deputy Minister of Economy Ivan Zarak said Thursday at a press conference that this result is due mainly to increased government revenues. Total revenues amounted to $2.8 billion, 15.3 percent more than the previous year - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Deficit-fiscal-reduce-millones-dolares_21_4481761789.html#sthash.Md0TDnbk.dpuf

Superintendency Denies Other Banks are Under Scrutiny The Superintendency of Banks, for the second time in less than a week, has issued a statement denying it is involved in the intervention of any banks beyond Balboa Bank & Trust. "The Superintendency of Banks reiterates to the citizenry in general that we are not starting intervention of any bank in particular. The banking system in Panama is very solid and stable with regard to liquidity and solvency levels. All banks meet the requirements of liquidity and capital required by the legal and regulatory framework," it said. "We recommend to the community that it pay attention only to official communications issued by this institution and disregard rumors on social networks." It also noted that spreading false news that would endanger the national economy or public credit shall be punished by imprisonment of two to five years in prison. A similar communication was published May 7, two days after the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury included Abdul and Nidal Waked, as well as other members of their families and 68 of their businesses, on the Clinton List for being linked to money laundering and drug trafficking. Last week, the superintendency took administrative and operational control of the Balboa Bank & Trust, one of the companies included in the Clinton List. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/intervencion-particular-Superintendencia-Bancos-Panama_21_4481761788.html#sthash.yYojHdeO.dpuf

Thanks Roger. I enjoy watching current events and learning about the region where we live. A recent trip to Medellin provided some new opportunities.

U.S. lists reasons for including Balboa Bank on sanction list It says the bank participated in a money laundering scheme. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has published the reasons why Balboa Bank & Trust and its subsidiaries were included on the Clinton List, which prohibits U.S. citizens and companies from engaging in transactions with the bank. The report, issued by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), stated that Balboa Bank & Trust assisted with the money laundering network linked to Nadal and Abdul Waked, among other members of the family. Nadal Waked is a board member of the bank. The report said the bank offered "financial and technological support, and the supply of goods and services" to the money laundering network. The Superintendency of Banks, which has taken over the bank, said that it is faced with a complex situation. The agency took control of the bank May 5, saying the move was needed to protect depositors and investors. The takeover of Balboa Bank & Trust and its subsidiaries was done to allow the orderly collection of the loans granted by the bank to prevent the deterioration of its assets. Customers do not have access to deposits, and the bank cannot access its foreign assets. It is also prevented from engaging in financial relationships with banks in the United States. Bank officials said that the lender has worked with adherence to best practices in the industry, based on firm principles of transparency. They clarified that Waked represented the interests of a minority group of shareholders. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Tesoro-Banco-Balboa-Bank-Trust_21_4481761781.html#sthash.v26lOI63.dpuf

Here in Panama, the U.S. Treasury Department's accusations of money laundering by the Waked family and their businesses is causing problems for the financing of the Tocumen airport expansion. Tocumen International Airport has decided to postpone the issuance of bonds for $625 million that were scheduled to be issued today. It has been rescheduled for the next 24 to 36 hours. + info Spanish version The bonds had been expected to sell successfully, but the risks perceived by investors at the charges of money laundering against several members of the Waked family generated uncertainty. Waked International, S.A., (WISA) is one of the concessionaires at the airport and generates 7 percent of the income. Airport Manager Joseph Fidanque III confirmed that the $625 million emission had been placed successfully through Citigroup Global Markets. However, the decision by the Department of the Treasury to place the Waked family businesses on the Clinton List has generated concern among investors. Yesterday, Citigroup Global Markets determined that the conditions precedent set out in the purchase agreement had not been met and delayed the purchase. In 2007, Wisa received a concession for $115 million to sell duty free goods in the air terminal, including perfumes, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and luxury accessories. It also pays $100 a month in rent per square meter, and 8 percent of sales. The terminal-dealer agreement expires in December 2017. The decision by the U.S. Treasury Department means the stores connected to Wisa cannot sell U.S. goods or engage in transactions with U.S. customers. It also cannot accept credit card transactions with U.S. banks. Fidanque declined to comment about the delay in the bond issue, saying it could hinder the search for the money that will finance part of the expansion of the air terminal. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/caso-Waked-entorpece-emision_21_4481011855.html#sthash.wLOim3oE.dpuf Waked case delays airport bond issue The bonds were slated to be handled by Citigroup. Tocumen International Airport has decided to postpone the issuance of bonds for $625 million that were scheduled to be issued today. It has been rescheduled for the next 24 to 36 hours. The bonds had been expected to sell successfully, but the risks perceived by investors at the charges of money laundering against several members of the Waked family generated uncertainty. Waked International, S.A., (WISA) is one of the concessionaires at the airport and generates 7 percent of the income. Airport Manager Joseph Fidanque III confirmed that the $625 million emission had been placed successfully through Citigroup Global Markets. However, the decision by the Department of the Treasury to place the Waked family businesses on the Clinton List has generated concern among investors. Yesterday, Citigroup Global Markets determined that the conditions precedent set out in the purchase agreement had not been met and delayed the purchase. In 2007, Wisa received a concession for $115 million to sell duty free goods in the air terminal, including perfumes, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and luxury accessories. It also pays $100 a month in rent per square meter, and 8 percent of sales. The terminal-dealer agreement expires in December 2017. The decision by the U.S. Treasury Department means the stores connected to Wisa cannot sell U.S. goods or engage in transactions with U.S. customers. It also cannot accept credit card transactions with U.S. banks. Fidanque declined to comment about the delay in the bond issue, saying it could hinder the search for the money that will finance part of the expansion of the air terminal. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/caso-Waked-entorpece-emision_21_4481011855.html#sthash.wLOim3oE.dpuf

The Amigos de Animales site has always had a vet list. It used to be linked on .ning http://aadab.org/vetlist.php

excellent report

PANAMA’S GOVERNMENT is struggling to find ways to keep the 68 businesses of the Waked family operating and is in contact with the U.S. Department of the Treasury to find a “solution”. The firms were included on the Clinton List of companies linked to drug trafficking and money laundering. “The goal is to keep the businesses operating. The problem faced by businesses is that neither banks nor its suppliers can do business with them,” reported Dulcidio De La Guardia, minister of Economy and Finance. He said he has been informed that companies owned by Abdul Waked generate 2,869 jobs. He has no figures on the jobs of the business group headed by Waked’s nephew Nidal Waked, who was detained last week in Bogota, Colombia, and is waiting to be extradited to the United States where prosecutors are calling for a 50-year jail term for money laundering linked to drug smuggling. “The government is acting as a facilitator so that the stores can continue to operate. This requires the support from the Waked family,” De La Guardia said. The Treasury Department has already been asked what the requirements would be for the sanctioned enterprises to be granted temporary licenses until a permanent solution is found. Also involved in the discussion are banks that have business deals with the group, reports La Prensa. from Newsroom Panama

Colombia considera adecuado cierre de frontera con Panamá - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/mundo/Colombia-considera-adecuado-frontera-Panama_0_4480052084.html#sthash.cQRcu1em.dpuf Colombia considers proper the closing of the border with Panama Colombian chancellor Maria Angela Holguin assured this Tuesday, 10 May, that the closure of the border with Colombia prepared by Panama is understood as a strengthening of the control measures of irregular migratory traffic and described the action as appropriate. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela ordered the day before the closure of the border with Colombia with the aim of preventing the irregular flow of Cuban migrants and other nationalities to their country which he said, encourages the trafficking in persons and is becoming increasingly unsustainable. "We understood the message of the President of Panama as a strengthening of measures to control migratory traffic. Obviously all the countries we have the borders closed to illegal migration," said the minister of Foreign Affairs in statements to the press in the headquarters of the Chancellery in Bogota. She emphasized that Colombians who have their documentation may transit normally by the border. "Everything that helps make a neighboring country improve the legality and combat illegality seems to us to be well and properly measure of Panama," said. "We do not want that Colombia has become a country of illegal traffic. We know perfectly well that the objective of these people (migrants) is not Colombia. The aim is more to the north, but anyway the traffic passes by Colombia," added the chancellor. It is also expressed confidence that there will be a joint work of the Colombian immigration authorities with their peers in Panama and Ecuador. "Each time is more in increase that illegal trafficking," emphasized Holguin in a speech in which he was accompanied by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Guillaume Long. Long said that in the last three months the number of Cuban migrants to Ecuador has decreased. "They have been more people who have returned to Cuba from Ecuador that persons who have entered to Ecuador from Cuba and that is important," said. For the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister great part of the migration of Cubans to other countries has much to do with the policies of the United States toward the island. With the agreement of the Government of Panama, the closure to the entry of Cubans will be mainly in Puerto Obaldía, but also includes other border points. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/mundo/Colombia-considera-adecuado-frontera-Panama_0_4480052084.html#sthash.cQRcu1em.dpuf

This was an extremely sad and difficult situation that we were totally unprepared for. Our hearts were breaking as we realized there was little assistance we could render. Thanks for sharing, we're no better equipped now than we were then to handle an event like this and need to get on it. Cane toads are another real threat to our family members.

The Darien Gap is the Panama-Colombia border, it's extremely porous for obvious reasons, and both governments are ill-equipped to police it. Much of the area in the Department of Choco, Colombia is still controlled by narcotraffickers and anti-government forces (often the same folks). After 40 years of civil conflict, Colombia has about 3.5 million internally displaced people and as many as 700,000 refugees living in other countries, numbering more than any other nation in the Western hemisphere. Governments in the region have generally been sympathetic to the situation. With the border officially closed there will no doubt be an increase in illegal human trafficking. I believe the President's remarks about turfing people who are found to be here illegally were directed at future 'jungle migrants'. There is currently strict enforcement of Article 43 at land crossings which will probably continue.

This heading is incorrect and misleading. The President ordered one land border with Colombia to be closed. check under 'Migrant Crisis' for the story from La Prensa in English.

V r c o l

http://www.chiriqui.life/discover/ is my Bookmark and the only link I need. I just browse posts until I come to the point where I left off on my last visit. Never miss a thing unless I choose to skip by it.

Varela closes border with Colombia This Monday, President Juan Carlos Varela announced the decision to close the border with Colombia, in the area of Puerto Obaldia, to address the immigration crisis in the country. According to Varela, this "difficult" decision came into effect four days ago. "We have to close the border to this irregular flow of immigrants," Varela said, during the ceremony to launch an operation to combat organized crime. Varela also announced that steps will be taken to crack down on the immigration status of people within the country. - See more at: http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Presidente-Juan-Carlos-Varela-frontera_21_4479512006.html#sthash.Nw6aZJTN.dpuf

Under Lee's guidance, participation, collaboration, and even dissension were encouraged which provided a wealth of information and a broad spectrum of opinion. All of which made .ning a true community forum, imo. I also miss our always friendly chats and verbal jousts that were exchanged when we would bump into each other.

In the past, I have delayed changing up systems as long as possible but in this case I upgraded because I was having a lot of problems with the copy of Win 7 that had been installed. As it turns out, privacy issues aside, I like Windows 10 better. It's not just Windows that's invasive anyway. All browsers and apps are mining information every time they're used these days.

Panama Papers names to be made public tomorrow Journalist group plans to publish identities of people behind more than 200,000 offshore accounts By Zach Dubinsky, CBC News Posted: May 08, 2016 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: May 08, 2016 5:00 AM ET They hoped to keep their business private, but some of the world's richest citizens will instead have their finances opened to prying eyes. Confidential details of more than 200,000 offshore accounts in the Panama Papers — including the names of at least 625 Canadians — will be revealed tomorrow, in the hope that public scrutiny of the material will generate hundreds of tips about possible corruption and tax dodging.. Royal Bank to turn over files on Panama Papers clients Panama Papers taunt masses with more proof game is rigged The new information, to be released online at 2 p.m. ET in a searchable database, will list: The name of anyone listed as a director or shareholder of an offshore company in the huge Panama Papers leak. The names and addresses of more than 200,000 offshore companies, though in most cases, the ultimate owner is still shrouded in secrecy. The identities of dozens of intermediary agencies that helped set up and run those accounts in tandem with Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm from which the records were leaked. CBC News and the Toronto Star, who have exclusive access in Canada to the leaked data, will be publishing a series of stories on Canadians named in it. Those include an examination of a lawyer who was known as a "go to" for wealthy people hoping to move money offshore, and of a convicted fraudster who set up 60 corporations in various tax havens. Until now, only select names of high prominence have been made public since a group of global media outlets, including CBC and the Star, broke news of the Panama Papers last month. The Panama Papers database being made public Monday allows searching for a person or offshore company by name and then mapping out links between people and offshore entities. (CBC) "We think this is a logical next step in the investigation," said Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Washington-based organization that has been co-ordinating reporting on the records. "We have 370 journalists around the world looking at the data, but it's so vast, I mean 11½ million documents," Ryle said. "We know we've missed things." Private documents withheld Among the 2.6 terabytes of information leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the CBC and the Star have identified around 625 Canadians whose names could be exposed. The ICIJ has said all along it intended to publish the list of names and accounts in the Panama Papers — which it got from two German journalists who obtained the leak from a source — while withholding the actual documents. Those documents include everything from copies of people's passports to telephone numbers, Mossack Fonseca's internal emails and, in some cases, financial records. Many prominent names have already emerged since news outlets began reporting on the leak early last month. Icelandic prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped aside amid allegations he had had a secret offshore account that held bonds in his country's banks, which he failed to list in his parliamentary ethics disclosures. He denied any wrongdoing. Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked the data leak as an American plot when records showed his cronies had amassed nearly $2 billion through a miasma of transactions involving accounts and banks closely linked to him. China suppressed internet sites mentioning the Panama Papers in connection with its leaders, after reports showed relatives of President Xi Jinping and of several other top officials had been hiding sometimes vast wealth in offshore companies. China's Foreign Ministry called the allegations "groundless." It is not illegal for Canadians to have an offshore account, but any income must be reported for tax purposes, as well as any offshore assets totalling more than $100,000. Offshore jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man or Liechtenstein often have strict confidentiality rules for bank accounts and shell companies that make it easier to hide assets from tax authorities. The ICIJ's Ryle said his organization hopes members of the public will scour the new Panama Papers data and flag any potential malfeasance they spot. ICIJ director Gerard Ryle says 'overwhelming public interest' in the Panama Papers justifies publishing certain details. (CBC) But he also said a deeper principle is at stake: that people shouldn't be able to disguise transactions like real-estate purchases or transfers of huge wealth through the opaque conduit of offshore corporations. "Leaders of the world, including David Cameron, the British prime minister, have said this basic kind of information is the kind of information that should be made public," Ryle said. Kim Marsh, a Vancouver-based expert on international financial crime who spent 25 years with the RCMP, said concerns over the anonymity of high-end property buyers in Canadian cities shows the issue cuts close to home. "We only have to look at what's happening in the property market in B.C., Toronto, elsewhere.... They don't want their names associated with properties, so they'll set up a nominee situation," he said, referring to the registration of a corporation using a figurehead to disguise the real owners. "And there's lots of controversy about that." Journalist group criticized The effort to publish details from the Panama Papers is not without opposition. Last week in Miami, at an international conference on offshore havens where Ryle delivered a keynote address, his organization and its media partners were publicly chastised by a number of lawyers for dealing in "stolen" data and for cherry-picking stories from the Panama Papers that, the critics said, made offshore havens look especially nefarious. In particular, Mossack Fonseca co-founder Ramon Fonseca said in a letter read out after Ryle's remarks that "thanks to people like him, privacy — a basic human right — is already on the list of species in danger of extinction." Ryle shrugged off the critics. "There's been overwhelming public interest in these documents, and I think that overwhelming public interest outrides anything that Fonseca is actually saying." Contact the writer of this story at zach.dubinsky@cbc.ca

"The U.S. has frozen the family’s assets in that country through the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)." There are so many businesses affected by these charges that the President is taking special steps to make sure that thousands of Panamanian employees are not left destitute. http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Presidente-Waked-proteger-panamenos-afectados_21_4477262234.html

What are you folks going to do when Windows 7 is no longer supported? Windows 10 is working fine for me, I've had zero problems with it.