Weekly Report - 16 March 2004

Just as the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) is poised to recapture the presidency, congress has approved in first reading a law creating a special prosecutor's office to look into the crimes committed by the military who wielded the real power in Panama between 1968 and 1989. The PRD was the creature of that military-backed régime; it was founded by the late General Omar Torrijos, father of poll-leading PRD candidate Martí­n Torrijos.