OFF the CUFF: New kid on the block tackles Teflon ruler

The installation of  Panama’s National Assembly lawmakers on July 1 could see empty seats as challenges in the Electoral Tribunal remain unresolved while a new deputy -elect challenges the Assembly president’s latest ploy.to show who rules

Meanwhile, the offices of 36 non-reelected deputies are being cleared out and desks chairs and filing cabinets litter the hallways of the institution where many of the departed. and some of the reelected lags, sat playing with their smartphones as legislation stalled.

 Undeterred Yanibel Ábrego the teflonAmazon who currently fills the presidency of the Assembly, battling to safeguard her flock from an investigation by auditors of the Comptroller General,  is inviting elected deputies and their stand-ins to a meeting at the Sheraton Hotel on the functioning and procedures that govern the state body.

Her invitation got a quick RSVP,  from newly independent deputy elect, Juan Diego, Vásquez, who at 22,  and part of the “: no to reelection” movement garnered more votes than any other candidate in the country.

“It is so incoherent, so uncoordinated, so unpleasant to see that a person so questioned that has risen up against transparency, is the one who invites us to renew the Assembly. I think the important thing is the content, not who invites, but it is sad that a person like that is the one who makes the invitation to new deputies to change things,” Panamanista  Deputy, Juan Moya, who claims to be the only one among the anointed to not take advantage of the Form 80 cookie jar  said :  “Our message to the new deputies is that they dedicate themselves to making projects for the Panamanian people. This Assembly is a totally different world to the outside., “

All this while a meeting of the  Financial Action Task Force (FATF),  in Washington considers returning Panama to a gray list, largely because of the Assembly which failed to pass a law classifying tax evasion as a crime. I wonder why.