Central America & Caribbean

Items

• Panama's Torrijos on the defensive

  02 July 2008 Hits: 163

  Development: On 30 June Panama's President Martí­n Torrijos defended the congressional decision to grant him “extraordinary powers" to carry out security reforms.

  Significance: The vote by congress on 28 June authorizing Torrijos to rule by decree for two months, while legislators are on holiday, has been condemned by various sectors in the country, who accuse the president and interior minister Daniel Delgado Diamante of seeking to “remilitarise" the country.

  It allows Torrijos to move forward with his plans to create four new state security bodies, a national aero-naval service, a national border service, a council for public security and national defense and a national intelligence and national security service.
  Torrjios insisted yesterday (30 June) that the creation of these new units was necessary to combat drug trafficking and crime.

  The congressional vote will also allow Torrijos to amend the necessary legislation in order to end the controversy over his choice of police chief, former soldier, Jaime Ruiz. Current legislation states that military officials cannot be appointed to head the institution. Torrijos appointed Ruiz on 12 May after Ruiz' predecessor Rolando Mirones quit the previous week. At the time sectors from civil society as well as opposition politicians condemned the move as unconstitutional.

  Accusations of “re-militarising" the country meanwhile are nothing new - Torrjios faced similar accusations in December when he passed a decree which effectively reorganised the law enforcement apparatus to minimise the possibility of independent investigation into police activity. The decree abolished the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), transferring most of its personnel and functions from the attorney general's office to the police authorities.
  

• New economy minister in El Salvador

  02 July 2008 Hits: 84

  Development: On 30 June Ricardo Esmahán was sworn in as the country's new economy minister.

  Significance: A businessman, lawyer and formerly president of the agricultural chamber (Camagro), Esmahán replaces Yolanda Mayora de Gavidia who resigned in order to stand as director of the Central American System for Economic Integration (SIECA).

  Esmahán takes over at a key time for the government, with less than a year until the next elections, scheduled for March 2009 and candidate for the long-ruling Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), Rodrigo Avila, trailing in the polls.

  The state of the economy was recently cited as the main concern for voters, according to a survey by the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA), with respondents expressing far more concern about the economy (37.4%) and the cost of living (19.5%) than they did about organised crime and insecurity (10%), which until recently topped similar surveys.

  Esmahán will replace Gavidia as on the new 29-strong committee, also headed by agriculture and education ministers, Mario Salaverrí­a and Darlyn Meza respectively, established by Saca in May, to come up with proposals to combat economic problems caused by the escalating cost of food and fuel. Saca has already implemented a number of populist measures such as an increase in the minimum wage.