Faxing the News into Panama

...Bernal reflects for a moment, then answers: "I still believe in nonviolence...

...His "crime"—for which he had earlier been beaten and jailed—was writing about the 1985 murder of former Vice Minister of Health Hugo Spadafora...

...The dictator's strength, he notes, comes from a deftness at playing different sides against one another—the United States, the Soviet Union, Cuba, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries, not to mention Panama's opposition and military...

...Although this was the most blatant of Noriega's efforts to stifle freedom of expression in Panama, harassment and intimidation of critical journalists had been the rule for some time...

...Diaz was jailed for several months, but was eventually permitted to leave the country for Venezuela...

...When General Torrijos seized power in 1968, he made Noriega a major in the PDF...

...The people heading the Crusade have taken a position so far away from the Panamanian populace that they now represent a minority position," he complains...

...He gathers news about events in Panama from every available source and conveys it to opposition elements back home through the use of state-of-the-art telecommunications...

...Spadafora, a long-time opponent of Panama's successive military governments, marked a turning point in the country's recent history...

...Bernal further maintains that a look at Panama's recent history reveals an unwitting U.S...

...It is absurd that we are forced to watch foreign broadcasts to determine what is happening in our nation, but it is the only way we have of knowing what is going on," Bernal says...

...In April 1986, Bernal accused the Noriega regime of corruption and drug trafficking on his weekly program on Radio Mundial...

...Opposition leaders in Panama and fellow exiled Panamanians in the U. S. and other countries phone frequently to keep Bernal updated...

...Observers generally agree that the murder of Dr...

...Hundreds of people werearrested...

...periodicals and Congressional hearings, essays, articles and cartoons by Panamanian dissidents, plus his own pungent editorials...

...Bernal, who was awarded the prestigious Jessie Meriton White Service Award in International Journalism last May for his reporting of events in Panama, is under no illusion that news fliers and fax transmissions alone will dislodge Noriega from power...

...and world attention, removing him from the scene will not byitselfusherinan era of good government, insists Bernal...

...Every person receiving a "fax" of Alternativa retransmits it to others in the Panamanian underground with fax machines, who in turn photocopy the issue for distribution throughout Panama...

...Many people had to break into their piggy banks...

...Noriega responded by declaring a nationwide state of emergency and suspending many constitutional guarantees...

...A few months ago, he purged wavering officers in the PDF, and now he has people around him he can control...

...Last October 10 he fled the country and came to Davidson, where he had accepted a Fulbright fellowship to lecture on Central American politics...

...More than 400,000 pennies were sent to me," he says with a smile...

...I received word that the same thing that happened to Spadafora would happen to me," he has explained...

...And they are holding Uncle Sam responsible for the fallout from the attempt to topple Noriega, which has hurt the country and its economy more than it has hurt the General...

...intervention...

...I went to Tesoro Nacional [the government finance office], and it took clerks several hours to count the pennies...

...By negotiating these treaties with a military regime that had overthrown a constitutional civilian government in 1968, the United States never gave Panama a chance at legitimate government...

...The Reagan Administration has frozen Panama's assets in theU.S...

...On the morning of July 27—the start of a two-day general strike called by the Crusade that closed most of the country's offices, shops and schools—General Noriega sent troops to Diaz' home...

...with the crackdown, however, the circulation of Bernai's paper decreased and toner again became plentiful...

...During one of the June 1987 demonstrations soldiers fired buckshot at Bernal...

...And I will continue to publish Allernativa and agitate for change as long as need be...

...Asked about the importance of Alternativa in the battle against Noriega, Bernal says modestly, "It's just a little newspaper, but it is a fighting newspaper...

...Diaz was to take his turn as commander-in-chief, but Noriega outmaneuvered him and grabbed power...

...I recall marveling myself at the number of Jaguars, Mercedes and Porsches that brought demonstrators wearing expensively tailored suits, silk blouses and designer jeans to the two anti-government rallies I witnessed in January...

...The government is now sending people to jail just for having the publication in their back pocket...

...Roberto Eisenmann, publisher of La Prensa, also left for Miami...

...Bernal asked the public to help by chipping in pennies...

...Informed that the military's intelligence agents were looking for him, he went into hiding...

...Washington's efforts to oust Noriega have failed, so Panamanians are looking at the man in a new and grudgingly respectful light," he explained during an interview at his Davidson Collegeoffice...

...It is a hodgepodge of information that includes excerpts from U.S...

...Bernal replies that on the whole he supports the Crusade's objectives, but that he has been very critical of it as well...

...The next day, his tortured, sodomized and decapitated body was found stuffed in a U.S...

...Noriega's officers could very well succeed in replacing him...

...Miguel Antonio Bernal's weapons are the telephone and an Apple Macintosh Plus computer...

...In fact, it may take a lot longer for Panama to be free...

...The Center then relays the paper to between seven and 10 facsimile receivers at banks, law offices and travel agencies in Panama...

...Eyewitnesses say soldiers of the PDF detained Spadafora in the town of Concepción, close to the Costa Rican border, on September 13, 1985...

...the enemy is Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega Morena...

...Noriega as a strongman and drug thug personifies the Panamanian mess," Bernal concurs...

...The Panamanian people are going to have to do it their way, even if it takes 20 years to get rid of the military dictatorship...

...Interestingly, the high volume of photocopying had resulted in a temporary nationwide shortage of toner...

...In 1979, Omar Torrijos' secret police severely beat him for leading a demonstration against the Shah of Iran, whom Torrijos had given refuge in Panama in return for $12 million...

...He is using it as blackmail to stay in power...

...It takes from 11 seconds to several minutes per page to send a fax document, and costs no more than a phone call of the same length...

...He has at least a billion dollars in the bank and has accumulated many favors, so that he can now ask a lot of important people—especially within Panama—for support...

...The militarization of Panama is the root cause of its problems, he says, and Americans must understand this if they are to help bring about reform of the country's institutions...

...We know who the killers are, at what time Spadafora was killed and how he was tortured...

...But he warns that while the General's departure may begin a process of democratic change, things will not end there...

...the majority of them were detained for a few hours or overnight...

...In addition, through indoctrination seminars and meetings, he has tried to convince officers and troops that attacks on him are really an effort to dismantle the Panamanian military itself...

...office for the Civic Crusade...

...Diaz' denunciation of the Noriega regime triggered several days of continuous demonstrations in Panama's major cities once they were aired early in June 1987...

...This attitude is symptomatic of a bigger problem facing the opposition—a lack of leadership...

...Professor Bernal's spirited opposition to the Panamanian military goes back as far as Spada fora's did...

...But the most important thing is that the government can't stop the struggle...

...From Tins tiny, picturesque college town, a 38-year-old professor is waging war against a corrupt Central American dictator...

...There is ample proof that Noriega is involved," says Dr...

...This puts him in a very powerful position right now...

...Information is one of the chief means of fighting against the dictatorship...

...After a short gun battle, the Colonel and 45 of his supporters were arrested...

...But the General remains in charge and, according to Bernal, is stronger than ever...

...When I was in Panama in January, sources told me an agreement concerning the country's line of military succession had been signed by the highest members of the Panamanian Defense Forces [PDF] less than a year after Torrijos' demise...

...Osvaldo Velasquez, a leading Panamanian human-rights activist and critic of the regime...

...and imposed sweeping economic sanctions upon the country, among other measures...

...By 1970 Noriega attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and was appointed chief of military intelligence, a position he used to build a power base and to maintain surveillance of his officers...

...to learn what happened...

...Noriega has been in a death struggle with theU.S...

...Ron Chepesiuk, a previous NL contributor, is a free-lance writer specializing in Latin American affairs...

...He has plenty of information about the CIA activities in the region, not just during the Reagan Administration but going all the way back to President Lyndon Johnson...

...Since my arrival, I've consulted medical specialists in the U. S., and they say it's probably better for my health that the pellets not be removed," Bernal explains stoically...

...According to sources I interviewed in Panama, upon becoming head of the country's military forces in 1983 Noriega began to shell out perks and funds from unbudgeted accounts to create dependency on himself...

...Although Noriega's egregious behavior is at present the focus of U.S...

...responsibility for its current plight: "U.S...

...The new despots will be equally despicable," Bernal stresses...

...Finally, I pose the inevitable question: Will Noriega be ousted only at the cost of blood...

...The belief that General Noriega was reponsible for Spadafora's death is widely held in Panama...

...We disseminate news for two reasons: to keep the Panamanian people informed, and because we must raise morale...

...Except for a brief period this past February, Panama's independent media have been shut down since the summer of 1987, because they began publishing and broadcasting a series of sensational accusations leveled by Colonel Roberto Diaz Herrera...

...The day before Diaz' arrest, officials from the Ministry of Government and Justice padlocked the buildings of all the major independent newspapers and radio stations...

...They thought getting rid of Noriega would be as easy as drinking a glass of water...

...In alleging that Noriega was guilty of corruption and electoral fraud, and that he had a hand in the apparently accidental 1981 plane crash that killed the charismatic Panamanian head of state, General Omar Torrijos, Diaz became the first high-ranking officer to break the military's unwritten code of silence...

...The situation will not be resolved by U.S...

...A lot of people and countries fear Noriega," says Bernal...

...A reddish swelling on his left cheek persists because three of the pellets are still lodged in his face...

...since January of this year, when two Federal grand juries in Miami indicted him on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering...

...I remind Bernal that Noriega has often referred to the opposition sarcastically as the "BMW revolutionaries...

...During our two-hour talk, the conversation eventually turns to Panama's National Civic Crusade...

...Despite his gloomy assessment, the professor continues to edit an underground publication, Alternativa, from his small office...

...Within hours, as many as 30,000 photocopies of the fax transmissions are circulating on Panama's streets...

...mailbag on the Costa Rican side of the border...

...People call each other to hear what's in it...

...Once at Davidson, Bernal immediately resumed publishing Alternativa, the newssheethehad earlier put out in Panama...

...Each issue of A Iternativa is transmitted over telephone lines to the exile-run Panameno de Noticias (Panamanian News Center) in Washington, which doubles as the U.S...

...Organized by the Cruzada Civilista Nacional (National Civic Crusade)— a coalition of political parties, professional organizations and business, labor, student and civic groups—the demonstrators demanded the General's removal, immediate national elections, and an end to the military's domination of Panamanian politics...

...You see it posted on walls...

...The previous summer, in fact, Guillermo Sanchez Borbón, a popular columnist for the country's leading independent daily, La Prensa, went into exile in Venezuela and finally Miami following the receipt of a summons making him liable to a five-year prison sentence...

...For this he was fined $2,500 and the station was shut down...

...This opposition movement is unique for Latin America, being neither armed nor radical...

...What's interesting about Alternativa is the atmosphere in which it arrives...

...Soon after Alternativa reappeared, security forces began to arrest people receiving it for possession of antigovernment literature, sometimes beating them in the process...

...On July2,1987, agroupof civilians— with the evident connivance of the military—burned down the Dante Commercial Center in Panama City, and the PDF tried to pin the blame on Bernal...

...Washington compounded the error in 1984 when it supported an election process now widely agreed to be fraudulent...

...Democracy, honest government and an end to drug smuggling will be possible in Panama only after the U. S. government stops believing that the military creates a stable environment for the Panama Canal...

...policy is based on Canal treaties negotiated by the Carter Administration with General Torrijos in 1977...

...A lawyer and law professor in his native land, he was thrown in jail at age 14 for telling a PDF soldier to go to hell...