April 9, 2020
Heeding my own warnings, I left out this afternoon to ensure we had all of the basics to last us from now until next Tuesday. As reported by MINSA and Panama’s President yesterday, everything is going to be shut down Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and my wife wouldn’t have gone out tomorrow even if she could. I’m not sure at what point this happened, but somewhere along the way it just got decided that I was the more expendable of the two. The “basics” started off being eggs, milk, vegetables, chicken, fish and coffee and anything else that I thought we needed during the long weekend. So, seeing as I was foolishly put in charge, I went over to Price Smart in Brisas del Golf and got another garden hose, sprayer, alcohol wipes, light bulbs, batteries, shampoo, maple syrup, Doritos, Ruffles, 10 pounds of dog biscuits that I’ve since learned my dogs don’t like, Compressed Air, Gatorade, paper towels, WD-40, soap and quite frankly I’m embarrassed to admit the rest. Although, I am quite proud of myself for not getting any toilet paper, I may be raffling off the dog biscuits; stay tuned:
PROTESTS TODAY IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS OF SAN MIGUELITO:
I left Price Smart at Brisas del Golf and because I forgot to get eggs and couldn’t go back in, I decided to head over to the Super 99 store in Villa Lucre, but the line was already too long. I abandoned the idea of getting eggs altogether and continued towards the Northern Corridor (Corredor Norte) by way of Villa Lucre. On the way, the national police were already handling one disturbance but I got through. On the North Corredor itself, I was rerouted off against traffic towards Las Colinas and then worked my way around Santa Librada, Santa Rita until I got to the poor man’s corridor (Corredor de los Pobres) as the locals call it; “Corredor Panama Norte” is the official name. On the way, I skirted a few more protests and even got an on the ground report from the locals. Basically, the food trucks that the government have been delivering haven’t gotten to everyone as quickly as they wanted, so in what seemed to be a coordinated effort, there were protests north of Villa Lucre, Cerro Batea, Samaria, Santa Martha and San Isidro. I wouldn’t go as far as to call them “riots”, but some were burning tires and throwing rocks.
(Photos taken today on the Corredor Norte at the Tinajitas exit and the Villa Lucre exit.)
LAW ENFORCEMENT AFFECTED:
Right now, everything everywhere is weighing in on health and security. Sadly enough, this virus is starting to take its toll on local law enforcement just as we’ve seen with medical professionals here and around the world. As per a report from Telemetro, 228 members of the police have come up positive for COVID-19 and 457 are presently under preventive quarantine; 2 have died. Panama is a small country to have 457 police units stuck at home under quarantine. Even a large US state like New York would be hurting to have that many police officers off duty right now (and they very well may).
I’ve had the opportunity to work together with the local police on any number of occasions during my 30 years here as a private investigator. Yes, there are some that are a complete disgrace to the force, but just like most places around the world, the good units greatly outweigh the bad in Panama. Panama doesn’t have a military force to protect them. The Panama Defense Force was dismantled with the Panama Invasion of December 1989 and the National Police was born. It’s easy to take them for granted even at a time like this. For those of you reading, if you have to be on the road next week, carry a few bottles of water or Gatorade to hand out to these good men and women. As a matter of fact, it definitely wouldn’t hurt to take the time to bake some cookies for the police that protect your immediate area as a sign of solidarity. They really could use a break from the 24-hr shifts, nonstop action and the unbearable heat.
THANK YOU PANAMA LAW ENFORCEMENT!!
SOME INTERESTING TIDBITS:
- Today is officially ONE MONTH since Panama detected their first case of the CoronaVirus.
- MITRADEL reports that 805 Panamanian companies have requested the suspension of contracts for all or some of their employees.
- Resolution #24 asks the government workers that receive a salary of at least B/.1,000.00 to “voluntarily donate” 20% of their salary to the “Panama Solidarity Plan”. The resolution states that any amount donated will be 100% deductible from their income taxes.
- Waste Management workers (dump truck drivers) have been experiencing a rash of thefts during the crisis which has caused them to stop picking up trash at some locations in the area of San Miguelito.
- Today there were lines and lines of men shopping in preparation for the long weekend. (Yeah, tell me about it.) One classic ritual on Thursdays is the extensive purchase of seafood at the Mercado del Marisco and although the crisis has slowed every down, the mercado was still very much open for business and bustling today.
- Another 443 people were detained for noncompliance of the quarantine. There were videos going around social media of one gentleman politely being escorted off a MetroBus and then getting the snot whacked out of him by a couple of police officers. I’m not a fan of police brutality, but this jerk deserved a good attitude adjustment. Later in the day, the same idiot was filmed twice, once complaining about the arrest and the again threatening his neighbors and breaking their windows. You may remember the videos; red shirt, looks just like a jerk?
- The Minera Panama copper mines have been hit hard with the virus. So far there was one death and 15 people detected with the virus. All infected miners were relocated to the Decameron Hotel in Farallon which MINSA has been using as one of many locations to isolate infected patients. Decameron announced their closure until June 30, 2020.
- For those of you who like to play the Panama National Lottery, it was suspended recently and today the National Lottery announced that the suspension will continue for at least another week.
- Chiriquí is in for a treat. You may start seeing local police officers on horseback as well as drones as they work towards protecting some of the area’s cattle farms that have been hit hard by theft of livestock.
- Flu season is upon us. Oh joy! Panama received 1,442,920 vaccines against Influenza. Vaccines will be dispatched around Panama as soon as April 13 and available to the public by April 15 or 16. Priority will be for children under 5 years and …… individuals who have surpassed their 60th birthday… you’re not going to catch me using the “e” word.
STATUS UPDATE:
Panama has detected another 224 CoronaVirus cases for a total of 2,752. MINSA stated that 2,367 patients are under home isolation, of which 524 are in hotels.
There are 303 people hospitalized and 107 of them are in ICU. There are now 66 people reported as having died from COVID19, but 16 have completely recovered. Since yesterday, no one else has recovered. My guess is that this week we should be seeing a boom in recoveries. Call it wishful thinking if you want, but something has to give soon.
END NOTE:
I really don’t enjoy ending these reports in the ominous “Status Update”. From now on, just like in many of the Marvel movies, I´m going to add a little extra at the end.
I mentioned earlier in this report that we should all do something for the local police, if you aren’t already doing something for them. We have a long weekend ahead of us and lots of time on our hands. You can kill two birds with one stone here. You can occupy yourselves this weekend and every weekend by making cookies. Then on Monday, when we’re allowed out, you could contact your local lawman, lawwoman or law individual and donate to their station a dozen cookies or so. We could graciously call this “COOKIES FOR COPS”. It has a good ring to it and won´t get us into trouble like “CASH FOR COPS” most definitely would.
(I swear that I had no idea that “Cookies for Cops” was already a thing in the US – I took this photo from the internet.)
Stay safe… Stay healthy… And by all means STAY HOME!!…
Brett Mikkelson, CII, CPE
Director, B.M. Investigations, Inc. | M1 Consultants Inc
Mobile (+507) 6674-1183
brett@bminvestigations.com | www.bminvestigations.com
Proud Member of: Council of International Investigators (President 2018-2019), World Association of Detectives (International Member), Victory Services Club (London), Examinadors de Fraude Autorizados (Panama), Alianza de Seguridad Empresarial (Panama)
