Panamanian natives hope to unite for Panama Independence Day bash
They brought out the pigs' feet when they finished business.

A cumbia beat cranked from the stereo. Some guests danced in the living room, while others made dents in the pizza-sized pans of saffron rice and saos, or pigs' feet doused in lime.

Both dishes are popular in Panama, the Central American country sandwiched between Costa Rica and Colombia.

The dozen Panama natives recently gathered in a North Naples home to hatch plans for a club for the area's Panamanian population.

While scarce compared with the numbers coming from other Spanish-speaking countries, word of Southwest Florida is drifting to the country of 3 million people.

Families also are trickling from Miami to escape bustle and traffic.

Collier County's Panamanian population jumped from nine people in 1990 to 96 in 2000. In Lee County, it rose from 121 to 219 during the same time.

"We're doing our best to find the others," said Marco Salomon.

Laughing, his wife added, "We just don't know where they're at."

Marco moved to Fort Myers short of a year ago to marry Anna Marie, a Lee County school bus driver.

The Salomons hope the group can knit a support net for recent arrivals and offer scholarships to Panamanian students here.

"He's found it very difficult and frustrating," said Anna Marie.

Starting an hour late, Walter Bado welcomed the guests to his home, looked at his watch and chortled, "We have a problem of time but we understand. We're Panamanians."

One corner of the house is devoted to Panama with ceramic mugs with vistas of the country and framed molas, or hand-stitched fabric.

While Bado's grandmother and wife tended to the rice, members swapped stories over cheese doodles around the dining room table about how they're recruiting for the group.

Bado, a 35-year-old house painter, recalled honking his car horn wildly and rolling down his window to call out to a driver with Panamanian flag on his license plate.

Others have approached strangers at Publix stores sporting a piece of their flag on a bracelet or necklace. Their ears are tuned to the mention of the country in nail salons and beauty shops.

A previous stab at organizing the group fell flat a year ago. Less than a handful of people was showing up. They recently sent about 10 letters to Panamanians known to be in Southwest Florida.

Only one person responded.

"We're not as united as other groups," said Rosa Santos, a 35-year-old Fort Myers accountant who met her new husband through the group.

Some members worried their children reared here would dismiss their parents' culture. That's why they joined the group.

To introduce Panama to Southwest Florida, group members agreed to throw a Panama Independence Day bash on Nov. 6.

Aurelio Harbor, a 44-year-old Spanish tutor at Lely High School in East Naples, has a 6-year-old daughter and 3-month-old son.

"We want to extend the culture of Panama to our children born here," he says. "We have to pass on the tradition."

Chilean judge interrogates Pinochet over killing of opponents
A Chilean judge questioned former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on Saturday over Operation Condor, a conspiracy of a number of South American dictators to kill left-wing political opponents in the 1970s.

The interrogation took place at the 88-year-old Pinochet's house, located at the luxurious neighborhood of La Dehesa, in Santiago.

Judge Juan Guzman stayed at Pinochet's house for about one hour. Before leaving the place, he did not say a word to reporters waiting outside.

However, Guzman told a local radio later that he only asked Pinochet six of the total 14 questions because of the former dictator's poor health, but said he was satisfied with the questioning.

The judge also said Saturday that the retired general will havea medical examination next week.

In August, Chile's Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to strip Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, which was granted to him in July 2002 on grounds that the former president's mild dementia made him unfit to stand trial.

The court's August ruling opened the way for him to stand trial for his part in Operation Condor, a coordinated plan by South American military regimes to help one another eliminate their opponents through detentions, kidnappings and assassinations.

Guzman seeks to determine Pinochet's share of responsibility in the killings and disappearances of 19 Chilean leftists in 1975 and 1976 in other South American countries.

Pinochet was interrogated by another Chilean judge last month over a separate case involving secret multi-million-US-dollar accounts discovered in a US bank in Washington by a US Senate investigation.