Memo from the Commodities Desk: Petaquilla, Richard Fifer, Taboga and Navarro

Print More

It wants to rain. That's how you say that in Spanish; quiere llover. On the mainland they've had the occasional rain already, but not enough to fill up the lakes so now, less than two months before general elections, our beloved government has announced electricity rationing. No more full blast air conditioning everywhere - the MultiPlaza mall uses as much electricity as the entire town of Chitré, in case you didn't know, so that shopping yeye types don't have to sweat it while spending the money they stole from the poor - and an excellent opportunity for propaganda about hydroelectric dams that nobody needs.

navarroletterMeanwhile, on Taboga, where your Bananama Republic newsroom is located, there hasn't been any rain at all. We hardly leave the island any more, mostly to avoid the election campaign circus raging on the mainland. Every day new polls are published, and it doesn't seem that Blandón, that insufferable Mr. CleanFace, paladin of foreign financial mafiosi, is gonna make it as mayor of the city. It does look, however, that Juan Carlos Navarro is going to be the next president of Panama. This makes many people happy who think that anyone, anything is better than J.D. Arías, who is Martinelli's puppet. But then came Frenadeso, the labor union umbrella, with a letter they unearthed from the archives. It's a letter from Navarro to then dictator and druglord Manuel Antonio Noriega, praising and promising his eternal loyalty. Highlight: "... don't forget to scold me if I'm too much trouble..." ("acuérdese de regañarme si molesto mucho").

They're all the same, of course, the whole clique of degenerates, swine and perverts that make up Panama's political class. Kleptomaniac Mireya Moscoso plays cheerleader for il capo; a graphic showing which legislators switched party for money has so many arrows and "last seen" points that it looks like a search map for the missing Malaysian airplane, and the designated winner still has Noriega's excrement on his nose - just like Martinelli himself, by the way.

There is also bad news.

Petaquilla, Panama's only goldmine, is not doing so well. Month after month, employees take to the streets because they are not being paid. In December of last year, they were protesting. January this year: protesting again. Couple of days ago, there they were again, still demanding to be paid. Suppliers aren't being paid either, we hear (classic). Their production has decreased dramatically. The stock is trading at 25¢, the lowest in years.

And now it appears that Petaquilla's chief dodo, the narco Richard Fifer, is in some hot water for writing a cheque for $250k to his wife - and then that cheque bounced. Mrs. de Fifer then filed a criminal complaint, and is now angry that the public ministry, headed by yet another Noriega crony, Ana Belfón, isn't doing anything.

There are those who maintain that there is something called "sustainable mining". Maybe so, but not in Panama. No way.

José Chirú

José Chirú

Meanwhile, here on Taboga, residents were able to reverse the rogue and unscrupulous sale of half the municipality, including various islands, to some shady land speculation schemer to the benefit of a rumored oil storage scenario. It took another tumultuous meeting on the picturesque little island to force mayor José Chirú and his henchmen to cancel the entire deal. The sales documents were published by the government itself, but that didn't stop Chirú, a filthy little weasel who spends most of his time off the island, from blaming newspaper La Prensa for the turmoil because, as he put it, they published things that weren't true. All we have to do now is wait for the next attempt.

5 thoughts on “Memo from the Commodities Desk: Petaquilla, Richard Fifer, Taboga and Navarro

  1. The Seven shopping malls in Panama use upwards of 75% of the Available power of the Panamanian power Grid on any given day! There are no known energy conservation or ecological built building in Panama per se! The new Metro tram system will use up all extra available electrical power, it is poorly designed and will cost and use up far more electricity than Panama can muster just read the Cato Report:

    WORKING PAPER NO. 17
    Review of the Panama City Metro Project
    By Randal O’Toole
    March 12, 2014
    http://www.cato.org/publications/workin…y-metro-project

    “The Metro rail transit system now under construction in Panama City, and planned extensions to that system, are poor investments for Panama. Depending on ridership, the US$1.88 billion construction cost of the first 13.7-kilometer line of the system could cost as much as $15 per rider to use.”

    “The losers include the taxpayers who have to support the train, owners of property away from the rail stations, and anyone who wants to travel to the many places the trains don’t go who suffers congestion and poor quality transportation because money that could have helped the entire city was spent on the rail line for an elite few.”

    The actual over the top cost of this Metro rail transit system white elephant that is now and will drain the people of Panama monetarily for too many decades to count. .

    Yes, the Petaquilla Gold mining concession that only pays the people of Panama 7% of the $$$millions that have already been pirated. Yet does not pay its workforce for months!

    Panama is a perfect paradise with an over abundant blend of criminality, political immunity, high finance, Drug and corporate assets laundering for those who criminal ties are far reaching and have the cash, the drugs, and the money to match up with these local Political parties that should have been outlawed and their leaders jailed long ago with their Noriega era brutality and criminality!

    As far as the election is concerned; The Polls are being corrupted like everything else in this beloved country by those with the most money and clout; “lies are the truth, the truth is just a pain that gets in their way”!

    The real surprise is that the majority of the poor, the underprivileged, the middle class and the so-called wealthy are sick and tired of the status quo with what those in power expect will not materialize like it did in 2009. Unless Martinelli unleashes his Panamanian National Police (PNP) like he did in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 creating butchery and carnage against the indigenous peoples of the Comarca and the Peoples of Colon, he lost those rounds, now his PNP is better equipped and begrudgingly loyal thanks to the three monetary raises he has bestowed upon his beloved PNP and their Noriega era leaders!

    Time will tell if Panama will go the way of it Neighbors into financial, agricultural, and radical lead chaos?

  2. “Muchas gracias por las Rosas (…), acuérdese de regañarme si molesto mucho. Suerte con sus asuntos y avise a la hora de hacer patria. Un abrazo”

    Sounds quite precious! Noriega sends Binbin roses and Binbin reminds him to spank him when he”s naughty. Then Binbin asks him to let him know when it is time to make “patria”. Signed off with a hug. Gay baiting aside, I am beginning to wonder about these two.

    Congratulations Taboga on fending off the dirty little weasel Chiru!

    Is JD Arias a puppet with strings or is he the type with the puppet-master’s hand up his rear?
    Perhaps he will pull a Santos and break free of his puppet master once he is elected. Santos promptly removed Uribe’s hand from his derriere after the election. I don’t know much about “Mimito” but he seems to be a puppet through and through.

    I’m off to get romantic and make some patria.

  3. Here’s some quotes from J.D. Arias English wikipedia page:

    “These periods spent in the countryside made him want to meet the humble farmers, and to get to know about their origins and traditions.”
    “Through this experience (in Argentina) he became familiar with many strands of economic and social thought, strengthening his academic and humanistic education.”
    “He has been described as an affectionate and joyful father who likes to spend much of his spare time with his family.”

    Quick, get a bucket…

  4. Worse yet are the professional fraud artists that somehow manage a Wikipedia profile of praise. Thats why Wiki fails extremely short in so many cases.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.