An Unfinished Project and a Businessman Arrested for Alleged Corruption Involving the Penonomé Sports Complex.
The Penonomé Sports Complex was supposed to be finished in May 2026, but it remains unfinished while Luis Gaitán Mendoza, who until September 11 was the legal representative of one of the contracting companies, is detained.
The Penonomé Sports Complex was not delivered on the contractual date, and four months later, Pandeportes has neither officially accepted the project nor announced whether it will impose sanctions on the consortium or execute the performance bond. The Penonomé Sports Complex was supposed to be finished in May 2026, but it remains unfinished while Luis Gaitán Mendoza, who until September 11 was the legal representative of one of the contracting companies, is detained for an investigation of alleged corruption, organized crime and money laundering. With the resignation, Juan José Zonta Sing took over as head of the consortium. Gaitán surrendered to the authorities after the National Police issued a search alert in early September, as part of Operation Mirage. He is currently being held while an appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the $800,000 bail granted to him by a judge is resolved.
The Penonomé Sports Complex includes an athletics stadium, bleachers, bike paths, lighting, storm drains, and other sports facilities. The deadline for its completion passed last May, and the project has not yet been officially accepted by Pandeportes (the Panamanian Sports Institute).
An Expired Deadline and Two Addenda.
The Penonomé Sports Complex was conceived as the “star” of stadiums in Coclé. Almost three years after the notice to proceed was issued, the more than $15.4 million project remains unfinished. The contract exhausted the 540 days of execution (1 year and 6 months) originally agreed in the contract. The Panamanian Institute of Sports (Pandeportes) subsequently extended the deadline to 839 calendar days (2 years and 4 months), but that new date also expired without the work having been officially received.
The project was awarded to the Miraflores Consortium, the only participant in the best value tender held in December 2022. The consortium is made up of Construcciones y Mantenimiento General, SA and China CAMC Engineering Co., Ltd. Panama Branch. The contract was signed during Luis Denis Arce’s tenure as head of Pandeportes. Arce, who was previously the organization’s deputy director, took over from Héctor Brands, who left the position in 2023. Brands, also a former congressman, has been detained since last December after being charged with the alleged crimes of illicit enrichment and money laundering.
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The Penonomé Sports Complex has been under construction for almost three years and is almost five months behind schedule since the expiration of the final contractual deadline.
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Miguel Ángel Ordóñez, director of Pandeportes, signed the two addenda that modified the contract to the Miraflores consortium.
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The second addendum, signed by Ordóñez in August 2025, extended the execution period by 299 days, from one year and six months to two years and four months.
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On September 11, 2026, Luis Gaitán Mendoza surrendered to the authorities and relinquished his position representing Construcciones y Mantenimiento General, SA. That same day, Juan José Zonta Sing assumed the presidency of the company, which is part of the Miraflores Consortium.
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Another multi-million dollar contract is that of the San Miguelito Regional University Center, which increased from $65.9 million to $84.6 million. Reports from the Public Prosecutor’s Office recorded transfers from the consortium to companies linked to Raúl Pineda and his son, Abraham Rico Pineda, who is under house arrest due to investigations stemming from Operation Jericho.
Ordóñez Signed Both Addenda.
The execution of the project began with a notice to proceed issued on December 28, 2023, with a term of 540 calendar days. That deadline expired, but Miguel Ángel Ordóñez, who replaced Denis Arce as head of Pandeportes in July 2024, modified the contract twice through addenda. The first amendment was signed on February 4, 2025. This modification did not extend the execution time but adjusted aspects related to the payment method. The document was endorsed by Comptroller Anel Flores on April 10, 2025.
The second addendum was signed on August 20, 2025, and did modify the contractual term: an additional 299 calendar days were granted. The addendum was ratified on January 12, 2026. The document justified the delays in the late approval of the environmental impact study, 178 days of temporary suspension of activities due to adverse “weather conditions” and delays in permits to intervene on the main road. With that extension, the deadline went from 540 to 839 calendar days and the new completion date was set for May 2, 2026. Four months have passed since the contract expiration without Pandeportes having officially received the work or published a new completion date on PanamaCompra.
$15.4 Million
It is the contract amount.
299 Days
Extension of the deadline granted by Pandeportes.
$84.6 Million
Another contract linked to Luis Gaitán Mendoza, who is under investigation by the authorities.
He Resigned Before Surrendering.
Gaitán Mendoza’s corporate movements changed the day before he surrendered to the authorities. On September 11, 2026, an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of Construcciones y Mantenimiento General, SA, one of the companies that make up the Miraflores Consortium, was formalized. At that meeting, Gaitán’s resignation as president of the society was accepted. Juan José Zonta Sing assumed the positions of president, secretary, and treasurer. Zonta is also listed as the company’s representative since 2012. The company was incorporated on February 26, 2009.
Another Multi-Million Dollar Contract.
Gaitán’s name also appears linked to another large-scale project: the San Miguelito Regional University Center, awarded to the HCG Consortium, where he was listed as president and legal representative, also until September 11. The project was initially contracted for $65.9 million and an addendum signed in April 2024 raised the amount to $84.6 million. The HCG Consortium is comprised of Health Care Products Centroamérica, SA and Construcciones y Mantenimiento General. Following Gaitán’s departure, Zonta also assumed the presidency, secretaryship, and treasurer positions of the HCG Consortium.
Luis Alberto Gaitán, then president of the HCG Consortium. June 3, 2025.
In June 2025, an investigation by news media revealed that bank transaction reports held by the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated money movements between accounts of the HCG Consortium and companies linked to Congressman Raúl Pineda and his son, Abraham Rico Pineda, who was arrested as part of Operation Jericho. One of the reports identified five transfers totaling $433,644.85 from an HCG Consortium account to Servicios Múltiples Rama, SA, a cleaning company linked to Rico Pineda. The transfers were made between June 2023 and April 2024.
The reports also recorded four transactions totaling $400,000 in favor of Soluciones de Entrega y Transporte, SA (Setsa), a company linked to Congressman Pineda and his son. Furthermore, documents in the possession of the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated transfers from Health Care Products Centroamérica accounts to personal accounts belonging to the Pinedas and two other individuals arrested in Operation Jericho. At the time, the consortium’s representatives denied any irregularities and maintained that the transfers were related to the consortium’s activities.
A Project That Still Has No Delivery Date.
The project included the construction of an athletics stadium with a nine-lane tartan track, areas for jumping and throwing, stands for 1,200 people, bike paths, lighting, storm drains, landscaping, a wastewater treatment plant and 120 parking spaces.
Second addendum of the Miraflores Consortium. Signed on August 20, 2025, it extended the execution period by 299 calendar days and received the endorsement of Comptroller Anel Flores on January 12, 2026.
News media requested information from Ordóñez, including whether Pandeportes would impose any sanctions on the Miraflores Consortium or execute the performance bond, as well as the reasons for granting the addenda that modified the contract. Although Ordóñez indicated he would respond, he did not answer the questions. The only thing he stated was that it was an “inherited project” and that the addenda “had not been ratified.” Official documents, however, show that both were indeed ratified in April 2025 and January 2026. In November 2025, during a tour of the project, Ordóñez indicated that the planned delivery date remained “for the time being May 2026” and that the work was 80% complete. May arrived, but the project delivery did not materialize.
