Jimmy claims new pier for Panama

COLON. Government ministers and policemen led by Minister of the Presidency, “Jimmy” Papadimitriu, descended on a pier built by Ocean Pollution Control (OPC) in Manzanillo Bay, Colon and declared it property of the state.

This was the latest in the government’s ongoing crusade against property concessions that were given out illegally under previous administrations.

Papadimitriu said that his express orders from President Ricardo Martinelli were to “look over the site and take back the part of the landfill where the pier has been built” which, according to the minister, is “completly illegal”.

Martime Authority (AMP) administrator, Roberto Linares, said that a 2008 resolution informed the company that work could not start without endorsement from the Treasury but that OCP went ahead and started anyway.

OCP spokesperson Jose Miguel Guerra said that the company had been paying on a monthly basis for a provisional permit and that the last receipt was dated September 9.