Caribbean & Central America - May 2007 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The Panamanian government continued the drive to reform the country's penal code in May and, according to leaks, is also planning to reform the police. For the opposition the measures reveal that President Martí­n Torrijos is attempting to resurrect Panama's authoritarian past. 

The opposition's charge may sound like a paranoid fantasy. However, Torrijos has recently sanctioned several tough anti-crime measures after his Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) managed to push changes to Panama's civil code in congress. The opposition claims that these are "Big Brother measures" that gave more powers to the government and the PRD to clamp down on critics and stop corruption investigations. Indeed, in March we reported that Panamanian journalists complained that three governmental proposals regulating the circulation of information limited press freedom and undermined investigative journalistic activity in the country. [RC-07-03] These proposals are being reviewed by Torrijos. 

More concerning, however, are reports in the local press suggesting that the government is planning to dissolve the Policí­a Técnica Judicial (PTJ). The PTJ works under the jurisdiction of the attorney general's office, which is independent from the government. According to these reports, the government wants to transfer most of the PTJ to the Policí­a Nacional (PN), which is part of the ministry of government and justice. In effect, this would give Torrijos much more influence on the work of the police as the ministry of government and justice is directly controlled by the presidency. Ricardo Martinelli, the president of the opposition Partido Cambio Democrático, said that the move would lead Panama "down the path of civilian dictatorship". 

Torrijos is also said to want to merge the national maritime and the national air services, currently under civilian management, into a single Guardia Costera under a new kind of hierarchy similar to that of a traditional armed force. The government claims the Guardia Costera is necessary to guarantee the security of the Panama Canal and to fight drug trafficking and terrorism. The opposition, however, believe this is evidence of a PRD plot to give more powers to Torrijos -who is certain to seek re-election in 2009 - involving individuals linked to the authoritarian military regime that ruled Panama in the 1970s and 1980s. The fact that the PDR supported the military regime and that one of its leaders was Torrijos's father, General Omar Torrijos, make the claims sound not so implausible. 

• New toll charges
  The Panamanian government approved new toll charges for the Panama Canal in late April despite opposition from the waterway's users. The government decided to back the increase, adjusted by the Panama Canal's Authority (ACP) back in February, and announced the new toll fees "will be increased gradually" from July. The government expects the new fees will bring an additional US$500m in taxes in the next three years. The revenues will be used to finance the canal's US$5.2bn expansion project.