Shifts in Panama - The Military Steps Ahead
Dominguez, E.
After nearly a year of deceptive tranquility, following General Omar Torrijos' death in an air crash, Panama became the scene of farreaching political shifts. Between March and...
...Panama's "official Left," as reformers within the governing party are called, had betrayed popular interests too many times...
...and serious divisions within the ruling PRD party threatened to dash its electoral hopes even before the race began...
...Again, members of the PRD's social democratic faction were replaced by its "business wing" and representatives of the right-wing opposition, while conservative government officials were quickly reinstated...
...He had successfully maneuvered for enough time to prepare for the 1984 elections...
...Royo Can't Resist The position of President Aristides Royo was too weak to pose much opposition to the ambitions of General Paredes...
...Right-wing sectors, which stand to gain the most from these changes, went through the motions of denouncing this mockery of constitutional procedures...
...Yet because they were staged so skillfully, and were in large part predictable, they caused hardly a stir...
...social democrats within the government were purged...
...A panel of distinguished NACLA Reportupdate update update*update jurists, established to revise the Constitution, was heavily weighted with members of the country's traditional elite...
...Presidential Ambitions General Paredes makes no secret of his presidential aspirations in 1984...
...Royo was resigning...
...And nationalism is still the bottom line...
...But if the shake-up in command did not dispel all tensions, it did establish an internal agreement that would enable the Guard to reassert itself as the decisive power in the land...
...To maintain a certain balance among rival cliques within the Guard, the position of Colonel Manuel Noriega, chief of military intelligence, and other officers was enhanced...
...But the popular outrage that might once have accompanied such dramatic shifts to the right was entirely missing...
...role in the Malvinas crisis and boldly called for the creation of a new inter-American organization that would exclude the United States...
...Paredes was scheduled for mandatory retirement from the Guard in September 1982, after 25 years of service...
...The president's absence was the subject of much speculation-until Royo went on television several hours later...
...Flores began to negotiate with the private sector without consulting the General Staff...
...Without Torrijos, latent rivalries within the National Guard rose to the surface...
...The Reagan Administration, displeased by Panama's resistance to its Central American policies, also took advantage of the regime's vulnerability to twist its arm...
...It was in just this fashion, without attempts to avoid embarrassment or dissemble the shift in power, that the liquidation of President Royo and his social democratic allies began...
...Between March and September, the head of the National Guard was removed...
...Colonel Florencio Flores be3update * update *update * update came commander-in-chief simply because he was next in line after Torrijos...
...The only pretense of pluralism in the new government was cleverly reserved for two ministries that would bear the blame for unpopular policies: housing, put in the hands of Communist Party representatives, and labor, under the control of influential union bureaucrats...
...conflicts emerged between the Guard and the civilian president, Aristides Royo...
...Now they could call on few supporters to prevent their own demise...
...But he also knows that without his base in the National Guard, his chances for winning the presidency are virtually nil...
...His attempts to make friends with conservative business sectors had been thwarted by members of his own 40 party, who blocked his legislative initiatives...
...The Torrijos legacy is still strong...
...If they coincide in their opposition to the Left and demands for the reversal of many reforms, they differ on everything else...
...The final blow fell on July 31, the first anniversary of Torrijos' death...
...Southern Command and an ardent supporter of Washington's interventionist policy in Central America...
...The forces he wants and needs to unite are extremely fractious, however...
...In addition to other "recommendations to the new president, Paredes also announced the closure of the country's newspapers for seven days...
...A new political balance was in the making...
...But it remains to be seen how much Paredes can move Panama's foreign policy to the right...
...His personal popularity, and his remarkable skill at playing one politiScal faction against another, seemed to guarantee that he would continue to dominate any new coalitionand that Panama's stability would be preserved...
...President Royo countered the next day that no changes were contemplated...
...But he lacked a following among the officer corps, recognition outside the military and strong ties to the bourgeoisie...
...The right-wing opposition pounced on these weaknesses to score political points...
...Perhaps not by mere coincidence, there was a storm of popular protests against the Royo government during this period of shifting balances and testing of political waters...
...Instead of fostering cohesion, his actions threatened internal unity-and this was all the excuse his rivals needed to call for his ouster...
...On March 3, the General Staff announced that, along with other senior officers, Colonel Flores was retiring after 25 years of service, as required by law...
...Torrijos' death had left its power diffused among rival officer cliques, with a line of command that did not correspond to the real balance of power within the General Staff...
...the president was forced to resign...
...In a perfectly clear and resonant voice, he announced that he no longer would be able to perform his duties as president due to a throat ailment...
...Rumors flew that his chief rival, Colonel Noriega, and other officers would make sure-by force if necessary-that he resign...
...The Final Blow In April, General Paredes declared emphatically that major Cabinet changes were needed to rid the government of corruption and incompetence...
...By the late 1970s, a clear political choice had been made: to compensate for waning popular support, the regime would seek a rapprochement with Panama's dominant elites-the very sectors it had alienated with its rhetoric of reform.* * For a more in-depth treatment of the fate of reformism under Torrijos, see "Panama: For Whom the Canal Tolls," NACLA Report on the Americas (Sept-Oct 1979...
...They must be understood within the context of shifting alliances and priorities toward the end of his thirteen-year rule...
...If before the military shake-up Royo was a lame-duck president, now he was the proverbial scapegoat...
...The opposition scoffed at Royo's impotence, and the newspapers they control carried almost daily headlines of government corruption and incompetence...
...The only question was who would prevail: the social democrats, who clung nostalgically to the reformist image of Torrijos' early years, or the "business wing" of the party, a slick clique of bankers, industrialists and financiers, whose influence was steadily on the rise...
...Regroupment and Reconciliation Popular support for the Torrijos government began to erode as its promises of reform gave way to the exigencies of economic austerity and political pragmatism...
...His sudden death did not call into question the need for "regroupment," but it dramatically changed the context in which it would take place...
...But the shift to the right was irresistible, carried out with crack efficiency...
...Among those who applauded Paredes' new lease on life was General Wallance Nutting, commander of the U.S...
...The general's "I'm in charge" attitude did little to endear him to many Panamanians who would like to see the military's role reduced...
...His gestures did evoke a popular response, but they also aroused the enmity of Washington, which had never liked Royo anyway, and now saw compelling reason to get him out...
...Torrijos was intent on forging a new coalition, with strong backing from the private sector, that would enable his party to prevail in the elections scheduled for 1984...
...The origins of this "constitutional coup" predate the death of Torrijos...
...Leading the procession were General Paredes, clearly aiming to be recognized as the new and true successor, and Vice President Ricardo de la Espriella...
...The government had declared a national day of mourning and organized a huge procession to honor the fallen general...
...On September 6, at the request of President de la Espriella and the General Staff of the National Guard, Paredes agreed to retain his command for another two years...
...Between now and then, he will be building his coalition-offering Panama's right-wing opposition better terms than Torrijos had he lived, but furthering that same process of "regroupment" begun several years ago...
...For a country that has enjoyed considerable stability within a volatile region, these events were extraordinary...
...Paredes, by positioning himself as the indispensable power broker, the man through whom all deals must pass, hopes.to keep his rivals at bay...
...Years of regressive economic policies had caused serious hardship and the Royo government certainly deserved its share of blame...
...and a new general emerged as the key contender for the strongman role left vacant by Torrijos...
...Named to replace him was General Ruben Dario Paredes, former minister of agriculture, friend of bankers and oligarchs and, at age 47, the man most frequently mentioned as the PRD's next presidential candidate...
...Within an hour, General Paredes appeared on the same TV screen to welcome de la Espriella as the new president, and to suggest that it would make the president's job much easier if the Cabinet and top government officials, including diplomats, would submit their resignations-by Monday, please...
...But the unexpected ferocity of the protests, and their manipulation by conservative forces to discredit the president, was one more factor in shifting the balance toward the Right, Royo tried to recapture popular support by taking a more assertive, nationalist stance...
...It was a clear test of strength and, not surprisingly, three days later the Cabinet was overhauled...
...A Changing of the Guard The first institution to succumb to these strains was the National Guard...
...After four years of standing on the sidelines, the National Guard, with Paredes in command, made clear that it intended to call the shots...
...Cabinet posts were filled by the "business wing" of the PRD and all blame for past mistakes and misdeeds was assigned to the luckless reformers...
...The protests, led by striking teachers, reflected the accumulated grievances of the working and middle classes...
...Yet he was certainly ambitious and eager to expand his role, and Panama's opposition parties began to court him in an effort to circumvent and undermine the more liberal President Royo...
...How did all this come about and why...
...He denounced the U.S...
Vol. 16 • September 1982 • No. 5
