Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Omar Torrijos and the new canal treaty
After a brief power struggle following the coup to oust Arnulfo Arias in 1968, Lieutenant
Colonel
Omar Torrijos
of the National Guard established himself as leader of the new milit-
ary government. Fracturing the political dominance of the white merchant oligarchy (known
disparagingly as the
rabiblancos
, or “white tails”) in his pursuit of a pragmatic middle way
between socialism and capitalism, he was a charismatic, populist leader. Over twelve years
he introduced a wide range of reforms - a new constitution and labour code, nationaliza-
tion of the electricity and communications sectors, expanded public health and education
services - while simultaneously maintaining good relations with the business sector, estab-
lishing Colón's
Zona Libra
and initiating the banking secrecy laws necessary for Panama's
emergence as an international financial centre. On the debit side, he was extremely intolerant
of political opposition and his critics were often imprisoned or simply “disappeared”; several
mass graves
from the period were unearthed during a Truth Commission instigated by Pres-
ident Moscoso, though there was no evidence of Torrijos' direct involvement in the atrocities.
Central to Torrijos' popular appeal was his insistence on gaining Panamanian control over
the canal. After lethargic negotiations with the Nixon and Ford administrations, Torrijos
signed a new canal treaty with US President Jimmy Carter on September 7, 1977. Under its
terms the US agreed to a gradual withdrawal, passing complete control of the canal to Panama
on December 31, 1999; in the meantime it was to be administered by the
Panama Canal
Commission
, composed of five US and four Panamanian citizens. Even so, the US retained
the right to intervene militarily if the canal's neutrality was threatened. Under pressure from
Washington to democratize, Torrijos formed a political party, the
Partido Revolucionario
Democrático
(PRD), and began moving Panama towards free democratic elections. In 1981,
however, he died in a plane crash in the mountains of Coclé Province. Many Panamanians
believe that there was some involvement by the
CIA
or by Colonel
Manuel Noriega
, Torri-
jos's former military intelligence chief.
Manuel Noriega and the US invasion
After a period of political uncertainty, Noriega took over as head of the National Guard,
which he restructured as a personal power base and renamed the Fuerzas de Defensa de
Panamá (
Panama Defence Forces
or PDF), becoming the de facto military ruler in 1983.
Although the 1984 elections gave Panama its first directly elected leader in nearly two dec-
ades, Nicolás Ardito Barletta, the real power lay in the hands of Noriega, backed by the US
government.
A career soldier, Panama's new military strongman had been on the US Army's payroll as
early as the 1950s and the CIA's from the late 1960s. After training at the notorious School of
the Americas, he was made chief of intelligence for the National Guard in 1970. In the early
1980s, Noriega assisted the US by supporting its interests elsewhere in Central America,
