The current situation of Dan and Jeanie Miller in El Banco

[Lee Zeltzer]

Dan and Jeanie Miller, retired US citizens, are permanent residents of Panama. They purchased a small farm in the El Banco area in the District of Dolega, Chiriqui provence. The farm has one access road along a 500 meter easement through a citrus grove owned by a corporation, Citricos SA.

The easement is acknowledged to be valid by the government of Panama. Still Citricos prevented their access and egress by locking gates on the road. After appealing to local authorities, the Mayor of Dolega ordered the gate to be opened and removed. The local Corregedor, similar to a Justice of the Peace, supervised removal of the gates from their hinges.

Citricos responded by restoring the gate and digging a trench 20 feet wide, 5 feet deep and 6 feet across inside the gate. The mayor issued another order instructing Citricos to remove the gate and fill the trench. Citricos did nothing, the Mayor did nothing. People from the local community spent Friday afternoon August 14th filling the trench and removing the gates.

As of 6pm Friday August 14th Citricos returned with a backhoe and dug three more trenches across the road making it impossible for the Millers to leave their farm.

While the original trench was being filled, a group of children held a sign with a quote from Blaise Pascal; “Justice without force is impotent, force without justice is tyranny.” This quote is a message to the new President of Panama and his new government.

Only the strong hand of law can resolve this situation. If the government does not enforce it's laws to protect it's residents then it not a government worthy of international investment.

Hold your investments in Panama. The government response to this event will prove the rule of law exists in Panama or if no investor is safe in this land of great potential.

[Lee Zeltzer]

Sadly that happened in 2001
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_07/issue_01/business_04.html

[S. Yates]

curious...was the reference to an incident with Natalie's Orchid Island Juice (an isolated incident of nearly five years ago) generated by you? Was the Marler quote recent? Was the comments to the newspaper as of the date of this posting or from 2005? again, just curious why something from nearly five years ago was mentioned here today. I'm an old news guy and can't see relevance of something that old being newsy today.

[Produce Guy]

What is Citricos growing there? Oranges? Lemons? Limes? For some odd reason I'm recalling this is an avocado grove? Either way I have a market for each. Perhaps if the sell off some of their crops I could possibly help the Millers using the leverage as a "potential customer"? Hmmmm......

[S. Yates]

Hey Produce Guy...we have ties to the same industry. Check out worldwide produce marketers dot com.

[Produce Guy]

Ahhhh....I see. Sorry, was multi-tasking. Well, this is interesting indeed. I might know some of the same people.