These equipment would be contributed to Minsa by a company with an equally original name: Es Flor de Mayo Investment, SA. The Vice President of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo, has been or is linked to the people in the company.

With a good calibration, drones could practically determine a person's state of health. In this case, we could detect Covid-19 in people with fever, reported the Ministry of Health.

The announcement was made during the inauguration of the Operations Center for Community Control and Traceability in Coclé, an act in which the Minister of Health, Luis Sucre, as well as the Deputy Minister of Security, Ivor Pittí participated.

The Es Flor de Mayo Investment company - registered in the Public Registry in April 2019 - is made up of Julio Herrera (president), Jacqueline Rodríguez (secretary) and Harmodio Camargo (treasurer). Herrera and Rodríguez, in turn, appear in other companies whose directives have been or are Vice President José Carrizo, as well as their former boss, Richard Fifer, representative of mining companies in the province of Coclé.

For example, Carrizo chairs the company Construcción de Coclé, SA – registered in 2011 – in which Julio Herrera is the treasurer. The company has been suspended since November 2019 for late payment. In 2017, its managers had been warned that they had been delinquent in paying the single rate for three years.

Meanwhile, at the Petaquilla Foundation - chaired by Fifer - Lydia de Carrizo, mother of Vice President Carrizo, appeared as founder treasurer until 2016. That year, Herrera was appointed vice president of the company.

Jacqueline Rodríguez, replaced Carrizo as treasurer in the company Renovación de Penonomé, SA, on March 6, 2016.

La Prensa searched the records of the Customs Authority to find out how many drones the company Es Flor de Mayo Investment had imported, but no imports were found.

The operating notice, issued on May 7, 2019, by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, reported that this company is dedicated to the transport and / or treatment of drinking water. The business address in the operation notice and in the Public Registry is: Calle Santa Ana, green house, La Pintada, Coclé.

Last December, the Technological University and Es Flor de Mayo Investment signed an agreement of cooperation for the execution of projects and advice. The participation of Fifer is not mentioned in the press release, although he appears at the main table at the act of signing the agreement, along with Herrera, president of the company.

Fifer is under a precautionary measure that prevents him from leaving the country, through a criminal proceeding that follows him for the alleged withholding of more than $3 million from the employer's contributions of the Social Security Fund. It also faces a complaint for alleged environmental violation for the operation of the mining project in Donoso, Colón, which was carried out by the Petaquilla Gold company.

Questions raised

Who recommended the measurement of temperature through drones? Are there any studies that demonstrate its effectiveness? What is the experience of this society in such activities? Is there a contract with the company Es Flor de Mayo Investment? These were questions that La Prensa sent to the Minister of Health, Luis Sucre, since last July 20, several of them still unanswered.

The day after having sent the questions to the Minsa, the institution partially addressed the issue in an official statement, answering some questions raised by this means. In the statement, it was ensured - after four days of promoting the use of drones - that they would not be used, without indicating the reason for it.

The Minsa statement indicates that the regional director of Health of Coclé, Mario Lozada, was the one who reported that 'the initiative' to use the drones came from the governor of Coclé, Renault Domínguez.

There is no contract with the company, said Lozada. He added that last week he delivered a report to Sucre, who was very interested, and that perhaps alliances would be made and later they could make a decision about the use of drones.

There was no mention about the effectiveness of this technology and the experience of society. Nor who from the company offered the service.