Halloween lottery snafu

WHAT WAS  meant to be a way of reminding a large part of Panama’s population of  an important piece of the country’s history turned into a humiliating embarrassment with mia culpas being thrown about like discarded losing lottery tickets.

Panama’s  National Lottery decided to mark the 112 years of the separation of Panama from Colombia by using the flags of the two countries on the Sunday November 1 lottery tickets.

Instead, history was re-written with the graphic showing Panama’s flag alongside the flag of Ecaudor, illustrating a divorce from a union that never existed.

Lottery Director Efraín Medina acknowledged the mistake through a statement on October 31, the night when tricking and treating  is the rule.

In the statement, he apologized to the countries of Colombia and Ecuador. Internally the institution is investigating the reasons for the mistake.