US still held at bay in Panama
PANAMA
HE DECLARED aim of the oppo-
T sition was to "paralyze the entire country" and thereby force the departure of General Manuel Antonio Noriega in the wake of the street clashes that led to the invalidation of the May 7 presidential election. The opposition candidate, Guillermo Endara, backed up by the
US, claimed to be the winner. ADOC's call was followed only by shops in the capital's fanciest neighborhoods. Most of the anti-
Noriega traders thought that it would be
"suicide" to close down. The strike came precisely on payday for public employees.
The meager result of the "strike" had immediate repercussions in Washington, where on the same day the Organization of
American States (OAS) was unable to adopt the sort of resolution that the US representative, Jim Baker, was pushing. The hard-line text that Washington was demanding was supposed to include a paragraph demanding Noriega's immediate departure. It was not approved. After three hours of intense debate, the most explicit formula about the Panamanian president, accepted by 20 out of the 32 members of the OAS, was nothing more than the mention of "the grave abuses of General Noriega." The resolution finally adopted was supported by the Panamanian delegate as well. It called for sending a mission to Panama to guarantee "a transfer of power that will respect the will of the people."
What is more, the Panamanian delegation, headed by Chancellor Jorge Ritter, got a phrase included in the resolution expressing the OAS' opposition to any foreign intervention in the country's affairs, and reminding the US of its promise to return the Panama Canal to
Panama in 1990.
These relative successes for the
Noriega gang were partly the result of the distrust aroused in Latin
America by the imperialist campaign against the general's regime.
They contrasted with the diplomatic reverses suffered by "Panama's strong man" a few days earlier, when most countries on the continent expressed their "profound consternation" at the overturning of the elections and the attacks on leaders of the opposition.
In reality, from the outset the
May 7 elections were the focus of provocations by the United States.
Sending a group of observers — against the will of the Panamanian government — with the objective of supplying the news agencies with stories about election fraud, and issuing a premature announce-
28 ment of the right-wing's victory, created an atmosphere of confron-
International Viewpoint #164 • May
THE MANEUVERS of the US administration against
Panama failed again on
May 17. The "general strike" called by the Democratic Alliance of the
Civic Opposition (ADOC)
did not achieve its objective. RODRIGO O'FARREL tation.
The signal for the start of disturbances -which, if they degenerated, could have been the pretext for armed intervention by the Pentagon - was given by the statements of the US observers (including former president Jimmy Carter), about irregularities in the elections. What followed was a chain reaction of actions aimed at destabilizing the Panamanian regime.
• Three days after the vote, Endara and his friends Guillermo Ford and Arias Calderón claimed victory. The demonstration they called to celebrate ended in clashes with the police. The repressive forces used water cannons and teargas against the demonstrators. Endara and Ford were injured by club-wielding youths from the "Dignity Battalion," formed by the regime in 1988 in a period when insistent rumors were circulating about a direct attack by US troops against Noriega.
• On May 10, the White House put the responsibility for the violence on Noriega and leaked to the news agencies that it would send additional troops to the Canal Zone. That night, the chair of the Panamanian Electoral Tribunal, Yolanda Pulido, declared the elections null and void because of "many irregularities by the opposition."
The following day, Washington consulted with the Latin American governments. The real content of these discussions has not yet come to light. Nonetheless, on May 12 these governments obediently issued condemnations of the incidents. But they did not demand Noriega's resignation. A few hours later, the White House announced that fresh troops were being sent to the Canal Zone to protect US citizens. And it staged an intimidating display of power in front of the TV cameras. As if following a movie script, President George Bush issued a public invitation on May 13 for a military coup in Panama. He called on the Defense Forces to rebel against General Noriega: "I would like them to oust him."
The stage had been set for new incidents - perhaps even more serious — in the May 17 general strike. What finally hap pened? All the signs are that the imperialist diktat was not followed by the people or the Panamanian army. Although some members of the opposition expressed their hope that the United States "would get Noriega off our backs," ADOC's representatives did not go so far. To the contrary, they noted that they were not putting their hopes "on a US intervention." So the situation is now similar to that of a few months ago. For the moment, Washington's assault on the Carter-Torrijos treaties - the essential motivation for the campaign of accusations against Noriega — has not achieved its objectives. Nonetheless, the imperialist project is still to eliminate Noriega, demobilize the military, crush the nationalist movement and install in power the pro-US faction - ADOC — which is prepared to renegotiate the treaties. Time is against Washington. In recent years, eight military installations have been handed over, and in the coming months other installations are supposed to be dismantled by virtue of the treaties. In view of the resistance of the population, the US faces the problem that the ready solution of the past, armed aggression, would be politically and militarily very costly. *