The deputy and president of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party, Benicio Robinson, promotes another proposal to accommodate the geographic and political space of his province, Bocas del Toro.
Now he intends to create the district of Bastimentos, and the corregimientos of Bahía Honda, Quebrada Sal and Solarte. Although the initiative was presented by his alternate Rupilio Ábrego before the plenary session, the document bears the signature of Robinson himself.
Rupilio Ábrego, substitute for the PRD deputy Benicio Robinson, presented a bill that creates the special district of Bastimentos in the province of Bocas del Toro, and also gives life to three new districts in the new district: Bahía Honda, Quebrada Sal and Solarte.
The legislative proposal must now be analyzed by the Municipal Affairs Commission, which is chaired by the PRD deputy Javier Sucre. This bill joins the long list of similar bills that have changed the geographic and political map of the country in recent years. At the end of 2020, President Laurentino Cortizo sanctioned the so-called Benicio Law, which created 11 new corregimientos in Bocas del Toro, and segregated Cauchero from Isla Colón, which was considered a political move, and a punishment for Cauchero, the last opposition stronghold in Bocas del Toro. This law was promoted by Robinson, president of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
The new district of Bastimentos, according to the draft, would be segregated from the main district of the province: Bocas del Toro (Isla Colón). Currently, the island of Bastimentos is a corregimiento, and according to estimates by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), in 2020 it had a population of 2,679 people.
Although Ábrego presented the bill before the plenary session, the initiative was signed by Robinson himself.
These geographical areas, like the corregimientos created with the Benicio Law (2020), would maintain their current organization until the general elections of May 2024, where the corresponding mayors and corregimiento representatives will be elected.
In the explanatory memorandum, Robinson stated that “raising the current district of Bastimentos to a district will promote development and improve the well-being of the population.” He also argued that the creation of the district will help promote tourism development on the island and added that the bill “responds to the need expressed by the communities.”
As a district, Bastimentos would receive direct transfers of decentralization funds and would have a Municipal Council that would manage its own budget and the decentralization funds. Currently, Ashburn Dixon Santos, from the PRD, is the representative of that district of Bocatoreño.
