General Manuel Noriega
Torrijos died in a mysterious plane crash on August 1, 1981. The circumstances of his death generated charges and speculation that he was the victim of an assassination plot. Torrijos’ death altered the tone but not the direction of Panama’s political evolution.
Despite 1983 constitutional amendments, which appeared to proscribe a political role for the military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF) as they were then known, continued to dominate Panamanian political life behind a facade of civilian government. By this time, Gen. Manuel Noriega was firmly in control of both the PDF and the civilian government, and had created the Dignity Battalions to help suppress opposition.
Despite undercover collaboration with Ronald Reagan on his Contra war in Nicaragua (including the infamous Iran-Contra Affair), which had planes flying arms as well as drugs, relations between the United States and the Panama regime worsened in the 1980s.
The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama in the summer of 1987, in response to the domestic political crisis and an attack on the U.S. embassy. General Noriega’s February 1988 indictment in U.S. courts on drug-trafficking charges sharpened tensions.
In April 1988, President Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian Government assets in U.S. banks; withholding fees for using the canal; and prohibiting payments by American agencies, firms, and individuals to the Noriega regime. The country went into turmoil.
When national elections were held in May 1989, the elections were marred by accusations of fraud from both sides. An American, Kurt Muse, was apprehended by the Panamanian authorities after he had set up a sophisticated radio and computer installation, designed to jam Panamanian radio and broadcast phony election returns. However, the elections proceeded as planned and Panamanians voted for the anti-Noriega candidates by a margin of over three-to-one.
The Noriega regime promptly annulled the election and embarked on a new round of repression. By the fall of 1989, the regime was barely clinging to power.
When Guillermo Endara won the Presidential elections held in May 1989, the Noriega regime annulled the election, citing massive US interference. Foreign election observers, including the Catholic Church and Jimmy Carter, certified the electoral victory of Endara despite widespread attempts at fraud by the regime.
At the behest of the United States, the Organization of American States convened a meeting of foreign ministers but was unable to obtain Noriega’s departure. The U.S. began sending thousands of troops to bases in the canal zone.
Panamanian authorities alleged that U.S. troops left their bases and illegally stopped and searched vehicles in Panama. During this time, an American Marine got lost in the former French quarter of Panama City, ran a roadblock, and was killed by Panamanian Police (who were then a part of the Panamanian Military).
On December 20, 1989 the United States troops commenced an invasion of Panama. Their primary objectives were achieved quickly and the combatant’s withdrawal began on December 27. The US was obligated to hand control of the Panama Canal her to Panama on January 1, due to a treaty signed decades before.
Endara was sworn in as President at a U.S. military base on the day of the invasion. General Manuel Noriega later began serving a 40-year sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking.
Estimates as to the loss of life on the Panamanian side vary between 500 and 7000. There are also unproven claims that U.S. troops buried many corpses in mass graves (which have never been found) or simply threw them into the sea. Much of the Chorillo neighborhood was destroyed by fire shortly after the start of the invasion.
Following the invasion, President George H. W. Bush announced a billion dollars in aid to Panama. Critics argue that about half the aid was a gift from the American taxpayer to American businesses, as $400 million consisted of incentives for U.S. business to export products to Panama, $150 million was to pay off bank loans and $65 million went to private sector loans and guarantees to U.S. investors.
Politics and Institutions After Noriega
In the morning of December 20, 1989 — a few hours after the beginning of the invasion — the presumptive winner of the May 1989 election, Guillermo Endara, was sworn in as president of Panama at a U.S. military installation in the Canal Zone.
Subsequently, on December 27, 1989, Panama’s Electoral Tribunal invalidated the Noriega regime’s annulment of the May 1989 election and confirmed the victory of opposition candidates under the leadership of President Guillermo Endara and Vice Presidents Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderón.
President Endara took office as the head of a four-party minority government — pledging to foster Panama’s economic recovery, transform the Panamanian military into a police force under civilian control and strengthen democratic institutions.
During its 5-year term, the Endara government struggled to meet the public’s high expectations. Its new police force proved to be a major improvement in outlook and behavior over its thuggish predecessor but was not fully able to deter crime. Ernesto Pérez Balladares was sworn in as President on September 1, 1994 after an internationally-monitored election campaign.
Pérez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of the military dictatorship during the Torrijos and Norieiga years. A long-time member of the PRD, Pérez Balladares worked skillfully during the campaign to rehabilitate the PRD’s image, emphasizing the party’s populist Torrijos roots rather than its association with Noriega.
He won the election with only 33% of the vote when the major non-PRD forces, unable to agree on a joint candidate, splintered into competing factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal treaties.
On May 2, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, defeated PRD candidate Martín Torrijos, son of the late dictator. The elections were considered free and fair. Moscoso took office on September 1, 1999.
During her administration, Moscoso attempted to strengthen social programs — especially for child and youth development, protection, and general welfare. Education programs have also been highlighted.
More recently, Moscoso focused on bilateral and multilateral free trade initiatives with the hemisphere. Moscoso’s administration successfully handled the Panama Canal transfer and has been effective in the administration of the Canal.
Panama’s official counternarcotics cooperation has historically been excellent (in fact, officials of the DEA praised the role played by Manuel Noriega prior to his falling-out with the U.S. over his own drug dealing). The Panamanian Government has expanded money-laundering legislation and concluded with the U.S. a Counternarcotics Maritime Agreement and a Stolen Vehicles Agreement.
In the economic investment arena, the Panamanian Government has been very successful in the enforcement of intellectual property rights and has concluded, with the U.S., a very important Bilateral Investment Treaty Amendment and an agreement with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The Moscoso administration was very supportive of the United States in combating international terrorism.
The PRD’s Martin Torrijos won the presidency and a legislative majority in the National Assembly in 2004. Torrijos ran his campaign on a platform of, among other pledges, a “zero tolerance” for corruption — a problem endemic to the Moscoso and Perez Balladares administrations.
After taking office, Torrijos passed a number of laws which made the government more transparent. He formed a National Anti-Corruption Council whose members represented the highest levels of government as well as civil society, labor organizations, and religious leadership. In addition, many of his closest Cabinet ministers were non-political technocrats known for their support for the Torrijos government’s anti-corruption aims.
Despite the Torrijos administration’s public stance on corruption, many high-profile cases, particularly involving political or business elites, were never acted upon.
Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli was elected to succeed Martin Torrijos, with a landslide victory, in the May 2009 presidential election. Mr. Martinelli’s business credentials drew voters worried by slowing growth due to the world financial crisis. Standing for the four-party opposition Alliance for Change, Mr. Martinelli gained 60% of the vote, against 37% for the candidate of the governing left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party.