This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PANAMA 002533 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
DEPT. FOR WHA/CEN 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/12/2014 
TAGS: PGOV KJUS PINR PM POLITICS FOREIGN POLICY
SUBJECT: PANAMA'S SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE CESAR 
PEREIRA: SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO? 
 
 
REF: A. PANAMA 1274 
     ¶B. PANAMA 823 
     ¶C. PANAMA 200 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Linda E. Watt for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OR THE LAW - WHICH COMES FIRST? 
--------------------------------------------- --- 

¶1.  (C) Controversy continues to swirl around the issue of 
whether Panama's Supreme Court Chief Justice Cesar PEREIRA 
Burgos must step down after turning 75 on September 23, 2004. 
 Comptroller General Alvin Weeden and numerous Pereira 
opponents have insisted that Pereira should step down from 
the Supreme Court.  They rest their claims on a 1998 law 
known as the "Ley Faundes," that requires all public 
officials to retire upon turning age 75.  On the other hand, 
Pereira himself and many others note that Article 200 of 
Panama's constitution grants a ten-year term to Supreme Court 
Magistrates without mention of age.  No law can trump the 
constitution.  Many Panamanians who consider Pereira a 
corrupted troglodyte would love to see him go, as would 
President Torrijos' Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), 
since Pereira is a Moscoso appointee.  Representatives of the 
Executive Branch recently punted the issue to Solicitor 
General Alma Montenegro de Fletcher (a founding PRD member), 
requesting that she opine on the applicability of the Ley 
Faundes to Pereira.  Fletcher has stated that the Ley Faundes 
should apply to all public servants, without exception.  But 
Pereira hasn't shown any signs of leaving.  At the same time, 
contrary to Montenegro, the Labor Committee of the 
Legislative Assembly is discussing reforming the law to 
exclude public officials with a constitutionally-mandated 
term.  Meanwhile, the presidency of the Supreme Court, one of 
the most important positions in the Panamanian government, 
and one of the most coveted prizes of political patronage, 
hangs in the balance. 
 
 
REROUTING THE PROBLEM 
--------------------- 

¶2.  (C) Opponents claim that the Torrijos administration's 
posturing on the separation of powers is insincere.  No one 
contests that Pereira's exit from the Supreme Court could 
pave the way for a PRD appointment, allowing President 
Torrijos to tip the balance of the Court in favor of his 
party.  (Pereira is one of five Moscoso appointees on the 
nine-member Supreme Court.)  Minister of the Presidency 
Ubaldino Real deferred to the Solicitor General when queried 
by the press on the Torrijos administration's position 
regarding the applicability of the "Ley Faundes" to Pereira. 
Granted, say Torrijos' opponents, Alma Montenegro de Fletcher 
has a positive reputation for objectivity, but she also is a 
founding member of the President's political party. 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The entire debate may end up without result. 
Popular Party legislator Jorge Hernan Rubio, elected as 
Second Vice President Ruben Arosemena's alternate, has 
proposed revising the "Ley Faundes."  Another Popular Party 
leader, Presidential Goals Secretary Ebrahim Asvat already 
pointed out that that since the constitution imposes no limit 
on the age of Supreme Court appointees, thus, there can 
logically be no maximum age either, but clarified that the 
judicial branch has the final say.  Legislator Rubio's 
proposal would clarify that the "Ley Faundes" does not apply 
to public officials whose term is fixed by the constitution. 
 
 
COMMENT: THEN AND NOW 
--------------------- 

¶4.  (C) As applied in the past, the "Ley Faundes" (Law 61 of 
1998) seems more a tool of political expediency than anything 
else.  Legal scholars argue that even the law's namesake, 
former Supreme Court Magistrate Jose Faundes, who had a 
penchant for the ponies and a known drinking problem, left 
because he was sick, not in compliance with the law.  Marine 
biologist Carlos Arellano Lennox was the most recent case 
study even though President Moscoso appointed him as Director 
of Panama's Environmental Authority (ANAM) well after his 
75th birthday.  Rumor has it that Moscoso chose to remove 
Arellano after only three weeks on the job after he refused 
to approve a shoddy environmental impact assessment of her 
controversial "Camino Ecologico" road project that was to be 
built through a national park in Panama's westernmost 
province of Chiriqui. 
 
 
¶5.  (C) La Prensa published a scathing editorial on October 
10 by its founder I. Roberto Eisenmann, Jr. on the Supreme 
Court.  Eisenmann states unequivocally that Magistrate 
Pereira must obey the law pointing out that Pereira himself 
has imposed on others in the past who challenged its 
constitutionality.  To many critics of Panama's judicial 
system, revising the "Ley Faundes" as Legislator Rubio has 
proposed would send the wrong message, leaving Magistrate 
Pereira and his colleagues "above the law" while civil 
society clamors to reduce the privileges and immunities of 
top public officials. 
 
 
¶6.  (C) Since President Torrijos took office on September 1, 
Panamanians have speculated about how he would get rid of 
Moscoso's least-liked and most criticized appointees, 
including Cesar Pereira, Winston Spadafora, and Alberto 
Cigarruista.  (NOTE: An allegation that PRD legislators were 
paid off to approve the Spadafora and Cigarruista 
appointments has not been proven.  END NOTE.)  The entire 
Torrijos administration has been very careful not to overtly 
violate the separation of powers despite the de facto synergy 
between the PRD executive and the PRD legislative majority. 
No matter whether Pereira stays or goes, to boost the 
rock-bottom credibility of Panama's highest court, President 
Torrijos must appoint Supreme Court magistrates who are above 
reproach.  Assuming that Pereira will stay, as he shows every 
sign of doing, Magistrate Arturo Hoyos' December 2004 
departure when his ten-year term ends will be an early test 
of Torrijos' resolve to make good his campaign pledge of 
depoliticizing Panama's highest court. 
 
 
¶7.  (C) In private conversations with the Ambassador, 
President Torrijos and senior members of his cabinet have 
repeatedly expressed their high level of frustration with the 
Supreme Court.  The President is clearly considering options 
as to how to ease out at least some of the most controversial 
justices.  As the new government struggles to investigate the 
well-covered tracks of Moscoso administration corruption, the 
tawdry state of the Supreme Court impedes serious judicial 
consideration of these and other corruption cases. 
WATT