Torrijos postponed a decision about what to do about public transport. Torrijos says his government stole all the money doesn't have any money to improve the bus system. Torrijos shits his pants for the group of road terrorists who own the buses and will kill for money. The united passengers are angry about it. La Prensa basically calls him a moron.

They're right, of course, but what did they expect from a man who is too much of a coward to investigate the death of his own father?

Are Brazilians smarter than Torrijos?

Ever been to Brazil? Economically, it's not that different from Panama. GNP per capita is in the same league. Income disparity is as bad there as it is here.

But why then, is it that we have buses that fall apart, buses that blow up in Via España or crash in demolition derbies on the Transistmica while in for example the Brazilian city of Curitiba - roughly the same size as Panama City - they have one of the most advanced public transport systems in the world? Can you explain that? In other words, who in your government - and the previous ones - of robber barons and Noriega drinking buddies isn't doing his job? And why is Bimbin only now talking about a metro after ignoring the problems for ten years?

Another question. Here's an interesting statistic for you. Panama has 500 policemen per 100,000 citizens. That is MORE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE AMERICAS. Costa Rica is a good second with 465 cops/100,000, and the US is fourth with 326. I found that in the 2007 UN report "Crime and Development in Central America". So here's the question: Why do we need more police? Aren't these figures a clear indication that if we have a crime and security problem in Panama, Mirones, Delgado Diamante and the other chieftains aren't doing their jobs? It can't be that they're short on manpower.

El Panama America, in its editorial, shows uncharacteristic restraint today. Sure, they call Hugo Chavez a "charlatan" because he was angry about Colombia's and the United States' independent bombing of a rebel camp, Mexican students AND the hostage release negotiations all in one blow and inside Ecuador (Panama would be delighted if Colombia started bombing Meteti or the banking center as hide-outs of the FARC). But at least the editors left the bigger charlatan alone. After all, Torrijos went to the Cumbaya meeting in Santo Domingo and came back drooling with pride and claiming that it was HIS speech that had made the difference. Strange that NONE of the international media even mentioned Torrijos' speech. He probably gave it in his hotel room in the mirror only, while Ritter changed his diaper. Anyway, class act of El Panama America to not further hammer the point.

Torrijos & Co may brag about how they're going to save the country in just over a year, but the people ain't buying into yet another second-hand PRD fantasy. Marches Thursday all over the country; in Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro and the capital. FRENADESO announces strike in angry letter to president Torrijos. Text here, in spanish, after the jump:

Read more

Just in: President Martin Torrijos endorses Juan Carlos Navarro in his bid for the presidency next year. This must be a blow for Balbina Herrera, who has presidential ambitions as well and actually does better in the polls.

But not all is lost. Bala-bina should strike back and she has a secret weapon: knowledge. Remember, Balbina, that breakfast meeting at Martin's house before he was president? Right, Hector Aleman was there too. And a legislator. A very unhappy legislator, who felt that he and his friends were left out of the CEMIS banquet. So he dropped by and you guys made a deal, which of course was broken instantly. The legislator then told El Toro the whole story aboard the "Mr. Bull" and Toro recorded the whole thing! I have a transcript, in case you lost yours. Overlay it with Afu's declarations and you have enough there to SINK the fuckers. Adelante! No pasaran!

FARC chicks are a lot cooler
than, say, Cindy McCain

Okay, so we all know this FARC miracle wonder laptop stuff is fake, propaganda from right-wing drug warriors. But in the wonderful world of spin and deceit, the right thing to do is release more from the same discredited source. Through Associated Press of course, the outlet of choice for this kind of "public diplomacy". Anyway, now they say Clinton was involved with Garcia Marquéz and the talks were to be held in PANAMA! This must have been such a lucrative time for the Colombian rebel group, with Chavez, Correa, Clinton and France all bidding on the prestigious release of hostages and of course trophy Ingrid Bethancourt. And imagine how Torrijos will pretend to have been at the center of it, just like he did with the Kumbaya meeting in Santo Domingo.

On the brighter side, it looks like we're getting the war after all, because the wingnuts won't be happy before they can nuke any peaceful solution to Colombia's conflict. The same shameless, unquestioning, jingoistic piece of crap who brought us the run up to the Iraq war is now spinning how Chavez is the FARC's Guardian Angel and Bush needs to "take him on". Next from the magic laptop: FARC wants to conquer the moon!

Borge, drug kingpin

Every once and a while Torrijos delivers a speech, usually not longer than about 4 minutes for obvious reasons. Yesterday at the PRD congress (chaos, garbage everywhere, no light, and out of that mess Balabina came victorious of course) it was one of those rare occasions. First, he said, the PRD has a new way to deal with opposition: Put them in a freezer! A sort of iceboarding. Then, he said that he was doing all these progressive things, like fighting poverty. Poverty levels remain unchanged during his term and spending power is down, but that's not the point. Being "progressive" and "left" is the hip thing in these Latin American times even if your policies are firmly right-wing or even fascist. Torrijos wants to keep the left inside the PRD, and those who don't obey he shoots. Exactly like his father, the celebrated drunken putschist Omar Torrijos, did.

And then there are the usual idiots who buy that crap. We know already that Chavez is gambling on the supposed "left-wing" of the PRD (and indeed the Torrijistas and Noriegistas won), but that's just the beginning. The Salvadoran FMLN was there, saying that yes, the PRD is left. And then there was this geriatric narco kingpin, Tomás Borge, from Nicarajo's Sandianistas, also endorsing the PRD as a progressive leftist party. The future once again looks bright in our little Canal nation.

So they all went to Santa Domingo and sang Kumbaya together and now we're not going to have that war the wingnuts promised us. Time to look back and reflect on a week that shook Panama. This picture for example: Rafael Correa with his entourage visiting Torrijos and his entourage. Look at that guy on the left. That's Galo Mora Witt, Ecuador's Minister of Culture. See anything special about him? No, we don't mean the suit, or lack thereof. Look at his hands, after the jump!

Read more

Right. Cost of living has gone up like never before. Protests everywhere in Panama; teachers in the streets, construction workers in the streets, rice growers in the streets. Children die of malnutrition. Purchasing power reduced by taxes and inflation. Foreign debt to record level. No money to pay the police what they were promised. No money to pay for decent schools. No money to pay for ambulances.

And Torrijos says, after having tequilas with the Mexican prez, we're winning the fight against poverty?

Torrijos speaks as terrorist looks on

In case you didn't know: Our president, the PRD puppet Martin Torrijos, is a genius. He was elected for five years, but he will solve ALL our problems in just one single year. Imagine that!

Last Friday, Torrijos gave a sort of a State of the Union speech at the National Assembly. His PRD backers, the tax-free car dealing legislators, clapped their hands at every sentence he spoke, and with reason. Over the last four years, the PRD government has stolen made enough money so they can now do something for the other Panamanians. Our savior has arrived:

Read more

US tank invades laundromat

Enough is enough. The Noriegista wing of the PRD has already a terrorist as president of the Assembly, all the corruption they can handle, they're amply represented in the government and they are NOT going to have a national holiday to remember Noriega's fall from power. The prez vetoed a law that would establish such a day on December 20st. He said that the law would probably violate the constitution, but that is of course just a pretext: Nobody in this government cares about the constitution. This is the Noriegistas against the yuppies, the clash of the titans. Nasty voices claim our highest ranking citizen worldwide, McCain, has something to do with it too. This ain't over.