A damning indictment of Panama’s justice system

The shortcomings and errors of Panama’s judicial system were laid bare in a recent diagnosis by the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and the Central American Federation of Judges for Democracy reports La Prensa.

It speaks of the influence of, political actors and the private sector in the appointment of magistrates and judges and the inadequate implementation of Law 53 on the judicial career, and refers to impunity in cases of corruption.

“In general, citizens and organizations observe that there are no convictions for major corruption cases in the country. Most cases are dismissed due to procedural errors or lack of evidence,” the document says.

It  warns that “many cases of human rights violations are observed, such as sexual abuse of minors in shelters, in which justice does not seem to act.”

“There are multiple cases of corruption of judges and magistrates that have come to light and are under investigation, including cases of bribery by lawyers and cases of judicial default associated with the corruption of judicial officials,” warns the study.

When the diagnosis incorporates “corruption in the judicial system”, they mention the case of the son of Judge Cecilio Cedalise, who in 2020 was arrested in the middle of an operation for a drug and arms trafficking case. Days later, the plenary session admitted protection of guarantees that protected him from the precautionary measures ordered by a judge.

Executive interference
The study says “there is interference by the Executive Power when proposing, through the Cabinet Council, candidates for magistrates of the Supreme Court who are related to the government of the day”.

They also mention that “due to conflicts between the powers of the State, the Legislature has not ratified candidates proposed by the Executive.”

The most recent example of this scenario occurred in December 2017, in the government of Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019), when a National Assembly controlled by deputies from the PRD and Democratic Change refused to ratify anti-corruption prosecutor Zuleyka Moore and the lawyer Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak, as magistrates.

If there is something that the government of Laurentino Cortizo is proud of, it is the appointment of the magistrates. The president and his spokespersons recall the role that civil society has played in the appointments. With this mechanism, López Arias, Carlos Vásquez Reyes, Maribel Cornejo, Miriam Cheng and María Cristina Chen arrived at the court. Now they are looking for a replacement for José Ayú Prado, whose term expires December 31. Cortizo has the names of 11 lawyers who passed the filter of an evaluation commission.