Panama vs Cuba

Now, it’s very hard at the moment to find anyone in Panama at the moment who admits to liking their soon to be ex President Mireya Moscoso. However this last move of her before she leaves office on Wednesday, is quite entertaining.

Mireya is quite famous for her personal grudges and this time it looks like she has a grudge at good old Fidel. Of course Fidel not one to not have grudges is grudging right back.

Basically, the story is that during the “Summit of the Americas” in the year 2000, which was held in Panama, 4 anti Castro Miami Cubans entered Panama with fake identitfication. When Castro landed he asked Mireya if he could hold a press conference, at which he announced that these 4 Miami Cubans were conspiring to assasinate him. The would be assassins were arrested and finally came to trial in April of this year.

At the trial they were convicted if threatening public security and falsefying documents. However there wasn’t enough evidence to convict them of murder or even attempted murder, which old long beard had wanted.

Mireya announced this morning that she had pardoned the 4 Miami/Cubans and they left on a plane at 7am this morning. This of course after the Cuban government exposes attempt by President Moscoso to pardon four anti-Cuban Terrorists. After which Mireya recalled her ambassador to Cuba.

So today has been interesting. I went to the Supermarket this afternoon and noticed that the police had cordoned off access to the main road that goes by the university. Out in the distance I saw a bunch of young looking guys in the middle of the road. I figured those damn students again. These guys are the scourge of the taxi drivers and any other drivers for that matter in Panama. Right I was. The 23 member communist student association known by FER (I’m guessing the R stands for Revolucionario, but otherwise I’m clueless), were marching on the streets, demanding justice.

Then on the news tonight I just saw Mireya always her charming self, cussing a journalist off for being rude while explaining her side of the story.

The Cuban government claim that Colin Powell asked Mireya to pardon them on his last visit here. She claims that is nonsense. She says it was for humanitarian reasons, as the next president might extradite them to Cuba where they would almost certainly be executed.

Secondly she said that Castro’s intelligence aparatus never told Panamanian police about their knowledge of a planned attempt, until Castro held his press conference. It looks like this is what Mireya is most upset about. She said repeatedly that this was all about Castro creating a political show.

You know what. He might have been known to do that once or twice before. The big question for people like me is, was what they were planning terrorism? If they had actually planned it and were caught, is that the same as the Al Qaeda guys icaught planning attacks in the US and England? It’s quite a difficult question, because on one hand. Castro himself was/is a terrorist. He has inflicted his fantastic workers paradise on his people, for whom the thought of selling themselves for sex is more attractive than going for work at the fantastic free hospitals. I don’t know. I used to be against the embargo, but at the moment I’m thinking why stop now, he’s going to pop soon anyway. I’m not for assasinations (generally speaking), even though he is a nasty (and extremely boring long winded) guy.

So Mireya claims she’s had several death threats today. One which was traced to a second floor phone at the childrens hospital in Panama. She also claims they know who are most of the Panamanians on the pay by Cuban intelligence. Finally she said that she figures Martin Torrijos the president elect whill reinstate diplomatic connections due to his close family connections with Castro.

An interesting day indeed.