Defense lawyers for the former Director of the National Immigration Service, Maria Cristina Gonzalez, asked the Second Anti Corruption Prosecutor’s Office suspended the interrogation of their client. According to the lawyers, the first questions posed to Gonzalez were not in line with the charges allegedly linked to her. The lawyers argued the prosecutor was violating Gonzalez’s constitutional guarantees, and they would wait until she was called again by the prosecution.
Gonzalez arrived at the Avesa building which houses the offices of the Second Anti Corruption Prosecutor at 9:15 am this morning. She left from the office at 11:29 am. Previously, the former immigration official told the media that she went to the offices of the Attorney General to cooperate with the authorities. Gonzalez is accused of corruption and influence peddling for allegedly selling visas to citizens from India, China and Cuba. (Prensa)

The notary of Colon, Nedelka Navas Reyes, said on Tuesday she refuses to sign the document making her dismissal official, because she says firing her while she’s on maternal leave is illegal. According to the notary her dismissal violates her maternity leave, which protects pregnant women from being dismissed from their jobs. Navas, who remains at her residence, was removed through an Executive Order issued on 15 March 2012 and published in the Official Gazette on 5 April 2012, whereby the president Ricardo Martinelli said her appointment was “groundless.” However, the document does not say why she was dismissed. Article 106 of Chapter II of the Labor Code that talks about working women and children, states: “A woman who is in a state of pregnancy can only be fired from her job for cause, and with prior judicial authorization.” Attorneys in Colon, among them the Vice President of the National College chapter of the province, Roberto Laguna, protested the dismissal of the notary Nedelka Navas Reyes, considering it to be arbitrary and illegal. (Estrella)

AES Panama gave the the Panamanian government a check for $24.9 million dollars in taxes. The payment was received on behalf of the Government by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank De Lima and Jorge Dawson, the Director of Investment, Concessions, and Risk of the State, and was delivered by Mr. Marco De la Rosa, President of AES Panama, along with Humberto Gonzalez, Director of Corporate Affairs, AES Panama. Through this tax payment , the company AES Panama reiterates its commitment to the development of the country by being a responsible taxpayer, which who has paid a total of $426 million dollars in dividends and taxes to the State of Panama since 1999. The company AES Panama generates clean energy and produces 35% of the electricity the country needs for its development at the most competitive prices, through the operation of five hydroelectric plants. (Critica)

The director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Humberto Mas said they have not received all of the necessary documentation for a clinical record review of Manuel Antonio Noriega. Noriega’s lawyers requested he be released to house arrest last month, and the IMELCF needs all of the information to analyze the situation, and to make a report, which will be used as the basis for the decision. (Telemetro)

Starting at 10:00 am this morning and lasting through the afternoon, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency María Fábrega is meeing with the Special Commission on Constitutional Reform, to discuss the issue that the “notables” have participated in the reform process, but now they are concerned because nothing has been done. According to the “notables,” they gave their draft recommendations to the Executive on 30 January 2012, but since then they have not heard of a road map or something to indicate the future of this project. Given what happened, they have been doing outreach work in different sectors, which have been calling them to to go and explain about the reform project, but they still have several questions which they ask to be clarified. They want to know about the “road map,” when the proposals will be presented to the Cabinet, and when will it reach the National Assembly, because it has to be submitted during two different sessions and they want to see the project presented now because the current session finishes on 30 April 2012. (TVN)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Assistant Director David Christian Hassell presented a signed Letter of Agreement to the Government of Panama today, authorizing the use of the FBI Laboratory’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The FBI sponsors CODIS as part of a technical assistance program to International Law Enforcement forensic laboratories which allows laboratories to store, compare and match DNA records from offenders, crime scene evidence, unidentified human remains and relatives of missing persons.
The FBI Laboratory’s CODIS is an application that blends forensic science and computer technology into an effective tool for solving violent crimes. CODIS allows law enforcement laboratories to store and compare DNA profiles in an effort to more efficiently identify the perpetrators of crimes. It enables law enforcement to centralize DNA data to provide new information in previously unrelated investigations.

Through this Letter of Agreement the FBI reaffirms its commitment to assist International Law Enforcement Agencies in combating violent crime. The FBI will provide the CODIS software and the training necessary to operate the system. This agreement is one of the first of its kind to be signed in Latin America and will allow the Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses to operate a DNA database utilizing the same platform as many of its South American and Caribbean counterparts.

Once CODIS is installed, Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses will join more than 70 laboratories in greater than 35 countries in the use of CODIS for the management of its DNA data. (US Embassy Panama City Press Release)

The Costa Rican Roger Soto Zotela, 35, died in an incident involving members of the Direction of Judicial Investigation (DIJ) of Chiriqui. The bloody event occurred on the border between Costa Rica and Panama, in Paso Canoas. Roger’s death occurred in the evening hours of last Wednesday, when the DIJ was making a clandestine operation to dismantle an international network dedicated to trafficking cars from Panama to Costa Rica. Sources investigating the case said Roger was driving a car into Costa Rica. An undercover DIJ detective was with him inside of the vehicle, who ordered the Costa Rican to stop. A struggle began and the DIJ officer shot the Costa Rican. The man was taken to Paul Espinosa medical clinic in Bugaba, where he died. Roger’s brothers say he was a mechanic. “They called Roger to fix a car, but they killed him,” said relatives who demanded justice. (Siglo)

Decaying and with some of his facial features burned away, the body of a man of Chinese origin was found yesterday. “It is estimated that the subject was subjected to brutal torture,” said a judicial source. The gruesome discovery came at about 9:00 am yesterday morning on the Northern Corridor, near the entrance of Cerro Patacón. The victim, wearing bluejeans, a green t-short, a black belt and white stockings, turned out to be Jin Min Tang, 21 years old.
According to a police source, the body of Min Tang was spotted by a heavy equipment driver working for the Northern Corridor company, who was collecting debris and grasses from the side of the road at the time. The decomposed body lay in a sewage drain, surrounded by bushes and located five meters away from the shoulder of the road. The body showed massive disfigurement on his face, as well as swelling and bruising on his body. According to judicial sources, the body may have been thrown in the place for more than 24 hours, however, he was apparently tortured before he was killed, with burn marks on his face and the piercing of his eyes.

Tang Min worked at an electronics store located in the Los Andes No. 2 Commercial Center, in San Miguelito. It was learned that the deceased was reported as missing last Thursday after he did not return to his home in the area of Paraiso, San Miguelito. Authorities are investigating the motive of this case. (Mi Diario)

As part of the work of the Road Reorganization Plan of the City of Panama, the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) and the Company FCC Central America, announced that starting today, there will be two lanes closed on Calle 50. The two lanes will be closed after the Credicorp Bank Bank Panama, specifically from the Toyota company, the Plaza 50 building where the WAO radio station is located, between the corner of Calle 50 and via Brazil. This work will take a period of 6 months to complete, and is being realized for the construction of a secant pile wall, within Section 2 of the Via Brazil Corridor. The Panamanians who pass through these streets said they fear that in the peak hours the streets become a mess, and hopefully traffic police officers will be deployed to the area to maintain order. The MOP said the site will have the necessary signals, as well as access points for people who work in the buildings in the area where the construction is to be performed. (Dia a Dia)

The First Notary of Colon, Nedelka Navas, blames president Ricardo Martinelli for the loss of one of her babies from a twin pregnancy, because of the pressures she has received to abandon that position. “I blame Ricardo Martinelli. Because of the pressure from Ricardo Martinelli I lost my son,” Navas said in an interview with this newspaper (La Prensa) at her residence in Colon, where she remains incapacitated by a gynecologist because of the high-risk pregnancy she faces with her yet unborn son. With broken words, Navas said she had waited for this pregnancy for eleven years and how the loss of one baby has affected their family. She lost the child last February. Se explained she was being pressured to either leave the office or enroll in the Democratic Change political party. Navas is a member of the Panameñista Party.
The lawyer gained notoriety last November when she denied a publication of the ruling Panama America newspaper on the diversion of funds from her office to finance the Panameñista party, and she revealed the relationship between the president, Ricardo Martinelli, and the newspaper. She said she has been under continuous pressure since last November. She said both President Martinelli and the Minister of Government Jorge Ricardo Fabrega know she is pregnant. “We have reached the limits that the Constitution is not respected, the law, much less the maternity leave.”

The lawyer, the granddaughter of the leader Colon leader Thelma King, challenged the president’s decree published on 5 April 2012 which declared her appointment “groundless,” and said she would not be officially notified of the decision as long as she remains on maternity leave.

When asked, the Secretary of State Communications Luis Eduardo Camacho said Navas’ complaint is out of place because the President does not need to pressure her in order to fire her, because she fills a position of “free appointment and removal.” Minister Fabrega did not respond to calls. (Prensa)