TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/010190/01019003.002

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.9 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 30

Panama's Would-Be President


Endara must show that his is not a "Made in U.S.A." government

By Jill Smolowe/Reported by Ricardo Chavira/Washington and John
Moody/San Jose


    The ceremony was rich with symbolism, but the circumstances
were awkward, to say the least. Shortly after U.S. troops began
to move, a new government was inaugurated with the aim of
restoring democracy in Panama. The swearing-in took place at
Fort Clayton, a U.S. military base, with only a few Panamanians
present. After the new President, Guillermo Endara, and his two
Vice Presidents, Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderon, took
their oath of office, they remained at the base for 36 hours.

    Endara's first words to his countrymen on Wednesday were
broadcast not by Panamanian radio, which was still controlled
by Noriega's forces, but by Radio Impacto in Costa Rica, which
had taped him by telephone. On Thursday the new President, under
the protection of American soldiers, left the base for his first
speech to the National Assembly. He pledged to lead "a
government of reconstruction and reconciliation," but by then
his fledgling regime distinctly bore the label "Made in U.S.A."

    With that inauspicious start, an unseasoned politician
inherited a nation in the midst of chaos. A 250-lb. labor
lawyer with little political experience before he ran for
President in last May's aborted election, Endara must rebuild
a society that was seriously damaged by U.S. economic sanctions,
then savaged by invasion and ravaged by looters. His support
comes mostly from the white business and professional classes
in Panama City; he must win over the darker-skinned Panamanians
of the barrios and the countryside -- those who felt emboldened
and empowered by Noriega's populist anti-Yanqui tirades.

    Endara will have to establish his legitimate claim to the
Panamanian presidency over Francisco Rodriguez, whom Noriega
picked after calling off the election last May. Rodriguez urged
Panamanians to resist the U.S. troops, then disappeared. Endara
had little international support last week, except from the
U.S. Neither the United Nations nor the Organization of American
States would accept his ambassadors.

    Most foreign experts agree that Endara, the candidate of an
eight-party anti-Noriega alliance, won the May presidential
election over Carlos Duque. Noriega declared that election null
and void, and in the ensuing violence, Endara, Calderon and Ford
were beaten by the pro-Noriega vigilante groups known as
Dignity Battalions. Endara embarked on a two-week hunger strike
to protest Rodriguez's subsequent appointment. After last
October's failed coup attempt against Noriega, Endara went into
hiding. "Nobody doubts (his) courage," says a senior U.S.
official, "but it's a lot easier to get yourself beaten up than
to put a country together from scratch."

    Endara might have an easier time if he were starting from
scratch. His biggest challenge is to obtain the loyalty of the
12,000-strong Panama Defense Forces, a militia created and
nurtured by Noriega and bent on its own survival. As the
nation's police force, the P.D.F. will be essential to
maintaining order. But given the army's continuing loyalty to
Noriega and the rampant corruption within the officer corps, it
is a breeding ground for future plots against any civilian
government.

    Last week few soldiers responded to an American offer to
pay $150 for each surrendered weapon. Some of those troops may
decide they have little to lose by committing to a protracted
guerrilla fight. Part of Noriega's success stems from his
ability to convince his troops that he alone represents their
best interests and that the P.D.F. would be eviscerated if the
opposition ever came to power. Throughout the presidential
campaign and during the October coup attempt, Endara insisted
that he did not want to purge the armed forces, only Noriega.

    At week's end the U.S. announced that Eduardo Herrera
Hassan, a former P.D.F. colonel, would be returning to Panama.
He was the Pentagon's colonel of choice to lead a 1987 coup
attempt against Noriega, an effort that never got off the
ground. While Pentagon brass emphasized that Endara would select
his own P.D.F. chief, they assume that Herrera will get the
post.

    The Dignity Battalions, which consist of 8,000 or so armed
civilians, are already hampering the new government. Whether by
Noriega's design or their own initiative, the goon squads
mounted a dirty campaign last week, looting stores and firing
upon neighborhoods. Formed last year as civic patrols, the "Dig
Bats," as they are commonly known, were recruited from those
with lower-class and rural backgrounds similar to Noriega's.
They owe both their weapons and their livelihood to the deposed
dictator. Some of them may also owe Noriega their freedom; by
several accounts, many are convicted criminals who were released
from jails in exchange for signing up.

    Every way Endara turns, he faces institutions polluted by
Noriega's influence, from the banks that laundered drug money
to the National Assembly, in which 510 handpicked legislators
did the general's bidding. Noriega leaves behind a legacy of
ruthlessness, amorality and corruption. The Bush Administration
is counting on the long-building revulsion against Noriega and
on discontent with the battered economy to give the Endara
government the opportunity for reform. The release of $400
million in Panamanian funds impounded in the U.S. will make a
good start, and Washington promises a "major" aid program to
help Panama rebuild from the estimated $1 billion in damage
sustained by the economy and infrastructure as a result of the
invasion. But just as George Bush's military commitment is
open-ended, the economic burden could prove far more costly than
anyone has anticipated.