ACROSS the isthmus

Panama. Bosco Vallarino, Mayor of Panama, was called before the City Council’s Commission for Transparency yesterday to continue his explanations of why he requested nearly $5,000 of public funds to pay for his wife, who is not a civil servant, to travel overseas earlier this month. According to information obtained by La Estrella, the Transparency Commission will also be questioning him about his wife’s trip to Colombia with the Panama Governor in July, which he also tried to charge to the public purse and was refused.

Panama. Investigations into the deaths of more than 130 people, who died in 2006 after taking Social Security medicines containing diethyline-glycol, will re-open in October. Earlier this year, the case was sent back to the Attorney General’s office by the Supreme Court who requested that the scope of investigations be widened. The person in charge of the new investigation was attorney Dimas Guevara - the same person who called for current Social Security director, Rene Luciani, to present himself to the Attorney General’s office every 15 days after he was arrested in connection with the poisonings for crimes against public security in June 2007. The lawyer who defended him against this precautionary measure - and helped to get him reinstated - was Jeronimo Mejia, now a judge in the Supreme Court. Luciani is due to step down as CSS head at the end of the month. The Committee for Victims and Family Members for the Right to Health and Life are concerned that once he leaves the CSS, Luciani will no longer be called to account. “We are worried about the way in which the authorities or tribunal will treat the case once it leaves the attorney general´s office,” a spokesperson said.