The Erickson Report, Page 1: Panama

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Panama

I talked about this last time. We Americans are rather parochial in our view of the world: We tend to ignore events outside our borders unless they affect us directly. We need to realize we are not alone on this planet. So this show will be all international news. Because, again, we are not alone.

I'm starting with this one because it helps illustrate the point I wanted to make this time out. I learned about this from a report from Human Rights Watch. I then looked for other sources and could find for all practical purposes nothing about it in the English-language press. There was some in the Spanish-language press, but my Spanish is not nearly good enough to take advantage of that.

I don't have a lot of subscriptions to various newspapers, but I do use a couple of news scrapers, there are a couple of news sites I can check out, and I am rather adept at internet searches. And pretty much the only thing I came up with was a link in one scraper to the Human Right Watch report that started it all.

So bear that in mind as you consider if it might have been nice to have heard about this.

Nearly two years ago, in January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark advisory ruling that recognized same-sex marriage and transgender rights and called on the nations in its jurisdiction to take steps towards marriage equality.

At that time, the government of Panama signaled it would comply with the ruling. But in 2019, that same government has been looking to institute constitutional changes that run directly contrary to that same ruling.

There are actually a number of proposals on various constitutional issues being considered in Panama which have received preliminary support by the legislature. Some of those involve modifying the national budget and even appointing a special prosecutor who could pursue charges against state attorneys that investigate legislators - meaning the only person who could pursue charges against legislators without fear of reprisals is the person they control. Can you say "corruption?"

There were already street protests against those proposals as well as one to restrict LGBTQ rights. Those rights became front and center when on October 29 legislator Jairo “Bolota” Salazar barred a group of protesters from entering the National Assembly building, saying “They are gay and they cannot enter.”

Salazar's rant drew extra attention to the fact that one of the proposals would amend the constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Panama already excludes same-sex couples from marriage under Article 26 of its Family Code, but this would write that discriminatory law into the nation's constitution, effectively barring LGBTQ folks from being equal members of Panamanian society.

This comes in the face of a wave of regional progress on marriage equality. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, and many Mexican states already perform same-sex marriages, with Costa Rica slated to start in 2020. But not Panama if the legislature has its way.

Salazar tried to walk back his homophobic remarks, but he and fellow members of his Democratic Revolutionary Party said they had no intention of scrapping the bigoted proposal.

What followed was a week of street protests. Police responded with arbitrary detentions and excessive force - but ultimately to no avail as despite the police, despite Salazar, despite the legislature, the protests were too strong and the government had to stand down.

On November 8, President Laurentino Cortizo recommended that many of the controversial constitutional amendments be scrapped, including the one banning marriage equality, putting off any further discussion of constitutional reforms until the next legislative session in 2020.

So while this still can come again, I call this a win for our side.

A PS just to give you an idea of what kind of guy Salazar is.

Police were called to break up a rowdy party in Colon in the early hours of November 10. Police were reportedly assaulted with bottles while they attempted to restore order.

Salazar came out in defense of one of the accused attackers and went to the local police headquarters where he threatened to break the head of one of the cops and invited him to take off his uniform and fight.

Can't say I'm surprised.