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- <text id=92TT2653>
- <title>
- Nov. 30, 1992: Warning Shot
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Nov. 30, 1992 Windsor: A House Dividing
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- WORLD, Page 21
- Warning Shot
- </hdr><body>
- <p>A vote on Panama's army turns into a referendum on the President
- </p>
- <p> When he first drew up a proposal to reform Panama's
- constitution and officially abolish the military, President
- Guillermo Endara assumed his countrymen would agree that a final
- break with ousted dictator General Manuel Antonio Noriega's
- discredited regime was in order. To his surprise, Endara found
- that Panamanians wanted a break from him. In a referendum, the
- first national vote since U.S. troops deposed Noriega and
- installed Endara three years ago, 63.5% of Panamanian voters
- said no to the package of 58 complicated items in a simple yes
- or no vote. The vote was tantamount to a rejection of Endara's
- rule, which has left the country with 20% unemployment, rampant
- crime and corruption. Charging that the President is unqualified
- to govern, opponents will press for a constituent assembly to
- rewrite the constitution. Endara accepts the result but insists
- it does not obligate him to reinstate the army, which he
- replaced with a civilian security force in 1989.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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