Comment
Readers are invited to address letters to the editor, NACLA, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York, NY 10115. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. On Panama Having once lived in...
...Vol...
...Klein correctly observes that Mayin Correa cannot qualify as a spokesperson for the progressive Left in Panama...
...A long and close association with the Torrijos regime clearly identifies her as an authority in Panama...
...On Panama Having once lived in Panama I read with interest NACLA's feature "Panama: Reagan's Last Stand...
...As the conflict intensified, Noriega suddenly accepted a long rebuffed CONATO call for a national dialogue...
...During the Barletta period, the labor movement organized widespread strikes and mobilizations that represented the emergence of a maturing working class leadership increasingly independent and critical of the military...
...The Panamanian people then are far from being mere spectators...
...Both the government and the opposition have worked to keep labor from becoming an independent base of grassroots power...
...Klein is unable to offer evidence that refutes Ms...
...This isolated the Right opposition which began disintegrating thereafter...
...in it all the diverse political currents of Panamanian society are reflected...
...Secondly, I was most dismayed to read Mayin Correa quoted as an authoritative voice on Panama...
...Among the sources are the torrijista labor paper El Bayano and numerous grassroots leaders...
...Participation should not be confused with leadership...
...This leaves a false impression that Panama's people have not been actors in Panama prior to and during the current confrontation...
...Conservative, progressive as well as criminal elements rub shoulders on all sides, creating a dilemma for anyone accustomed to neat political groupings...
...She idolizes Margaret Thatcher and is an outspoken critic of the Sandinistas and liberation theology...
...Frank Klein Chicago The Authors Reply Organized labor in Panama has always played an important role in movements for social change...
...But I was disturbed by two faults...
...XXII, No...
...Working class resistance to Noriega's initial cooperation with IMF austerity measures was by no means spontaneous as suggested by the NACLA accounts...
...As a young woman, Ms...
...To hear the likes of her in one of the few progressive sources on Latin America was most disturbing...
...Firstly, no mention at all was made of the role played by Panama's labor coalition, CONATO [the National Council of Organized Workers...
...She is not a fascist, however, and, like many opposition leaders, advocates U.S.-style democracy...
...But Mr...
...Correa's authority...
...Since then she has increasingly adhered to conservative causes...
...She heads the rabidly pro-fascist anticommunist Committee to Defend Democracy in Central America which is infested with Nicaraguan and Cuban contras...
...She is, much to her credit, one of the few important female political figures in Latin America...
...After the Diaz Herrera revelations CONATO united with peasant federations and sectors of the popular church to form the Coordinating Committee of Popular Organizations (COP...
...However, we must also recognize that the labor movement is not homogeneous...
...Correa actively supported the Communist Party...
...Klein is unable to confront the complexities of contemporary Panama...
...Under the slogan "Neither with the Right nor the anti-patria" (that is, neither with Noriega nor the civilian opposition) COP sought to remain independent of the two elites fighting for power...
...El Bayano, like most Panamanian newspapers, is a rumor tabloid...
...See "Opposition Outflanked," footnotes 4 and 7] Correa has long been identified in progressive circles in Panama as a CIA operative...
...John Zindar Washington, D.C...
...Poor people, including labor, have not been able to achieve an alternative resolution of the crisis and things do not look good for the demands of the poor...
...Ratil Leis Panama City Mr...
Vol. 22 • March 1989 • No. 6
